Chemistry professor relates his experience of "flipping" a class


TACOMA, Wash. – Steven Neshyba, professor of chemistry, published a Chronicle of Higher Education essay this week, about his experiment with “flipping” his chemistry class to try to enhance student learning.

The article, “It’s a Flipping Revolution,” attracted 60 comments (including a poem!) and on its first day online was noted on the Chronicle home page as the second “most emailed” and “most commented” article in the paper.

Flipping a class, in Neshyba’s case, meant reversing the common classroom practice of giving lectures in class and then asking students to do related homework. Neshyba presented some of his chemistry lectures on video so students could watch them (and replay them, as needed) on YouTube. On Thursdays and Fridays, he devoted the class to interactive, problem-based work related to the video lectures that engaged students with each other and with their professor.

Neshyba argues in the article that the experience not only has helped some students excel in class, but, combined with other evolutions in learning, the practice of “flipping” is changing relationships in college classrooms.

Read the story at: http://chronicle.com/article/Its-a-Flipping-Revolution/138259/

Read about Steven Neshyba’s chemistry teaching and research: https://www.pugetsound.edu/faculty-pages/nesh

Photos on page: Top right: Photo from Professor Neshyba's work in atmospheric science demonstrates the molecular dynamics of the prismatic ice-water vapor interface.

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