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By Emily Hanford, American RadioWorks
It’s a typical scene: a few minutes before 11:00 on a Tuesday morning and about 200 sleepy-looking college students are taking their seats in a large lecture hall – chatting, laughing, calling out to each other across the aisles. Class begins with a big “shhhh” from the instructor.
This is an introductory chemistry class at a state university. For the next hour and 15 minutes, the instructor will lecture and the students will take notes. By the end of class, the three large blackboards at the front of the room will be covered with equations and formulas.
Students in this class say the instructor is one of the best lecturers in the department. Still, it’s not easy to sit through a long lecture, says student Jimmy Continue reading