Something is happening in the halls of Harvard. More specifically, something is happening in the Physics 1b course taught by Eric Mazur, Harvard's Gordon McKay professor of applied physics. Students are learning concepts, and remembering them.

"It's important to mentally engage students in what you're teaching," Mazur told the NY Times. "We're way too focused on facts and rote memorization and not on learning the process of doing science."

In a recent interview, he said his passion for teaching science arises from what he sees as the "great beauties of physics" and concern today's students are simply learning to regurgitate answers - leaving many without fundamental understanding of physics in the everyday. By creating a more lab-like atmosphere in his classroom and teaching the students to experiment with physics, Mazur hopes to curb scientific illiteracy in the university and mold future leaders in the field.

"I have the students read the text before the lecture. This is standard practice in the humanities, but a heresy in science," said Mazur. "I don't know why."

"I think perhaps science professors like to 'present' material. In my class, we talk about the applications of physics in everyday life," he said.

Standardized Testing

Around 1990, Mazur learned of a new test conducted by David Hestenes, an Arizona State physicist studying how poorly students in his region performed in science classes. The test covered concepts rather than memorization and were a catalyst for Mazur's new methods of teaching.

The results of the test were unsurprising, yet worrisome. Given at the beginning and end of each term, the testing showed students retained little about conceptual science over the course of the class.

"I felt challenged by this," said Mazur, "I then tested my own Harvard students similarly. We had discussed Newtonian mechanics earlier in the semester, and the students had already solved some difficult problems. Yet, when I gave them a new 'concept-based' exam, about half had no clue as to what Newtonian mechanics were about."

This discovery about student retention led him to merge a laboratory setting with an introductory science course, which earned him citation by a task force on Harvard education as one of the university's most innovative teachers.

Accidents of Innovation

Mazur has been known to take a creative approach to science in the lab as well as the classroom. In 1998, he and his fellow researchers, "just for the fun of it," put a silicon wafer into some gas then irradiated it with ultra-short laser pulses. What came of this experiment is being praised today as a new method for cheapening solar energy, a more efficient pollution monitor, and a likely upgrade for home electronics equipment.

"In my laboratory, we've made some important discoveries," said Mazur.
"Several were accidental - serendipitous. If we'd only functioned on the standard knowledge, we wouldn't have recognized what was before us."

Within his classroom, Mazur expects the same experimental, innovative approach to science as he sees in his lab. Rote and memorization can get students passing grades, but it won't make them scientists. He can relate to the apathy invading the sciences of university education and wants to enlighten students earlier about the excitement one can find within.

Mazur told the NY Times, "Throughout my college years, I often thought of quitting, becoming an artist or a photographer instead. The lectures were deadening, frustrating. Only later, in graduate school, when I got into a laboratory did I see the creative part of science. It's beautiful to design an experiment."