Integrating theory and experiment in lecture using desktop experiments

“Desktop” experiments involve simple equipment that can be used by students in regular classrooms or at home. The 24-hour-a-day availability of the equipment makes it possible to integrate experiments much more tightly with other components of the course than is often the case in courses involving lectures plus a loosely-associated lab. In a calculus-based course on electricity and magnetism, students use a kit of simple equipment that makes possible critical experiments on electrostatics, circuits, and magnetism, during lecture, recitation, or at home. The students use a textbook that has the style of a workbook and that thoroughly integrates theory and experiment. The desktop experiments acquaint the student with otherwise unfamiliar phenomena and help in motivating and understanding the theory.