Preliminary IUPP Results: Student Reactions to In-Class Demonstrations and to the Presentation of Coherent Themes.

The methods of analysis that were applied to the information gathered during the 1991–1992 field tests of the Introductory University Physics Project are demonstrated through the study of two specific questions. The first question addresses the effectiveness of in‐class demonstrations as an aid to learning. The relative importance of demonstrations, a feature relevant to most implementations of introductory science courses, emerged from comments contributed by students in both comparison and model courses. The second question is about the effectiveness of teaching and learning an area of physics (such as mechanics) through the use of an overarching context (such as ‘‘Interplanetary Travel’’). This question was inspired by the test of a specific model, Physics in Context.