June 24, 2017
June 24, 2017
June 28, 2017
Social media, cell phones, Candy Crush, the crossword in the student newspaper, and worries about the exam in the next class are among the many distractors competing for students’ attention in class. Teaching in this potentially distraction-filled environment can pose significant challenges for instructors. Use of active learning techniques such as in class activities, problem solving exercises, discussions, and questioning draw students’ attention to the task at hand and help keep them engaged. Effective use of humor and fun are important tools in this endeavor.
In this paper, the value of candy as a teaching tool is addressed. Survey results from engineering courses at three universities will highlight if students find the use of candy childish and/or distracting, or if candy increases their motivation to actively participate. Example applications include use of candy in demonstrations, as incentives to point out errors on the board or in the notes, as recognition for a job well done, or to just brighten a particularly challenging time of the semester when exhausted students suffer from short attention spans.
Nilsson, T. L., & Saviz, C. M., & Saftner, D. A. (2017, June), Candy Land: Engaging Students in Class Paper presented at 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Columbus, Ohio. https://peer.asee.org/28005
ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2017 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015