It is the middle of class, and 300 students are not minding the professor. There is a buzz in the lecture hall as they chat with their neighbors. To University professor John Knox, that is the sound of success.

This is the scene every Friday in Knox’s introduction to physical geography class.

“I call it ‘Fact or Fiction Friday,’” he said. Knox asks students to form groups of four to discuss a question on the overhead projector. He then answers the question by showing a short video or doing a demonstration.

Knox and other University of Georgia professors say they are turning to non-traditional teaching methods to capture their students’ attention. “It’s a fun way to talk about misconceptions (about geography) and teach something that cannot be learned in a traditional lecture,” Knox said.

Knox said Harvard University professor Eric Mazur inspires his and other professors’ efforts.

Mazur taught physics at Harvard for five years using traditional lectures. Then he looked at test results and realized his students were not grasping concepts fully, according to Mazur’s Web site. Mazur developed “Peer Instruction,” which brought a new set of tools into his classroom, including hand-held computers and brainteasers.

University Professor Peggy Brickman said her alternative teaching methods also are an incentive for students to come to class.

“I feel torn about large lecture classes and what I can do in them,” she said. “A large lecture isn’t what anyone would hope for, but I don’t think it’s traditional either.”

This year, Brickman said, she began requiring students in her 300-student biology class to purchase clickers and bring them to class daily. Every lecture, she gives a quiz which students answer using their clickers. She uses the clickers to assess student progress and take attendance, she said.

“It makes the individual student responsible and encourages discussion,” Brickman said.

The quiz grades account for 10 percent of each student’s final grade, but Brickman said she is still working out the details of her new method. Two students accidentally switched clickers and have unknowingly been answering under each other’s names, she said.

Stephen Shellman sometimes wants his students out of the classroom altogether. The international affairs professor cancels four sessions of class every semester and has his students meet at night to perform a simulation to solve a complicated problem.

“Students think they have an idea about how international affairs works,” Shellman said.

“But they really don’t until they do it and act out how treaties and decision are made. I think students do not learn as well just from listening to a lecture or reading text.”

Shellman said he has created three simulations in which students assume the role of the media, countries, terrorists and international organizations, depending on the students’ interests. The students then act out international relations by forming governments, meeting with international organizations and managing economies. There is even a United Nations and al-Qaida. Students get into playing roles and some dress their parts, Shellman said. “They have fun, but they learn.”