Active Learning Activities

Editing Exercise: Mock Academic Conference

Research, writing & editing activity that builds interpretive skills and the ability to incorporate research.

Drawing to Learn: Doing Science is more Complex that You Think

Students draw a diagram of how they think scientists "do science." These are improved then compared with an expert diagram.

Finding Catharsis in Film and Media

Students analyze a film or piece of media watched in the course using two concepts: climax and catharsis.

Group Work Project Contracting

For instructors planning student group work projects over many weeks or months.

Electron Odyssey: Journey through the Mitochondria’s Electron Transport Chain

Students play the roles of protein complexes to see how electrons, protons, and energy moves through the ETC to produce ATP.

Taskmaster: Diction Icebreakers

These gamified activities will help sensitize students to the nuances of diction and allow them to work together.

Crossing Dimensions: A Math Odyssey into Cross Products

In groups, students learn about orthogonality and cross products by creating geometrical shapes.

Cross-Disciplinary Synergy 101: Uniting Expertise for Success

In teams, students interact, share information on their profession, and create cases where each discipline is needed

Crash Course: Collision Theory

Students use PhET simulation to learn how factors affect reaction rate (collision theory) through hands-on activities

Controversy in the Science Classroom: Nature of Science Quiz

Don’t go NUTS: A Case Study on the Physiology of Stress

How to Write Reading Annotations

This activity helps students improve their quality of reading annotations using platforms like Perusall.

Live Demonstrations of Beats and Interference of Sound

In this activity, students learn to apply the principal of superposition to two new sound contexts.

This Field Day of Mine

This activity takes a look at the environmental impact of mining and the quantification of environmental contaminants.

Harvard Implicit Bias Test

In-Class Think Pieces: Course Pack

Vénus d’Ille: Police Enquiry

This activity has students challenge the literal meaning of a text (ie. the supernatural explanation for a murder).

Rédaction d’un Paragraphe de Texte Expressif

In this multiple-class activity, students write a “texte expressif”, applying theory & grammatical lessons learned in class.

Experimental Design in Neurobiology

Mass of A Car

Students measure the mass of a car using diagrams to find equations of motion describing stages - acceleration & deceleration

Falling Object Tracker

Through this activity students analyze 1D kinematic problems & see examples of both constant velocity and acceleration.

Dart Gun Velocity

In this activity, students will find the muzzle velocity of a foam dart gun and predict its maximum range.

Cycles of Matter

Muscle Snowballs