Active Learning Activities

Let Me Draw You a Picture…

Students use visual thinking to diagram / illustrate a subject with the only criteria being they have expert knowledge of it.

Earth History Walk

A self-guided walk exploring how – and why – Earth changed over its 4.6 billion year history.

Constructive Commentary

This activity guides students through set steps and strategies to comment on their peers' creative writing.

Peer Review for Beginners

This peer-review activity for English 101 aims to help students improve their essays, but also to develop evaluation skills.

Group Work Project Contracting

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

From Bauhaus to Britney: A Catchall Timeline

Students map key movements in Architecture and Design alongside social, political, artistic, economic, and tech milestones.

Mechanics in Motion: Iterative GIF Creation

In groups, students create GIFs to demonstrate and explain how mechanic principles apply in real-life scenarios.

The Heart of the Matter: Exploring Exercise in Cardiac Disease

Before class, students read an article and gather 5 elements. In class, they "pool" findings and sort into categories.

Data Mining and Sorting: Scaffolding the Exploration of Scientific Articles

The purpose of this activity is to deepen students' understanding of cardiac pathophysiology.

It’s All in the Delivery: 6 Rounds to Effective Presentation

Groups of students orally present a poem six times, focusing on six key aspect of effective oral presentations

Rough Draft Workshop: Group Peer Assessment Jigsaw Activity for Case Study or Procedural Writing

Students bring a rough draft of a written group project for peer evaluation and feedback

Card Sorting Activities for Mechanics

This activity encourages students to classify cards according to various criteria to make concept connections.

Categorizing for Review

The aim of this single-class activity is to help students consolidate their knowledge and review concepts seen in class.

Les Ateliers de Creation

In this multiple-class activity, students write three 250 texts, then learn to revise their writing based on peer feedback.

Model Building

Students learn to build a conceptual model describing a situation involving an accelerating charged particle.

Projet Specific: Webzine

Building Effective Teams

Sustainability Development Plan (Part 1 and Part 2)

In this activity, students learn to define sustainability and apply this to a single Montreal neighbourhood. 

Rédaction d’un Paragraphe de Texte Expressif

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

Museum Tour

In this version of a gallery walk, students create mind maps, showcase them in the class, and peer-review each other's work.

Homeostasis: Mapping the Endocrine System

Biological Molecules

Kinematics Concept Mapping

Elemental Superhero

Students select a periodic table chemical element, research it, then create a comic book character based on the element.