Active Learning Activities

Group Work Project Contracting

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

Nature of Science Ice-Breaker

A first class ice-breaker activity introducing the nature of science.

Card Sorting Activities for Mechanics

Peerwise Assignment: Human Body

Peer Review, Assessment & Feedback

Model Building

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

Gender Socialization throughout the Life Course

Students complete a grid that illustrates different life periods that reinforce gender narratives.

Family HiStories of Migration

Students interview two members of their family to collect information about their family history and present it in class.

Reflective Reading on Islam

Students use homework questions to prompt a deeper engagement with the reading material to generate better class discussion.

Identity Dot Exercise

Forget the Math! Draw Pictures to Learn the Wave Theory of Light

Holding Your Seat: A Mindfulness Exercise

Teacher for a Day: Defining a Definition

Defining a Definition

In this single-class activity, students practice problem-solving related to definitions.

Presentation skills: Conveying emotion

Circus Launch Clicker Questions

Momentum Photoproject

Projectile Tracker

Students use the Tracker software to analyze projectile motion to determine which equations fit the plots produced.

Energy Tracker

Students learn to analyze data using spreadsheet programs and gain a deeper understanding of conservation of energy.

Problem Sorting