Active Learning Activities

Active learning activities are tailored to specific learning outcomes and content. They incorporate one or more of the evidence-based strategies. Structured to expose their theoretical underpinnings, the activities can be used by practitioners and researchers alike.

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Geography Environmental science

Spinning the Data? Thinking Critically about Maps

Students create choropleth maps to explore how maps can inform, persuade and mislead.

Photo by Dana Andreea Gheorghe on Unsplash

Applied arts

Take it Outside: A Field Trip in Three Acts

This activity serves as a field trip template to engage students with pre, during, and post-visit observations and analysis.

Applied arts

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.

Environmental science Geography Biology

Earth History Walk

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

Physics STEM

Mystery Tube Challenge: The Nature & Process of Science

Students model the hidden structure of a sealed tube as a metaphor for how scientists explore the unseen.

Languages and Literature

Constructive Commentary

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

Languages and Literature

Editing Exercise: Mock Academic Conference

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

Languages and Literature

Peer Review for Beginners

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

Applied arts

100 Years of Work

This is a jigsaw activity where students map key developments in workplace design over 100 years.

Languages and Literature

Taskmaster: Diction Icebreakers

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

Photo by Priscilla du Preez from Unsplash

Physics STEM

Running on Water: Activating Prior Knowledge of Static Equilibrium

Students watch, discuss, then analyze the veracity of a video in which hydrophobic shoes allow people to run on water.

Applied arts

From Bauhaus to Britney: A Catchall Timeline

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

Languages and Literature

Silent Discussion

Conduct a discussion in your class without students ever speaking a word!

Languages and Literature

Reimagining the Reading Quiz: Peer Instruction in English

Students do a reading quiz in class and revise their answers after developing and sharing a rationale for their choice.

Physics STEM

Mechanics in Motion: Iterative GIF Creation

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

Physics

Nature of Science Ice-Breaker

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

Interdisciplinary Languages and Literature

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

Physics STEM

Card Sorting Activities for Mechanics

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

Physics STEM

Real-World Physics: Mini Video Projects

These mini-video projects require students to engage with course concepts and make connections to the world in which we live.

Physics STEM

Controversy in the Science Classroom: Nature of Science Quiz

This activity aims to bring about conceptual change by making explicit common misconceptions about the nature of science.

Physics STEM

Physics Worksheet Based Activity

The aim of the activity is the application of concepts and math to solve complex problems.

Physics STEM

Preparation for Future Learning: Electric Flux

In this worksheet activity, students are introduced to the concept of flux and the relation between field lines and area.

STEM Physics Interdisciplinary

How to Write Reading Annotations

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

Environmental science

Instructional Survey

The aim of this activity is to provide students with an overview of survey design and execution.

Active Learning Activities