Active Learning Activities

Nature of Science Ice-Breaker

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

Card Sorting Activities for Mechanics

Model Building

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

Circuits: Card Sorting With Multiple Representations (E&M)

Students develop their ability to reason about physics concepts in terms of multiple representations, beyond just equations.

Electrostatics: Card Sorting With Mutiple Representations (E&M)

Students associate configurations of charges with their characteristics from word, diagram & graph representations.

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

National Building Code Jeopardy

Circus Launch Clicker Questions

Forces Scavenger Hunt

Lenz’s Law

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