Active Learning Activities

Spinning the Data? Thinking Critically about Maps

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

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.

Editing Exercise: Mock Academic Conference

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

Group Work Project Contracting

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

Taskmaster: Diction Icebreakers

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

From Bauhaus to Britney: A Catchall Timeline

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

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.

Role Reveal 201: Exploring Interdisciplinary Collaboration

In teams, students from each discipline complete a patient interview then contrast their approaches.

Crash Course: Collision Theory

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

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

In this activity students apply their knowledge of the physiology of the stress response to a real-life research scenario.

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.

An Abundance of Bells

The aim of this activity is to demonstrate that many continuous data of nature and psychology follow a normal distribution.

How to Write Reading Annotations

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

Instructional Survey

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

Durkheim Suicide: Functionalist and Conflict Theory

In this activity, students compare 4 psychological perceptive of suicide (anomic, fatalistic, egoistic, and altruistic).

Sustainability Development Plan (Part 1 and Part 2)

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

Disappearing Sea Otters

Students take the role of an ecologist and try to analyze species behaviours and predict population change.

Projects on Junot Diaz: “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao”