Active Learning Activities

Editing Exercise: Mock Academic Conference

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

Biologist Says: Mini-Game for Recalling Biology Terms

A familiar and easy to implement game to help students with recall of biological terms.

BioQuest: Mini-Game for Categorizing Biology Terms

A fun consolidating activity at the end of a topic or unit to help students categorize and consolidate biological terms.

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.

Find Someone Who… An Icebreaker With Purpose

In this activity, students try to find someone for each list item. Items highlight key issues explored in the course.

Snowball Starter: Goals of Science Education

In this activity, the snowball strategy links students' prior beliefs to a deeper inquiry of science education goals.

Cross-Disciplinary Synergy 101: Uniting Expertise for Success

In teams, students interact, share information on their profession, and create cases where each discipline is needed

Crash Course: Collision Theory

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

Controversy in the Science Classroom: Nature of Science Quiz

An Abundance of Bells

How to Write Reading Annotations

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

Harvard Implicit Bias Test

In-Class Think Pieces: Course Pack

Vénus d’Ille: Police Enquiry

This activity has students challenge the literal meaning of a text (ie. the supernatural explanation for a murder).

Rock Paper Scissors Lizard

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.

Why Health & Safety is Essential to Recreation Leadership

Darwin’s Finches: Natural Selection

In this game-based activity, students learn about natural selection, evolution of traits, and data collection and analysis.  

Poetic Literary Jeopardy

Students learn literary and poetic elements that will be part of their fundamental 'toolbox' for the rest of the course.

Short Stories and Social Realism: Building an Essay Toolkit

In this multiple-class activity, students build a toolkit of essay-writing skills through analyzing a short story text.

National Building Code Jeopardy

Muscle Snowballs