Active Learning Activities

Constructive Commentary

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

Editing Exercise: Mock Academic Conference

Students write, present as 'experts', and edit.

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.

Peer Review for Beginners

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

100 Years of Work

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

Keeping Up With the Trends

This activity is aimed at getting students to be able to write sound, scientific rationales for observed phenomena.

Group Work Project Contracting

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

Navigating the Grey: Ethics in Nursing

In this card sorting activity, students create categories with words related to ethics in nursing.

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.

Silent Discussion

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

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.

Mechanics in Motion: Iterative GIF Creation

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

Nature of Science Ice-Breaker

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

PharmaPuzzle Relay Race: Match the Meds and Win!

In this fast-paced relay, teams match categories of information to finish first and win the game

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

Rough Draft Workshop: Group Peer Assessment Jigsaw Activity for Case Study or Procedural Writing

Students bring a rough draft of a written group project for peer evaluation and feedback

To Pass or Not to Pass: Acting out Membrane Transport

Aim of the activity is to increase students’ understanding of molecules’ movement through the cell membrane.

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

Peerwise Assignment: Human Body

Blended Learning: Just in Time

Harvard Implicit Bias Test

Building Effective Teams

Rock Paper Scissors Lizard