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.

Active Learning Activities

18 Results

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.

Photo by Mira Kireeva from Unsplash
Social sciences

GoTestMe: Student-Generated Test Questions

In this test review activity, students create questions, exchange them with a peer, and answer each other's questions.

Environmental science Geography Biology

Earth History Walk

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

Photo by NASA on Unsplash
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!

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.

STEM Biology Social sciences

Peerwise Assignment: Human Body

this activity is for students to design high level questions related to course material as a review and application exercise.

Physics STEM

Two Stage Quiz

This activity gives the students the opportunity to talk about the concepts seen in class and to discuss with their peers.

Physics STEM

Model Building

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

Social sciences

Gender and Job Inequality

Health science STEM

Harvard Implicit Bias Test

History Social sciences

Family HiStories of Migration

Students interview two members of their family to collect information about their family history and present it in class.

History Social sciences

Reflective Reading on Islam

Students use homework questions to prompt a deeper engagement with the reading material to generate better class discussion.

Social sciences

Identity Dot Exercise

Social sciences

Who am I: (Mis)conceptions of Self

Social sciences

Holding Your Seat: A Mindfulness Exercise

Applied arts

Concept Map: Furniture Design Time Ripple

Engineering STEM

Peer Review Calibration and Constructive Feedback Workshop

This activity's goal is to familiarize students with the peer review process and teach them how to accept peer criticism.