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.

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69 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.

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.

STEM Chemistry

Keeping Up With the Trends

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

STEM Biology

Hemoglobin Hustle: An Adaptation of Race for the Hat

Used the Race for the Hat activity to create a Jeopardy-style session on blood & blood disorders for a pathophysiology class.

Social sciences Humanities

Group Work Project Contracting

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

Health science

Navigating the Grey: Ethics in Nursing

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

Languages and Literature

Silent Discussion

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

Languages and Literature

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.

STEM Health science

Safety First! Rank and Sort Case for Clinical Reasoning Skills

Case-based ranking & sorting activities based on pre-class quiz on exercise safety in a client with a cardiac condition.

Elementary school science teacher in biology class

Interdisciplinary

Snowball Starter: Goals of Science Education

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

Physics

Nature of Science Ice-Breaker

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

STEM Health science

Data Mining and Sorting: Scaffolding the Exploration of Scientific Articles

The purpose of this activity is to deepen students' understanding of cardiac pathophysiology.

Biology Chemistry

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.

STEM Physics

Card Sorting Activities for Mechanics

This activity encourages students to classify cards according to various criteria to make concept connections.

STEM Biology

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.

Social sciences STEM Biology

Peerwise Assignment: Human Body

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

STEM Biochemistry

Blended Learning: Just in Time

This activity benefits students by exposing them to literature in their field while preparing them for the following lecture.

Languages and Literature

Les Ateliers de Creation

In this multiple-class activity, students write three 250 texts, then learn to revise their writing based on peer feedback.

Interdisciplinary Humanities

Peer Review, Assessment & Feedback

Students gain experience with a model of writing which employs Peer Assessment as the Active Learning strategy.

STEM Chemistry

Acid Base Equilibrium

Students learn how to problem solve and review their peers in a low stakes situation (no grades).

Languages and Literature

Connotation Exercise: Interview and Presentation

This activity introduces basic concepts of literary analysis and interpretation.

Languages and Literature Interdisciplinary

Who are We? Class Demographics

In this icebreaker activity, students answer questions about themselves, which is included in a anonymous class profile.

STEM Engineering

Interrupted Case Study in Material Engineering

This activity uses real life case study examples to give students a more in-depth look at analytics.

STEM Physics

Model Building

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

Active Learning Activities