Active Learning Activities

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.

Earth History Walk

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

Constructive Commentary

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

Peer Review for Beginners

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

Group Work Project Contracting

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

From Bauhaus to Britney: A Catchall Timeline

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

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.

Snowball Starter: Goals of Science Education

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

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.

Data Mining and Sorting: Scaffolding the Exploration of Scientific Articles

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

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

Card Sorting Activities for Mechanics

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

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.

Categorizing for Review

The aim of this single-class activity is to help students consolidate their knowledge and review concepts seen in class.

Les Ateliers de Creation

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

Peer Review, Assessment & Feedback

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

Interrupted Case Study in Material Engineering

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

Call Me By My Organelle

In this single-class activity, students use cards to match cells with their organelles and functions.

Gender Socialization throughout the Life Course

Students complete a grid that illustrates different life periods that reinforce gender narratives.

Projet Specific: Webzine

Building Effective Teams

The Matching Game

Students use a matching game to pair chemical compounds and their characteristics using a set of question cards.

If You’re Not Part of the Solution You’re Part of the Precipitate