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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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.

Languages and Literature

Constructive Commentary

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

STEM Education

Drawing to Learn: Doing Science is more Complex that You Think

Students draw a diagram of how they think scientists "do science." These are improved then compared with an expert diagram.

Languages and Literature

Peer Review for Beginners

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

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 Psychology

Dragon’s Den – Brain Exploration Techniques

Students engage in a gamified activity mimicking the popular tv show the Dragon's Den.

Social sciences Humanities

Group Work Project Contracting

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

STEM Biology

Electron Odyssey: Journey through the Mitochondria’s Electron Transport Chain

Students play the roles of protein complexes to see how electrons, protons, and energy moves through the ETC to produce ATP.

Water rat - Photo by Matt Seymour, Unsplash.

STEM Biology

Evolution of Sexual Reproduction: Construct a Species

Students construct a fictional animal species by selecting traits related to sexual reproduction.

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.

Young university students studying with computer in cafe. Group of people in campus library. College teenager using laptop at table. Group study for school assignment.

Psychology

Sensation and Perception Lab

The lab explores the senses of taste, smell, touch, proprioception and vision.

Health science

COPD Pathophysiology: Construct One Patient Description

Create a clinical presentation for a COPD patient, linked to pathophysiology & differentiated from other COPD conditions

Biology Health science

Family Matters : Inclusive Genetics Pedigree

In teams, students will build a pedigree chart and determine inheritance patterns using inclusive pedigree practices.

Languages and Literature Interdisciplinary

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

Health science

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

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.

STEM Mathematics

An Abundance of Bells

The aim of this activity is to demonstrate that many continuous data of nature and psychology follow a normal distribution.

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.

Humanities

Categorizing for Review

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

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.

Languages and Literature

Visual Interpretation of “The Story of an Hour”

Students learn to interpret a text and analyze a theme by creating a visual interpretation of a story.

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.

Active Learning Activities