Active Learning Activities

Finding Catharsis in Film and Media

Students analyze a film or piece of media watched in the course using two concepts: climax and catharsis.

Group Work Project Contracting

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

Controversy in the Science Classroom: Nature of Science Quiz

How to Write Reading Annotations

This activity helps students improve their quality of reading annotations using platforms like Perusall.

5 Senses Lab

Peer Review, Assessment & Feedback

Live Demonstrations of Beats and Interference of Sound

In this activity, students learn to apply the principal of superposition to two new sound contexts.

Model Building

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

Circuits: Card Sorting With Multiple Representations (E&M)

Students develop their ability to reason about physics concepts in terms of multiple representations, beyond just equations.

Electrostatics: Card Sorting With Mutiple Representations (E&M)

Students associate configurations of charges with their characteristics from word, diagram & graph representations.

Interior Design – Library Design

National Building Code Jeopardy

Mass of A Car

Students measure the mass of a car using diagrams to find equations of motion describing stages - acceleration & deceleration

Falling Object Tracker

Through this activity students analyze 1D kinematic problems & see examples of both constant velocity and acceleration.

Dart Gun Velocity

In this activity, students will find the muzzle velocity of a foam dart gun and predict its maximum range.

Reflective Writing On Waves

What is Torque?

Forces Scavenger Hunt

Lenz’s Law

Home Wiring

Motion Diagrams

In this activity, students learn to create and interpret motion diagrams using a notebook file in interactive whiteboards.

Projectile Tracker

Students use the Tracker software to analyze projectile motion to determine which equations fit the plots produced.

Energy Tracker

Students learn to analyze data using spreadsheet programs and gain a deeper understanding of conservation of energy.