Active Learning Activities

100 Years of Work

This is a jigsaw activity where students map key developments in workplace design over 100 years.

Running on Water: Activating Prior Knowledge of Static Equilibrium

Students watch, discuss, then analyze the veracity of a video in which hydrophobic shoes allow people to run on water.

Nature of Science Ice-Breaker

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

Card Sorting Activities for Mechanics

Controversy in the Science Classroom: Nature of Science Quiz

Physics Worksheet Based Activity

The aim of the activity is the application of concepts and math to solve complex problems.

Two Stage Quiz

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

Group Problem Solving with Show and Tell

Students learn to build a conceptual model describing a Mechanics-based situation and practice mathematical problem-solving.

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.

Solving World Issues: One Smartphone at a Time

The purpose of this activity is to familiarize students with the potential of online tools for problem-solving.

Forget the Math! Draw Pictures to Learn the Wave Theory of Light

National Building Code Jeopardy

Engineering Physics IF-AT

Dark Lords IF-AT

Bottle Rocket Tracker

Using video and Tracker software, students learn to analyze and fit equations of motion to raw data.

Dart Gun Velocity

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

Circus Launch Clicker Questions

Reflective Writing On Waves

What is Torque?

Forces Scavenger Hunt

Lenz’s Law

Momentum Photoproject