Keeping Students Engaged
I keep a list of in-class activities designed to stimulate thought on and interest in class material on the wall next to my desk. It helps keep the class from getting stale: whenever I need something to spice up a lecture, the list is right there.
Learning Activities
- Jigsaw group problems/questions/puzzles
- Class worksheets, individual or group
- Given a table of data/observations
- interpret and analyze
- find trends, generalize, make rules - Graphical interpretation or creation of a plot
-explain the graph
-use plots to predict or fit to a model
-demonstration to show actual result
-solve a problem graphically - Students predict, instructor demonstrates, students observe and explain
- Students experiment and explain
- Multimedia/simulations: do and explain, predict and test, use or construct an animation or simulation
- Microscopic models --> predictions of macroscopic behavior --> do it to test
- Research a topic (library or web) and write a short essay
- Write a one-minute paper
- Answer questions based on reading (articles, web, core text)
- Discuss questions in a small group, report back to class
- Make a concept map
- Draw a sketch/cartoon to summarize
- Teach someone else what you have learned
- Group problem solving: work a difficult problem together
- Describe information needed to do a task
- Describe what your answer will look like (number, concept, +, -, large, small, etc...)
- Explain or create a picture which is a microscopic model of reality
- Describe what you don't know about the problem/question at hand
- Answer multiple choice questions with tempting alternatives, why tempting?
- Answer questions which challenge commonly held beliefs (face cognitive dissonance)
If you have any more questions, or would just like to talk this idea over, feel free to email tferrett@carleton.edu or call at x4408.