engaging students in class
Beth Wilson’s use of an active learning discussion board in an online class
I am an online professor teaching a graduate class in systems engineering. This week the students are engaging in active learning through a discussion board assignment that launched today to apply the lecture concepts presented this week to real world case studies. Using the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 as an example, the recorded […]
Peer learning: not just for engagement
In discussions about teaching and learning at WPI in recent years, one of the concerns and frustrations I’ve heard most frequently is that students seem to forget what they were taught–and what we were convinced they actually learned– just a few months ago in a previous course. I recently came across this article,”Why Students Forget […]
A continuum of active learning
At the recent American Society for Engineering Education annual conference, a new engineering educator from the University of Pittsburgh referred to this diagram illustrating an active learning continuum. It comes from the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching at the University of Michigan. Using this diagram, he identified the simplest techniques– minute papers, think-pair-share, and […]
#ActiveLearningDay handouts
A nationwide Active Learning Day is being held on Tuesday, October 25, 2016. This initiative is led by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy as part of its efforts to improve STEM education at all levels using insights from research in the learning sciences. One element is asking instructors to spend 10 minutes […]
Active learning on the first day of Constance Clark’s course on History of Evolutionary Thought
On the first day of class I arrive early with a cart full of skeletons, skulls, fossils, shells, plants, an ostrich egg, some rocks, shark teeth, and a peculiar upside-down drawing of a sloth. Before the students arrive (at least with any luck before they arrive—if there are people who got there early I ask […]
Constance Clark elicits discussion around a central theme using a provocative statement
In B-term of 2016, I am offering a seminar on the history of science in public and science popularization. I always try to start the first class with an activity that gets people introducing themselves to each other and then talking through a theme that will be central to the course. For the class this […]
Eleanor Loiacono: The PB&J example is sticky!
One example I use in both undergraduate and graduate MIS courses on the first day of class is the making of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I lay out a table cloth over a desk and then place a plate, napkin, knife, fork, spoon, jar of peanut butter, loaf of bread, and jar of jelly. […]
How Liz Ryder uses active learning on the first day of “Exploring Bioinformatics”
BCB 100X / BB 100X Exploring Bioinformatics and Computational Biology meets twice a week for 2 hours each session. It has a mixed population of about 30 students. Some are BCB freshmen, who are taking the class for their major, and tend to have recent high school biology background and little computer science background. The […]
A Lesson about Asking Questions from Zoe Reidinger in Biomedical Engineering
In Biomedical Engineering Design (BME 3300) our students work in small teams to solve a real world problem in a medical/healthcare field over the course of the term. The project for this term is to design, build, and test a portable incubator that is capable of culturing bacterial samples, without access to electricity, in the […]
Student Perspectives on Active Learning
Check out this video created by WPI undergraduates who want to encourage more faculty to break up lectures with active learning opportunities.
