In Jerusha Achterberg's first and second Expos workshops of the semester, she chooses two paper drafts from the section and all the other students read and comment on those two papers. The authors also serve as the moderators for each other's discussion.
In EMR16, for the midterm and the final project, students have the choose of creating a 2 minute video that explains three statistical concepts to a novice.
In OEB 119: Deep Sea Biology, groups of students have to present and lead discussions on scientific papers throughout the semester. Before class each week, all students have to read an assigned scientific paper and post a summary paragraph and two questions to an online forum. A group of students has to prepare a short presentation about one part of the paper, so that each paper is presented by a different group of three to four students each week.
Dr. Michael Heller created this project for a World Music Class for International Students taught at University of Massachusetts, Boston. Students were encouraged to develop traditional academic skills and new media skills in this World Music YouTube Culture Show Project, by incorporating written word, public speaking, and storytelling tools like Zeega, Powerpoint, or Meograph in this project.
The primitive navigation final project will involve researching a topic that requires data gathering and analysis, along with research into the history associated with that topic. The final presentation will take the form of a video that will be posted online.
To foster science communication skills, students are asked to propose a plan for a documentary film about an issue in developmental biology. They have to create a film poster and pamphlet that is presented at a class showcase.... Read more about Planning a Documentary Film on Developmental Biology
The instructor in a beginning German class wrote and filmed a puppet show for the class, who then created their own puppet shows using the vocabulary they had learned. This exercise fostered comprehension and decreased students’ inhibitions about speaking in public.
Students familiar with case study analysis construct their own cases to capture a specific ethical question. They then lead their classmates through the case. This case construction gives students the opportunity to try to stump one another with new ethical dilemmas in civil and focused fashion.
Faculty develop a national security crisis and simulate placing the students on the National Security Council Staff to develop strategic options to drive U.S. foreign policy. By thrusting students into positions of responsibility for solutions to real-world issues, this activity requires students to draw on what they have learned and to think on their feet, and it fosters a deeper appreciation for the challenges associated with working on foreign policy.