In-class interactive game between students playing a modification of the "selectorate-electorate" game. This game has a leader distributing private and public benefits, and others voting. ... Read more about Selectorate-Electorate Game
How should Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak respond to the massive protests plaguing his country? This in-class simulation requires students to adopt Egyptian and international actors' perspectives to aid President Mubarak's decision making.
In this in-class simulation, students adopt the interests and goals of the Kayapó Indians, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the Brazilian government, and Electrobras in order to resolve a conflict over the construction of the Belo Monte Dam.
In this "murder mystery" activity, a beloved professor has been murdered in his mansion. The students have to take on the roles of different characters and, using Portuguese past verb tenses and relevant vocabulary, solve the mystery.
Revolutions require collective action. This simple activity, used during the week on revolutions, demonstrates the difficulty of carrying out collective action.
This group discussion format can be used in a week that covers several big concepts, each of which can be discussed along a similar ("parallel") sequence of discussion questions. The concepts in this particular class are: Wisdom of crowds, Heuristic decision-making, Groupthink, and Cooperation.
There has been an outbreak of an unusual Asian disease. Which policy is best based on the scientific estimations of how many people will be saved? This activity uses this example with poll everywhere (polleverywhere.com) technology to demonstrate framing and prospect theory.
Are people predisposed to favor their own groups at the expense of others, even when the group distinction is completely arbitrary? This activity replicates, more or less, the exact experiment used by Henri Tajfel to demonstrate the "minimal group paradigm" used in Social Identity Theory.
This project has students work in pairs explore the botany of Harvard Square. Students find a plant-related item to research and prepare a an abstract, a presentation, and a written report.
In this homework assignment, students take as a starting point President Obama's speech at the University of Michigan about the cost of tuition and student debt and, using concepts from the readings and data online, get into depth about the nature of college tuition and student debt.
When students are in the revision stage of their paper, Jerusha Achterberg uses fruits to teach students how to structure their papers so that the organization coordinates with the thesis. The idea behind this activity is to break the 5 paragraph mold students bring from high school.
In this activity, Swedish Aa students view music videos of Swedish pop songs ("Ingen vill veta" and "Du vill så du kan") to practice helping verbs and as a prompt for in-class language practice.
In Swedish Ba, Ursula Lindqvist has students lead discussion on a current topic relevant to children's issues. This course focuses on children's literature and culture.