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

Students practice and review the fundamental skills of Roman numeral analysis through a competitive question/answer game.... Read more about Roman Numeral Analysis and Class Game

Students imagine themselves to be policy advisers and write a policy memorandum on government transparency and secrecy to the imagined Transparency Reform Council.... Read more about Policy Memorandum and Government Transparency

As part of their Spanish exam, students role play a literary character and create an oral presentation on a mobile application they have designed.... Read more about From Text to Hypertext

This debate about whether judicial review is compatible with democracy is meant to get students thinking about what sort of ideal democracy is, and to see both its procedural and substantive components.

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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.

... Read more about Primitive Navigation Final Project

This is an activity for Lioudmila Zaitseva's Elementary Russian class. She goes through a floor plan illustration on the board and calls on volunteers to label the parts, then place a corresponding image in the specific zone of the plan. This is a fun way for students to remember their vocabulary, basic verbs, and basically conduct a general review.

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Students prepared for this assignment by reading the week’s reading assignment about the Chinese philosopher Xunzi in the class textbook. This lesson is inspired by Oprah Winfrey's Lifeclass TV show.

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Created by Kostia Bergman, Erin Cram, Wendy Smith, Scott Dobrin, Presque Isle, and Judith Roe, this lesson for an intermediate Cell Biology course encourages students to take a big-picture view of the cell by comparing cells to buildings in order to think about the dynamic processes within cells. The lesson utilizes a jigsaw and quick write.

... Read more about Cells vs. Buildings

Emily Russell designed this for Physics 95: Topics in Current Research aimed towards junior and senior concentrators in Physics.  Students were encouraged to develop their skills in explaining complicated physics topics in layman’s terms through a short video presentation. This project incorporates public speaking skills and video technology like Final Cut Pro. 

... Read more about Minute Physics Videos

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.

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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. 

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For Andrew Gray's intermediate Spanish course, students complete an activity using Spanish sayings to improve knowledge of the language and popular oral culture. 

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In Systems Biology 201, in an effort to prevent paper regurgitation, students were pre-assigned to present "chalk talks" of the reading at each session.

... Read more about Chalk Talks