In Emily Riehl's Topology I: Topological Spaces and the Fundamental Group, she uses a fun heads-up-seven-up style quiz to quickly engage students and test the level of confusion among the students. This activity not only helps students participate and actively take a part in their learning, but also assists the instructor in increasing the effectiveness of their lectures. 

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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

This was a semester long project. Throughout the semester, graduate students (many of whom had little previous exposure to the course material) studied the history of Chinese music theory, the Jesuit missionaries who transmitted it back to western Europe, and the reception of Chinese culture there in the 18th century. 

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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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Benjamin Weber created an activity that spans across the entire class to help students understand the concept of “diaspora” through constant reiteration of concepts from some excerpts given to the class by the instructor. Students learned how to close-read excerpts, write reflections, and create their own ideas about the theme of the class.

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Kellie Carter Jackson, a Harvard College Fellow, created the game “Name Five” for her AAAS118 class. In the beginning of the class, she goes around the room and asks students to list five notable people of different ethnicities to help students understand the world and the power dynamics within it.

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Students were asked to produce a multimedia and historical analysis of the archives of Saudi Aramco World. It aimed to bring historical and secondary sources alive by putting students directly in contact with primary, archival sources and asking them to critically engage with those materials.

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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. 

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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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In order to get students to participate in lecture, Pardis Sabeti throws clementines to anyone who answers a question correctly or incorrectly.

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In section for MCB 80, "Neurobiology of Behavior," students play a game similar to Family Feud to review material discussed in lecture. 

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Students submit response papers immediately prior to attending class with the goal of increased preparedness for discussion.

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In CB51: Making the Middle Ages, the teaching staff, consisting of Professor Dan Smail and TFs Rowan Dorin, Zoe Silverman, Joey McMullen, and Rena Lauer, introduced the course with a class blog, which continued to be used throughout the course for cataloguing, exploring, and learning about historical representations.

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To prepare students for an exam, the teacher sets up essay questions on posters around the room for students to review. The movement helps keep energy up at the end of the semester.

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