Classroom Activities

FrontPage

Page history last edited by Dr. Ron Eaglin 6 mos ago

The Classroom Activities Wiki

Author - Dr. Ron Eaglin, University of Central Florida

Department of Engineering Technology

[Due to a change in servers some of the video links are not operational - please contact me with the page URL if you find a broken video link - thanks ! ]

Introduction

This wiki site is devoted to activities that you can perform in a classroom getting away from the humdrum everyday lecture materials. For those of you who took the time to read this and want to contribute an activity send me an email. I will attempt to catalog and categorize the materials to make this wiki useful to myself and others wanting a more exciting classroom experience. Thanks for the suggestions from the folks who have helped me along on this project.

Icebreaker Activities

First Class Day Questions - A simple set of questions to use in your class to help you get to know your students.
Survivor Classroom Game - This is a great icebreaker with lots of variations. You can use creativity to apply it to a lot of types of classes by modifying the game.

General Activities (creative and critical thinking)

Word Guessing Game - This is a simple guessing game that can be used for any class where critical thinking or the need to learn vocabulary is important. This is a really fun activity and is easily made into a competition.
Cryptography Puzzle Challenge - This is a really tough challenge and will prove to be a real challenge to most professors. Some of the links might not be active, but they are easily replaced once you understand the point of the challenge.
Problem Solving for Everyday Life - This little exercise takes everyday problems and has students come up with solutions and also the problems. A lot of fun and a way to generate true creatvity in the classsroom.
Geek Speak Game - This is another creative exercise that works well with science or engineering students. This is best played as a game with teams of students.
Darwinian Theory Creative Exercise - A critical thinking process that is both interesting and thought provoking.
Group Interview and Logic Puzzle - This activity takes about 20-30 minutes and has students exercising critical thinking, interviewing skills, and logic.
Brainwashing - A mental Activity - I'm not quite done with this one, though I am working on a related activity as it ties in with critical thinking which is in some respects the opposite of critical thought.
Critical Thinking Exercise - This game based activity calls for questions, scenarios, and crtical thinking looking for flaws in CT processes.

Simulation Group Activities

These were developed for teaching how to do an in class simulation, also how to handle logisitics in complex scenarios.

Live Disaster Simulation - This activity gives an idea of the issues of resource allocation and planning necessary in a simulated disaster. It requires a group of people and a couple decks of cards.
The Human Computer Program - An activity that demonstrates the difficulties of computer programming and using logic, completely with humans - no computers needed.

Resarch Related Activites

Since I personally teach research seminars these are activities that I use in the seminars. Any experienced researcher should be able to use these and help get students to an understanding of what research is, how it is conducted, and how to do it.

Journal Paper Review Sample - I was motivated to create this activity after having been mailed a very convincing article denouncing Global Warming. This exercise shows the importance of critical review.
What is Research - Starting a Research Project - This exercise helps develop an understanding of the motivations and goals of real research. A strong backround as a resercher will help facilitate the use of these exercises.
Literature Review Activity - An activity to assist with the writing of a solid literature review for a reseach report.

Science and Engineering Activities

These activities fit very well in 9-12 grade science, but can be used at a much earlier or later stage of education. They are interesting and demonstrate the real principles behind things you use every day.

Electricity and Magnetism - A great beginning experiment to learn electricity and magnetism. Easy to do and fun. Courtesy of Dr. Neal Gallagher.
Make a Simple Electric Motor - A fun and easy demonstration using simple materials on how to create an electric motor. Courtesy of Dr. Neal Gallagher.
The Gaussian Gun - This is a real activity where you explore kinetic, potential and other energies and create a Gaussian gun, don't worry nobody will get hurt. Courtesy of Dr. Neal Gallagher.
Magnetic Brakes - A very cool activity that demonstrates exactly how magnetic brakes work. Courtesy of Dr. Neal Gallagher.
Tower of Hanoi - The classic Tower of Hanoi puzzle with full analysis and a video demonstration. Courtesy of Dr. Neal Gallagher .
Newtons Cradle - A nice video on how Newton's Cradle works and experiments using Newton's Cradle. Courtesy of Dr. Neal Gallagher
Astro-Blaster Lab Activity - Activity for 5-12th grades using the Astro-Blaster to demonstrate conservation on momentum and engergy.
Gyroscope Activity - Activity for 5-12th grade physics using a bicycle wheel. (not complete)
Simple Machines - Demonstrations using the 6 simple machines and how they are used in day to day life.
Hula Hoop Physics - The Physics of the Hula Hoop - pretty self-explanatory.
Pyrmath Activities - I created an entirely separate wiki for Pyramath related activities - follow link for more info.

Video Activities

The point of video based activities is to show the video and then have a reflective discussion over the points and issues brought up in the video. In some of the videos shown students should take a long look at the facts presented and the real meaning of those facts.

Randy Pausch Lecture - This video is a must-see for anyone in academia, watch it fully, you will be glad you did. It is also a great video to show your students and start a classroom conversation. To learn more about the life and death of Randy (one of my personal heroes) see the CBS report at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SwZQlzZRtk&feature=related
A Vision of Students Today - This video compilation on Youtube is extremely good at provoking converstation about how to more effectively teach students.
Shift Happens - This is a Youtube video about globalization. Again a converstation provoking video for class comments.
How I Make Video Pages - This is a video page on - you guessed it - how I make the video pages.

Leadership Activities

UCF Arboretum Geocaching Leadership Activity - Sorry, but this will only work on the UCF campus - but feel free to use the idea to create activities for your location or campus.

About the Author

This wiki was authored by Dr. Ron Eaglin. I hope that you can use the activities posted in this wiki to improve your classroom. I started this wiki in the Spring 2008 semester and will continue to add activities from my library as I find time. Please feel free to contact me with activities that you feel are appropriate to this wiki. For reasons why I like this approach see the page Creating a Class Wiki I also have some video's that I am producing to help folks - here are my Productivity Tips Part I

My Sites

I have a very diverse research portfolio. Much of my work is now public and available to the world in general. These links take you to some of these other projects that you can see from the internet.

http://trailmaps.pbwiki.com - A site used for one of my classes with information about parks and trails.

http://ucf-sage.pbwiki.com - The management site for the Service Architecture for Government Efficiency Site (one of my research projects).

http://www.lettr.org - The Law Enforcement Technology, Training, and Research site, one of my reseach projects.

http://ent.ucf.edu - Home page of the ENT department, where I am the Department Chair

http://ucf-rainfall.pbwiki.com - Some more of my research, this time in rainfall.

http://eaglinar.blogspot.com - This is my adventure blog - I am an avid outdoor adventure enthusiast, climber, biker, paddler, runner. and coach.

http://ucf-cet4583.pbwiki.com - My web systems class, lectures and materials for this course.

http://cet4429.pbwiki.com - Applied Database II - class, database programming and advanced data analytics.

http://cee.ucf.edu/software - some of my legacy software written for hydrology and hydraulics.

http://ucf-cet3010.pbwiki.com - Introduction to Information Technology Class - covers all business aspects of IT

http://ucf-etg6933.pbworks.com - Advanced topics in technology

http://pyramath.pbworks.com - Wiki site for teachers using Pyramath