Here are 14 creative ways to engage students in discussions, problem-solving, critical thinking, and more: Assumption busting is particularly effective when one is stuck in current thinking paradigms or has run out of ideas. Heres how it works in Zoom. Laddering or the why method involves toggling between two abstractions to create ideas. They usually focus on imagination and mental abilities, which should be just the thing for a campus full of budding scholars. Capturing such talks on video makes for powerful, potentially viral social media. And at some universities, students can obtain degrees entirely through an online course load. The verbs are about doing to get students to think about the action. Group work can be an effective method to motivate students, encourage active learning, and develop key critical-thinking, communication, and decision-making skills. Period. As graduation nears, students will be more focused on their professional futures. Deliberately seeking out and addressing previously unquestioned assumptions stimulates creative thinking. Invite popular indie rock bands and hip-hop artists, and coordinate with the university art department about showcasing student works. Create an on-campus obstacle course and invite students to test themselves physically like never before. Team up with an off-campus organization to promote and orchestrate a meaningful community event. Sure, they know that its important to eat lots of fresh vegetables and fruits -- but tell that to their budget. A digital alternative involves using shared documents that multiple students are invited to edit. As theater lovers know, the real magic of drama and comedy is in characterization and dialogue. Youll find role-playing games set in the world of international spies, a post-nuclear holocaust, and a city full of superheroes, too! Or maybe youve been running your courses this way for years but want ideas that work for the new reality. Questions or problems should be well explained and understood by each student. In order to wear costumes to school, the students have to write a play that . The goals can be anything: taking a photo at a campus landmark, for example, or finding a specific treasure in a particular location. Out of all of these great campus activities ideas, some of the best opportunities for students to make lasting memories involve booking amazing entertainment. A question or problem is read to the group (e.g., How do we? or What would it take to?). Why? The procedure is as follows: Pose a question, usually by writing it on the board or projecting it. Make sure yourcomedy show sells out by promoting it on social media. Now, let's discuss some effective and fun group activities to help your college students learn better: 1. Need more fun college event ideas? Remember, its not about the quality of the art its about how drawing prompts students to visualize their understanding and look at their learning from a different perspective. Then its just a matter of deciding between seven-card stud or Texas hold em. Some students love to compete, testing themselves constantly against their peers. 10. Contact your local farmers market about providing locally grown fruits, vegetables, cheeses, honey, and meats. Fostering creativity can range from simple team-building exercises to complex, open-ended problems that may require a semester to solve. Its comforting, its delicious, and its what students want to eat when theyre up at 1 AM trying to figure out how theyre going to memorize the periodic table in time for their chemistry exam at 8 AM. Trying to book entertainment at your college, Click here to learn more about how ArtistHub can help you book entertainment, Invite a nutrition expert as a guest lecturer, Get a local chef to come teach a cooking class and share healthy recipes, Host the towns local farmers market on campus, Open forum for first year students on what major they should choose. Once the role play is finished, spend some time on debriefing. Skeleton notes - Create a handout with key points of the lecture on the left margin, leaving space for students to fill in notes during lecture. Bring the animals to the students (or the students to the animals), add coffee, and voila: instant good times. ACRoSS is an interdisciplinary forum for the presentation of summer research projects developed by students and faculty at Allegheny College. Generally, laddering up toward the general allows expansion into new areas while laddering down focuses on specific aspects of these areas. Sub-spurs can represent subsidiary causes. Learning Activities, Subscribe to get news, resources and more, Twitter Assignment in Motion Students of a theatre group never feel bored or isolated. Freshmen often feel overwhelmed by the task of picking a major, and seniors can provide them with a little bit of reassurance and guidance. on campus. Invite HR directors from local employers to provide insight on ways students can meet other professional expectations, like dressing for the office, writing effective emails, and public speaking. University life is ideal for exposing students to a variety of art and culture, with campuses often serving as a hub for musicians, writers, and other artists. However, people of all ages love playing this board game in their free time. Finding quality speakers, musicians, and other entertainers has always been easier said than done -- until now. Examining potential failures is relevant when an idea is new or complex or when there is little margin for error. The verbs are about doing to get students to think about the action. Inviting a nutritionist to come and speak to students -- especially freshman -- is a great way to tip students off on how to take better care of themselves in the years to come. Weve all heard of the freshman fifteen: the 15 pound weight gain that comes along with your first year at college. A question or problem is read to the group (e.g., How do we? or What would it take to?). Put the most general, inclusive concepts at the top of the list, and most specific at the bottom. Ideally, the fishbone is redrawn so that position along the backbone reflects the relative importance of the different parts of the problem, with the most important at the head. Think mac n cheese, stir fry, homemade ramen, or pho. For more ways to make your on-campus event stand out andimprove student engagement, check out these fun event ideas for college students. Which two countries share the longest border? Will it be sports games, strategy games, first-person shooter games, simulations, or a combination? Creators who used Boost marketings tools saw 2.5x more listing views*. There's nothing better than ordering an ice cream, bubble tea, or cake right after your exam. A poker tournament doesnt have to involve gambling instead, let the winnings benefit a particular charity or cause. Coordinate your event with your schools LGBTQ+ community to create an inclusive, gender-neutral event. You should start by finding some comic strips that are different from one another but similar in length. Brainstorming, a useful tool to develop creative solutions to a problem, is a lateral thinking process by which students are asked to develop ideas or thoughts that may seem crazy or shocking at first. Get two pairs together, and the foursome needs to do the same thing. If your classroom is museum-level quiet no matter how you try to liven things up, try some low-stakes (read: not embarrassing) improv activities. Online events can also be more comfortable for introverts among us, who may prefer making connections while maintaining a certain distance. Host a fundraiser with a casino theme including card games, roulette wheels, and slot machines but make sure to comply with local gambling regulations. Not everyone wants to be in the spotlight, so a prop workshop is a great way to involve more introverted types in the theater. No way! Conduct Creative Contests for Students There are a lot of things in which students excel, to find out the talents in them you can conduct many creative contests for them during the college fest. Invite a nutrition expert as a guest lecturer on campus. Book the best entertainment for your college. ombine: What can you combine or bring together somehow? Contact your schools archery club about including a Robin Hood-inspired display of bow-and-arrow skills. Choosing one component, develop ways of exaggerating it and note them on a separate sheet. ut to other uses: How can you put the thing to different or other uses? Lastly, a festival isnt complete without eats. Make it a black-tie event for a sophisticated Monte Carlo feel. Students also viewed. Booking a solo artist or band and setting up a free show for students on campus is a great way to help them chill out and discover something new. Once the writing begins to slow down students can post their ideas on a wall or flip-chart paper. An icebreaker classic, Two Truths and a Lie is a fun way to help students get to know each other. You might also include wraps, burritos, and gyros quick, flavorful meals that require only a few ingredients. Alternatively, host an open mic night and encourage students to try out their best routines. The key, though, is connecting with the right act. Yoga has been trendy for what seems like forever. Performing artists love to gain college fans, and college rock (think R.E.M. If you want the students at your college to kick back, relax, and live a little between now and their next exam, nothing beats a college comedian. Be sure to provide plastic bags and waste bins for cleanup. Take inspiration from Big Brother/Big Sister programs and pair seniors with freshmen. Alternatively, impress the history department with out-of-fashion historical games like three-card brag or organize a round of the classic French. Revision is a key element in concept mapping, so participants need to be able to move concepts and reconstruct the map. Include only games that date before the 18th century. ArtistHub makes it easy. 4. So, contact local restaurants and food trucks about offering easy finger foods. Promote your event in your schools media or film department and set up a screening room on campus. The first group to complete the list wins. ACRoSS has become a flagship summer experience for all students and faculty members that are on campus during the summer. Come up with a list of themes and some basic ground rules on length and subject matter. Then allow the students form groups of 2-3 people. Participants bring clothes to trade with each other as they try out new looks. The pads can contain idea-jogging graphics or be designed so that ideas can be sorted and separated easily. Visit a Pumpkin Patch. it emphasizes enjoyment instead of a serious race or competition. As Leslie Knope and Ron Swanson have argued time and again: there is nothing as amazing as breakfast food. Pumpkin patches often open toward the beginning of fall and stay in business until Halloween. Participants develop or annotate the sketches passed to them, or use them to inspire new sketches which are also passed in turn. The Chinese new year begins on the first moon between January 21st and February 20th, and its one of the premier holidays in Chinese culture. It doesnt matter whether the reversal makes sense or not. Events are a great way to introduce fresh ideas, opportunities, and products to a new audience. Of course, your competition can be as friendly and straightforward as you like the simpler it is, the more likely people will feel up to the challenge and decide to participate. Some activities to consider are listed below. Make sure to be clear about what the goals are (using rubrics helps). For example, soap, pencil, or notebook. In a hybrid classroom, students need to be able to hear each other easily, no matter where they are. Games designed for indoor events are the perfect solution. Actually, if youre a college student in your late teens, its literally been a trend for as long as you can remember -- since at least the early 2000s. Or, create your own maneuvers and offensives in battles between fantastical creatures such as orcs and dwarves. This allows you to create clubs for less commonly spoken languages, such as Czech or Basque. Celebrate Indias films, with their exuberant colors, fantastic tales, and imaginative staging, with a Bollywood film festival that also embraces the richness of Indian culture. dapt: What can you adapt for use as a solution? Let your students create their very own personalized stories using a variety of colorful and vibrant Illustrations that ignite creativity. Copyright 2023 Nureva Inc. All rights reserved. Any working professional will likely tell you that success depends more on who you know than what you know. Similar to a fall festival, harvest festivals emphasize food and farm products. Scattered throughout the list, youll find entertainment-related suggestions: things like bands, singer-songwriters, guest speakers, and even comedian. Not everyone considers themselves to be an artist. The pads can contain idea-jogging graphics or be designed so that ideas can be sorted and separated easily. In this approach, students are given time to come up with their own ideas individually before sharing them out loud or posting them to an online whiteboard or other shared platform. Theres nothing like a competition to attract attention. Heres how Nureva audio can help.). You have to factor in your campus activities budget, the calendar of other events that will be happening on campus, and the logistics involved in actually putting together an event of your own. Want to know how to get college students to attend events? Bring a handful of these massage therapists in training to your local campus, set up the chairs, and boom: youve got an amazing on-campus event. Not only does this allow students to support local businesses, but it also helps them stock up for the week. If you want to take your event online, consider creative activities like a student-led online workshop or a virtual open mic night. Start by dividing them into home groups (4 or 5 people works well). The whole idea of a theatre group is to come together and perform as a team. A classic career fair brings employers onto campus to talk to students about their mission, hiring practices, and prospects. Why are you even still thinking about this event? Then serve treats like apple pie, cider, and, of course, pumpkin spice anything. In yet another proof point, a meta-analysis from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that student exam scores improved 6% when active learning approaches were used. In a ladder containing abstract ideas or concepts, the items lower down are details or sub-sets of the ones higher up, so one moves between the abstract and concrete. Put the most general, inclusive concepts at the top of the list, and most specific at the bottom. So, why not bring a theatre group experience to your classroom studies. Baking Soda Clay. Whether your classes are in person, online or somewhere in between, here are 15active learningactivities to try with your students this semester. For teams of all sizes wanting to create together. Groups can do this to review previous work, or it can help them map ideas for projects and assignments. Ask participants to bring their own drums hand drums such as bongos or even handmade and recycled drums or see if your schools music department has some spares. You might even connect with students worldwide who speak your clubs language natively. Chinese New Year typically culminates in a lantern festival, with candles and lanterns lighting up homes and gardens or in this case, campus spaces. And dont forget to match the theme with authentic cuisine. Shooting and editing short films has never been easier. Eventbrite Boost makes it easy to reach new people, engage your fans and followers, and grow your attendance directly from your Eventbrite account. earrange: What can be rearranged in some way? Did you know that the iconic idea-sharing forum TEDx started as a campus event at USC in 2009? Then, the students work as a group to discover and explore themes. How: List assumptions associated with a task or problem, for example, that a solution is impossible due to time and cost constraints; something works because certain rules or conditions; and people believe, need or think of certain things. Revision is a key element in concept mapping, so participants need to be able to move concepts and reconstruct the map. To solve a specific problem, students make sketches and then pass evolving sketches to their neighbors. List assumptions associated with a task or problem, for example, that a solution is impossible due to time and cost constraints; something works because certain rules or conditions; and people believe, need or think of certain things. SCAMPER is a check list that promotes ways to think about an existing product/issue/problem to create a new way to think about it. Set up podiums for your teams of debaters, preferably where an audience can view them and present a question for debate. Create a focus question specifying the problem or issue the map should help resolve. A music festival might center the main stage in a field. Get articles with higher ed trends, teaching tips and expert advice delivered straight to your inbox. Laughter is a great stress reliever, so comedys an ever-popular event choice for students loaded down with exams, jobs, and extracurricular activities. It often includes a competition. Have participants dress in themed costumes for extra fun, or make it a fundraiser with pledges for laps completed. Theres nothing like spending a night under the stars. Here are 14 creative ways to engage students in discussions, problem-solving, critical thinking, and more: Assumption Busting Assumption busting is particularly effective when one is stuck in current thinking paradigms or has run out of ideas. How much could you explain in one minute? In design thinking, empathy maps help designers create better products for users. This is a great way for students to show off their leadership skills, presentation skills and creativity. In most role-playing exercises, each student takes the role of a person affected by an issue and studies an issue or events from the perspective of that person. How: Beginning with an existing idea, ladder up by asking, of what wider category is this an example? Once the ideas flow, students become immersed in the problem and tag-team off other ideas. Provide concrete information and clear role descriptions so that students can play their roles with confidence. If you love music -- and seriously, what college student doesnt love music? Instead, invite students to bring their tents, sleeping bags, and smores kits to campus for a campout with friends. The evidence just keeps growing postsecondary students engage more, learn more and accomplish more with active learning. Include pumpkin carving contests, hay rides, corn mazes, and costume contests. Coordinate periodic check-in events to maintain contact. After defining a problem to be addressed or idea to develop, list all the component parts of the idea or if a problem, its objectives and constraints. For one of the most exciting college events students will ever experience, take groups out on an established trail (with reliable guides) late at night. Creativity and Innovation Science and Technology Wiki, Creative teaching: Replacing problems with opportunities, CELTs 226 Active Learning Techniques (PDF), The Chronicles How to Hold a Better Class Discussion web article, An online database of active learning efforts in post-secondary classrooms is available via. Free massage? A festival combines a main activity or theme with events that might occur over a weekend or the course of days. The color red dominates decorations, which often include traditional crafts like intricate paper cutouts and couplets written in Chinese characters wishing good fortune in the coming year. So, fun events for college students that emphasize social life will attract interest. Well, good news! How: Each student is given a stack or note-pad of at least 25 small slips of paper or Post-it note pad. Why questions are ladders up; so-what questions are ladders down. Ever played Jeopardy? Outdoor Fall Fest . If your students are online, breakout rooms in your conferencing software let you do the same thing virtually. What can you remove? This activity lets students reflect on learning and build writing skills plus youll get a window into their understandings and misunderstandings. Consider working with a local massage school, where massage students often provide chair massages at an incredibly reduced rate. Instructors may collect a large number of ideas swiftly and creates a sense of participation and/or ownership at the same time. Everyone makes assumptions about how the world around us, which in creative situations, can prevent seeing or generating possibilities. Participants are given slips of paper (or Post-it notes) and asked to write down ideas which are discussed or evaluated. EDUCATION: Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA BA Candidate, May 2024 Cumulative GPA: 3.8 Major: Creative Writing Minor: Literatures in English Relevant Coursework: Poetry I and II, Visual Poetics . Classroom example: A sixth-grade class produces Halloween costume plays. A wargaming contest will likely resonate with the history majors in your midst; you might recreate battles from the Civil War, World War I, or World War II. Are you ready to move to a different way of teaching but need some ideas to get you started? Accordingly, participants should be encouraged to pick up on ideas offered to create new ones. Rummikub is a popular card game turned into a board game. It is easy to play with a simple set of rules. Turn your room into the environment of what you are learning about. Why questions are ladders up; so-what questions are ladders down. Invite popular indie rock bands and hip-hop artists, and coordinate with the university art department about showcasing student works. As the name implies, speed interviews are similar to speed dating. Channel Coachella and create your ownmusic and arts festival on campus. 3. Host a free morning (or afternoon, or night) of yoga. Weve put together this list of 18 awesome campus activities ideas to help you get started with your planning for this semester (or next semester). Attending a university often instills loyalty that can inspire successful alums to share what they know with the younger generation. For instance, clean up a local beach or river, or raise awareness of a topic with a special event where all proceeds go to a cause. Bring food! What can you add? Paint night Paint nights are always popular, and they're a great way to get creative. 27 Fun Activities for College Students 1. Under these, place sub-heading cards that will be contain ideas and details generated that support the headers. Their task is to figure out the point of view of the person behind the quotation and justify it to the class. Include displays of falconry or blacksmithing to set the mood. How: On a broad sheet of paper, draw a long arrow horizontally across the middle of the page pointing to the right. If youve never been to a clothing swap, youre missing out. And, people love to watch competitors go head-to-head, whether theyre survivors on a TV-friendly island or athletes on a playing field. Provide concrete information and clear role descriptions so that students can play their roles with confidence. Laddering can help students understand how an expert categorizes concepts into classes, and can help clarify concepts and their relationships. Ideally, the fishbone is redrawn so that position along the backbone reflects the relative importance of the different parts of the problem, with the most important at the head. Build a hierarchical organization of the concepts, using post-its on a wall or whiteboard, large sheets of paper, etc. Plus, you get to meet a bunch of cool new people in the process. Laddering techniques involve the creation, reviewing and modification of hierarchical knowledge. Here are some additional clay recipes your students can try to make their own homemade clay: Paper Clay. A renaissance fair harkens back to the days of knights, nobles, lords, and ladies, recreating a time gone by. But are they played out? They often offer special amenities or prices for groups or younger audiences. Once the role play is finished, spend some time on debriefing. Allows varied learning styles: You can use classroom games to incorporate different learning styles into your curriculum. Concept maps can aid in generating ideas, designing complex structures, or communicating complex ideas. Post-up can gather ideas from large groups, numbering from the dozens to the hundreds. Shark Tank, College Style 3. . What? Swords and sorcery not your thing? Actually, yeah, on that note -- probably none of them should be Star Wars themed. Youll want to contact your schools facilities department about availability. So, contact local restaurants and food trucks about offering easy finger foods. Host a workshop where students can make their own dorm room decor think plant hangers, terrariums, or recycled frames for their art. Performances might include a virtual component as part of an in-person show or be adapted specifically for a digital format. Lawn games, music, volleyball & s'mores! Check out these team-building activities for college students to try in 2021! These activities involve games, team building exercises and interactive assignments. If youve never done it, youd be amazed at how relaxing it is. Adorable dogs. And students in traditional classes were 1.5 times more likely to fail than those being taught with interactive methods. Test how well students can apply their understanding of an issue or theoretical position. Brainstorming can help define an issue, diagnose a problem, or possible solutions and resistance to proposed solutions. Students write down one idea per sheet, in any order. Give students free 10 minute massages and the line will be out the door. Pair up or group students to compare notes and fill in gaps. Click here to learn more about how ArtistHub can help you book entertainment for your next campus event. Generally, laddering up toward the general allows expansion into new areas while laddering down focuses on specific aspects of these areas. If a room is dark look for ways to make it lighter. Students looking for their first job, a summer internship, or a part-time gig can bring their resumes and do a series of quick interviews.
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