Submit an Activity

This form is for use by SERC partners who are building activity sheets as part of our collaborative work. Filling out this form is the first step in creating an activity sheet.

More Information on Authoring Activity Sheets (opens in new window)

About Activity Sheets

Activity sheets are one page summaries of teaching activities in a standardized format. Teaching activities in this context includes everything from a 5 minute in-class exercise to an extended student project. The goal of the activity sheet is to concisely communicate to other faculty what the key elements of the activity are so that they can adapt the activity for their own environment; or perhaps use it as a source of inspiration and good ideas.

Activity sheets are 'embedded' within a module that describes, in general terms, the what, why and how of a particular teaching method. The activities serve to illustrate, in a concrete way, how the particular method might play out in the classroom (or lab, or...). So the activity sheet should describe the activity from the perspective of the relevant method.

In some cases an activity sheet may contain all the materials necessary to conduct the activity; students handouts, instructors notes and the like can be embedded in the page as downloadable files. In some cases the activity sheet may draw heavily on materials available elsewhere with links or bibliographic references provided as appropriate. In some cases an activity sheet may describe an activity that has been documented elsewhere: either on the web, or in print. In all cases faculty will benefit from the standardized format which allows them to efficiently skim a large number of examples to find those most relevant to their needs. And in the later cases where an activity sheet is based largely or in part on pre-existing materials the creation of the activity sheet creates a bridge between the existing material and the teaching method information.

Authors retain copyright over the materials they submit. However, by submitting your activity you are agreeing to share it under a Creative Commons license (opens in new window) that allows others to reuse your materials for non-commercial purposes as long as they give attribution and share any derivative work similarly.

Accessibility: Activities are most impactful if they are accessible to all learners. We encourage you to submit materials that follow current best practices around accessibility. While our system will attempt to present your activity as an accessible web page, only you can ensure the accessibility of any files you've uploaded. Our accessibility guidelines (opens in new window/tab) are a good place to learn more about making the content you create accessible.





Activity Title

The title should be evocative of the main point(s) of the activity. It needs to communicate the full context of the activity on its own as it will show up in places like search returns (e.g. Google) where people won't have any contextual clues. So it should convey the idea that this is a teaching activity, what the subject matter is and what the relevant pedagogical focus is. For example: Solar Radiation: Sample Socratic Questions




Type of Activity






Appropriate Grade Level(s)










Activity Duration





Readiness for use in Online Learning





Author

Name and institution of author(s) of the activity and any other appropriate attribution information. If the page is based on materials originally created elsewhere that should be noted with attribution given to the original authors and links provided to the original materials.


For example: This page authored by Jon Smith, Big State University, based on an original activity by Jane Smith, Smallville College.


Email

Email addresses of the activity author(s) separated by commas. These will not be displayed in the activity page but are used for internal tracking. Include only the authors who are directly involved in submitting/authoring this particular activity.



Summary

This text should make it clear what the activity is. It should provide an overview of the things that students will do and the intended outcomes. The description should be concise and compelling: typically no more than 1-2 very brief paragraphs.

For Example

In this biology lab, students investigate whether goldenrod gall fly larvae collected from restored prairie area are different from larvae collected from a small native prairie 10 km away. They look for biochemical differences in proteins using cellulose acetate electrophoresis. Students determine the genotype of each gall fly; students compare the combined class' genotypes for the two groups of gall flies statistically using chi-square analysis. Students read a related scientific paper and discuss it in a subsequent lab session. Students write a full lab report describing their results using standard scientific paper formatting. A detailed description of this format and the writing process is provided.



Goals

What concepts and content should students learn from this activity? Are there higher-order thinking skills (e.g. critical thinking, data analysis, synthesis of ideas, model development) that are developed by this activity? Are there other skills (writing, oral presentation, field techniques, equipment operation, etc.) that are developed by the activity.



Context for Use

This text should help faculty understand the types of teaching situations for which this activity is appropriate. Important types of context include educational level, class size, institution type, etc. Is it lab, lecture, or field exercise, or a longer project? How much time is needed for the activity. Is there special equipment that is necessary? Are there skills or concepts that students should have already mastered before encountering this activity? How is this activity situated in the course? How easy (or hard) would it be to adapt the activity for use in other settings?





Activity Description and Teaching Materials

This section should include a narrative describing the mechanics of the activity and all the materials needed to implement the activity (or links and references to those materials).

  • If the material is available on another site please provide the full url.
  • If you have the materials in hand they can be uploaded using the fields below and they will be embedded in the final page so that they can be downloaded.
  • If they are published print materials please provide a complete bibliographic reference.
  • If the activity is fully documented at another site please provide the url along with a brief (one or two sentence) description of the other site.

For all materials include, in the box below, a brief description of each item covering what it is and what its role is in the activity.

If you upload files as part of your activity remember to consider their final use in deciding on appropriate formats. Materials that other faculty are likely to modify should be provided in easily editable formats (plain text, Word files), whereas materials that will be likely only used verbatim are most convenient in formats that are universally readable (PDF format is often a good choice).

Once this form has been submitted we can work with you to integrate the downloadable files into the text of this section.

Please be sure all materials you upload can be freely redistributed. For more information about copyright as it applies to materials you are sharing through this site please check our more detailed discussion (opens in a new window) of this issue.



If you have more than 5 files include the first 5 here. After completing this form you will have the opportunity to edit the resulting web page and be able to upload additional files at that point.

Teaching Notes

This section should include notes and tips for instructors who might use the activity. Information such as common areas of confusion, things that need reinforcement, safety guidelines and other practical tips, and pointers for making the best use of the activity are appropriate. Note that this section should complement, rather than repeat, the more general guidance about the teaching method provided in the methods module of which this activity is a part.



Assessment

This section should describe how the author determines whether or not students (either individually or collectively) are achieving the learning goals outlined for the activity. Other relevant assessment strategies may also be described in this section.



Resources

This section should include references and links to online resources that discuss the specific activity or will support faculty and/or students using the activity. References related to the general teaching technique should not be included here, but should be recommended for inclusion in the associated module.

Web resources should include both the url and a brief description of the site (and why it is relevant). Print resource should include basic citation information as well as a brief description of the resource.



Short Description

The short description should be a distillation of the summary above. This description will be displayed in search returns. The optimal length for this description is on the order of 1-2 sentences.









After you submit this form it will vetted by our staff (mostly to weed out spam) and then made into a web page (via an automated process). Once this web page is available we will let you know the url via email. If you wish you will then be able to update and correct the resulting page. More detail about this process will be included in the notification email and can be found here