Cooperative Exercises and Examples
There are lots of ways to use cooperative learning in your classroom. These links will take you to other areas of the Starting Point site with resources that can be adapted using the techniques of cooperative learning.
- Indoor Labs: especially if a written report is involved
- Outdoor Labs: again, especially if they do a written report
- Independent Research Projects: works well with jigsawing, can involve data or models
- Peer Review: works well with pairs
- Jigsaws: this structured format lets each team member prepare separate but related assignments, then share their work with peer teaching
- Interactive Cases: these open-ended investigations require cooperation
- Team Games: you'll want to add individual accountability
- Interactive Role-Playing: scenarios and roles can be written to ensure that all students are part of cooperative teams
- Reviewing journal articles: You may want to create interdependence by assigning several articles and give different ones to different group members.
- Studio Courses: Traditional courses can be reorganized into a more student-centered model (see also Williamson and Rowe, 2002 and Savarese, 1988 ).
Below, you can browse through examples of cooperative learning that have already been developed. You can use them "as is" or let them serve as models for you to develop your own.
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Earth System Topics
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- Ecology 6 matches
Biosphere
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Transnational Pollution: Why Are You Dumping on Me? part of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Role Playing:Examples
The purpose of this lesson is to familiarize students with the different types of transnational pollution, by having them role-play in a hypothetical disaster on the Danube River. -
Human Impacts on Sharks: Developing an Essay Through Peer-Review on a Discussion Board part of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Peer Review:Examples
Through a discussion board, students comment and respond to paper topics on the human impacts on sharks. -
Environmental Assessment Course part of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Campus-Based Learning:Examples
The classic campus-based project is an environmental or sustainability assessment, often referred to as an environmental audit. This course, taught at Carleton in 2001, describes how this type of project can be ...
Investigative Case - "European Starlings and Woodpeckers" part of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Investigative Case Based Learning:Examples
An exploration into Niche Competition and Population Ecology
Calibrated Peer Review: Discovering Dinosaurs part of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Peer Review:Examples
In this activity, students write an essay on the history of scientific discoveries in the field of dinosaur paleontology. -
Student Peer Review Through A Discussion Board to Develop an Invasive Species Paper part of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Peer Review:Examples
Through a discussion board, students comment and respond to paper topics on invasive species. -
The High Plains: Land of Extremes part of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Role Playing:Examples
This lesson plan includes a debate about whether the black-footed ferret should be reintroduced onto public lands and a study of the High Plains habitat. -
Writing about the world's fisheries (Calibrated Peer Review) part of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Peer Review:Examples
A writing assignment that asks students to summarize the findings of the Pew Ocean Commission report "America's Living Oceans, contrast it to an opposing viewpoint, and recommend a fisheries policy based ...




