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.
Earth System Topics
- Atmosphere 7 matches
- Biosphere 8 matches
- Climate 7 matches
- Earth's Cycles 1 match rock cycle, hydrologic cycle, carbon cycle and nitrogen cycle
- Evolution 1 match
- Geography 1 match
- Human Dimensions 10 matches
- Hydrology 3 matches
- Oceans 4 matches
- Solar System and Astronomy 5 matches
- Solid Earth 11 matches
- Surface Processes 2 matches
- Time/Earth History 4 matches
Results 11 - 20 of 31 matches
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. -
An Activity to Introduce the Geoscience Perspective part of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Role Playing:Examples
This role-playing exercise introduces students to geology by having them examine rocks from the perspective of a child, a sculptor, a geologist or someone from another walk of life. -
Science in the Courtroom: The Woburn Toxic Trial part of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Role Playing:Examples
In this exercise, hydrology students role-play expert witnesses in a mock trial dealing with contamination of groundwater. -
Exploration to Mars... or Not? An Exercise with Split-Screen Electronic Peer Review part of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Peer Review:Examples
This is a split-screen electronic peer review exercise where students justify whether or not we should continue our exploration of Mars. -
Jurassic Park Debate part of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Role Playing:Examples
This role-playing exercise casts students as scientific specialists, assigned to a group either supporting or opposing the cloning of dinosaurs. Each group researches and presents its argument. -
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 ...
MER (Mars Exploration Rover ) Landing Site Selection part of Cutting Edge:Discoveries from Mars:Activities
Via a jigsaw role-playing exercise in which students become geologists, astrobiologists and engineers, real data and available constrains are used to identify landing sites for the MER rovers. A debate format is ...
Mars Landing Site Selection: An exercise in reading geologic maps and other geologic data sets part of Cutting Edge:Discoveries from Mars:Activities
Students use available Mars data to select the next rover landing sites, given appropriate engineering, geologic and biologic constraints. -
Determining the Geologic History of Rocks from a Gravel Deposit part of Examples
Gravels deposited as a result of continental glaciation are used to teach introductory-level earth-science students the application of the scientific method in a cooperative learning mode which utilizes hands-on, ...
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
