Gallery Walk

This material was originally created for Starting Point:Introductory Geology
and is replicated here as part of the SERC Pedagogic Service.

Initial Publication Date: April 29, 2005 (see revision history: 4 events)

Compiled by Mark Francek (more info) at Central Michigan University (more info)

What is Gallery Walk? --a discussion technique for active engagement

Gallery Walk gets students out of their chairs and actively involves them in synthesizing important concepts, in consensus building, in writing, and in public speaking. In Gallery Walk teams rotate around the classroom, composing answers to questions as well as reflecting upon the answers given by other groups. Questions are posted on charts or just pieces of paper located in different parts of the classroom. Each chart or "station" has its own question that relates to an important class concept. The technique closes with an oral presentation or "report out" in which each group synthesizes comments to a particular question.
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Why use Gallery Walk? --promotes higher order thinking, oral/written presentation skills, and team building

Gallery Walk is flexible and has many benefits. Gallery Walk can be organized for a simple fifteen minute ice breaker or for a week long project involving graded oral and written reports. The technique encourages students to speak and write the language of earth science rather than just hearing it from the instructor. In addition to addressing a variety of cognitive skills involving analysis, evaluation, and synthesis, Gallery Walk has the additional advantage of promoting cooperation, listening skills, and team building.
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How to use Gallery Walk? --student teams rotate between posted charts

In Gallery Walk student teams rotate to provide bulleted answers to questions posted on charts arranged around the classroom. After three to five minutes at a chart or "station" the team rotates to the next question. Gallery Walk works best with open ended questions, that is, when a problem, concept, issue, or debate can be analyzed from several different perspectives. In this section find a variety of instructional resources such as preparing students for this technique, a step by step guide for using Gallery Walk, evaluation rubrics, and challenges in implementing the technique.
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Gallery Walk examples --a variety of sample questions for a variety of earth science topics

Find examples of Gallery Walk questions for the following categories: Atmosphere, Biosphere, Climate System, Earth History and Time, Earth Surface, Energy and Cycles, Human Dimensions, Hydrosphere and Cryosphere, Oceans, Solar System, and Solid Earth. Complete sample exercises are also included for a Gallery Walk involving weather map analysis and soil morphology.
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