Rachel Gillett reports that in the History and Literature Sophomore Tutorials, students are required to do three oral presentations with the help of the instructors in order to hone their public speaking and critical thinking skills.
In Animal Cognition, Dr. Irene Pepperberg's students learn how to evaluate scholarly work on animal cognition by trying to think from the animal's point of view of the experiment.
In EPS182, Professor Francis MacDonald's students take a spring break trip to Sicily to study the geology of the region. They later use this information to write mock geology journal articles.
During J-Term prior to Field Geology (EPS74), students live in the Mojave desert for almost three weeks to map different pieces of the area in groups. The data will eventually be compiled into a composite class map.
EMR16: Real-Life Statistics: Your Chance for Happiness (or Misery) is taught around real-life modules, and all major assignments apply statistical topics directly to the real-life topics.
In Sociology 157, Dan O'Brien's students choose a topic of their choice relating to the Greater Boston Area. All assignments center around this topic, culminating in a final paper that resembles an actual science paper.
This Statistics 100 project has students develop an interesting question and analyze it with either an existing dataset or an original study. Students create a poster and display their results in a setting that approximates an academic conference.
This project has students work in pairs explore the botany of Harvard Square. Students find a plant-related item to research and prepare a an abstract, a presentation, and a written report.
The entire course Reinventing Boston: The Changing American City is an active learning experience. Framed as a study of how American cities have changed, the class involves three neighborhood visits.
