Active learning scavenger hunt

Use Solstice wireless sharing for a low-key active learning activity, so your students can get the hang of it and get to know each other at the same time. Gina Gibau, featured in our lead story "Learning in motion," has found that exercises like a scavenger hunt can be really effective.

In particular, she tasks students with finding objects that highlight gender differences (e.g., toys, comic strips, or greeting cards that are gendered in a particular way). In the past, they might have brought in two different types of the same thing – but today's students are more digitally connected, so she has them take pictures instead.

Using the Solstice wireless display in the classroom, Gibau's students share their findings. Most recently, the resulting discussion touched on old ways of coding gender and also newer instances where there was more fluidity than contrast (for example, in stores that no longer have "boys" and "girls" sections).

As Gibau notes, this kind of exercise is "easily adaptable to any type of course or discipline where you're wanting to have students do some pre-work prior to coming into the class and take some time to reflect on it because they will then have to present to their peers."

For an expanded version of the scavenger hunt that builds on your students' learning at each step, consider having it focus on library, museum, or departmental resources related to the material you are teaching:

1. Have an orienting visit with your librarian, curator, undergrad advisor or program director
2. Generate a list of examples you want your students to find (e.g., of a class concept or philosophy where they can choose particular objects that speak to it) or have an in-class session to generate the list together
3. Do the scavenger hunt, either as an in-class activity or an outside assignment in which groups search for objects from the list – not to mention objects that challenge the assumptions underpinning the list
4. Finish with a session where groups present their findings via Solstice (have tech savvy students assist others) and discuss them as a class

Gina Gibau honed her active learning approach as a Mosaic Faculty Fellow. Learn more about the Mosaic Initiative and active learning in general in this month's Food for Thought column.