Experiential Learning in Academic Classes

1. Experiential Learning in Academic Classes Go Small Go Big Go Home

2. What experiential education is not. • Just a hodgepodge of ropes course activities and get to know me/teamwork games that aren’t ever directed towards cognitive learning or academic skills/content. • Something that must be done outside or off campus and at great expense. • The answer to all our needs and issues in academics and the only tool you should ever use in teaching. • A replacement for all the approaches and activities experienced teachers have developed over the years.

3. What is experiential education? • You will have one minute to quietly consider this question. (Ed will be the time keeper) • Then turn to someone next to you. • Take one minute each to express what you think experiential education is. • Be ready to report on what your partner said in NO MORE than a sentence or two.

4. Here are some signs that what you are doing is experiential education! You do a lot of planning before class, but during class, the kids do the work. You spend less time talking during class and more time watching, coaching, taking notes, making suggestions, and asking questions. Students spend less time taking notes during class and more time doing things and interacting with each other. If a student is missing, it affects the class. Students are informing you about concepts & ideas rather than you telling them. Students are building, testing, discussing, creating, exploring, researching… Students are engaging, questioning, listening to, supporting, and collaborating, with each other…….the group is better than any individual could be. Students are up moving around and interacting with each other. Students are asking questions and making connections that overlap several disciplines and connect to their personal frame of knowledge. Students can tell you how what they are doing connects to what they already know, to other disciplines, and to their daily lives. The students want more time on an activity. Students who struggle with memorizing and test taking start to “get it” and students who are good test takers have to develop new skills and stretch themselves.

5. John Dewey first expressed the idea of experiential education as a process of learning from well designed experiences in a simple three step formula: - frontload the experience begin by immersing students in a brief experience, assessing previous knowledge, reading then discuss/define, reviewing, and/or a mini-lecture, etc. - have the main experience 5 to 25 minutes in a 40 to 90 minute period – active whole class activity, small group exploration/activity, either this or that, think/pair/share, etc. 90 minutes or more – a “problem (project)-based” exploration, a “learning expedition”, a “constructivist” project, a “place – based experience”, etc. - reflect on the experience written reflection/report/presentation, discussion, relate to former working knowledge, construct a new framework for use, make predictions, etc.

6. What experiential education can provide. • The opportunity for students to employ other modes of learning (tactile, interpersonal, etc.) and multiple intelligences (Howard Gardner). • Relevancy to their daily lives, an actual place, and the real world. • Deeper, multi-faceted understanding and personal constructs of knowledge. • Improved communication and group/teamwork skills. • Breaks up the routine (especially in 90 minute periods!) • Everyone in the class has a significant/unique role, not just the teacher. It matters if a student is missing!!

8. One option- Go small- games used to restructure how content/skills are approached-> can be used within existing educational frameworks5 -20 minutes Either this or that Maze Find someone who…. Find someone who...... Toss the ball An active quizBonding mixer “Take Away” cards

9. Option two – Go small to big - activities designed around a topic ->Here’s how I categorize types of activities - 5 minutes, an entire class, multiple classes Analogy – how we begin to understand Birthday activity Simulated – representing reality in a tangible form Help Mendeleev! Real – considering/using it in an actual situation Predict Properties periodic tableof new elements

10. Examples of my levels of experiential activities- each level brings new possibilities for integration Analogy Activity • How is a cell like a factory? • How are students walking around campus like electrons in the quantum atom? • How is estimating rice grains in a bag like estimating the number of atoms in a sample? Simulated Activity • Going inside a giant cell. • Getting a recipe in Spanish and buying food to cook it at a “classroom store”. • Games like “either this or that” or an experiential quiz. • A “senate panel” hearing presentations for/against a proposed nuclear reactor. • Playing a game called "Oh, Deer" in which students run around outside, pretending to be deer and resources in order to model (and collect data on ) competition, adaptations, and natural selection in natural populations.    • Design a new country based on what you have learned about other countries. Real or Problem-Based Activity • Exploring what organic compounds are and how we can divide them into categories. • Going to a tienda and actually shopping your recipe or using the Spanish self check out at Ingles then cooking it and speaking Spanish as you eat. • Visiting the landfill then keeping a “waste journal”. • Learning anatomy and physiology while getting CPR certification. • A presentation comparing pre-civil war U. S. slavery to that in a Spanish speaking country. • Forestry Plot Study or Stream Study and developing a presentation and/or recommendation based on findings. • Exploring an issue and preparing a pamphlet and/or Wiki for a local NGO.

11. Two approaches to experiential education in a 90 minute period • Use them as part of a larger flow of activities (go small) Possible flow for 90 minutes • 10 minutes – review recent topics (could be experiential, a quiz, review of homework, etc.) • 15 minutes – mini-lecture to introduce a topic and a related experiential activity • 30 minutes – experiential activity and group reflection/summary of activity • 20 minutes – whole class reflects on activity and synthesizes new ideas with previous knowledge through discussion and follow-up lecture - 15 minutes – follow activities to practice/implement new skills

12. 5- 30 minute activities formats Either this or that Maze Find someone who…. Toss the ball An active quizBonding mixer An analogy activity EquilibriumWhat's in the box? A simulated activity Isotope activityLet's Go Fishing! Relationships between Composition, Structure, and Properties A real activityWater bottle activity

13. Two approaches to experiential education in a 90 minute period 2. Use them as the entire period or multiple periods – Go Big Constructivist(CL)– constructing a new understanding of an idea or topic through an activity (analogy, simulated, or real), a lab, a research project etc. Constructivism websiteOrganic Discovery Lab Problem-based learning (PBL)– researching and fleshing out an answer to a stated problem Problem-based websiteA nuclear reactor in your town? Go Home (can be used with CL, EL, and PBL)- Place-Based Learning- make the community a part of your study, use community experts to consult or serve on a panel, do community projects, and field trips influenza websitearchives - inf.pdfA nuclear reactor in your town? Expeditionary Learning (EL) – allowing students to choose a question or topic to pursue within a given subject Expeditionary Learning PDF - Group cooperative structures should include roles… - Consider structures like Jigsaw, Three Stay One Stray, etc.

14. JIGSAW - Groups with four or five students are set up. Each group member is assigned some unique material to learn, practice, or research and then to teach to or share with his group members. To help in the learning process, students across the class working on the same sub-section get together to decide what is important and how to teach it. After practice in these "expert" groups the original groups reform and students teach each other. Three Stay One Stray-Thisstructure requires the identification of a team member who will become the group’s spokesperson. A problem is posed and after problem solving discussions are complete a designated student will "stray." That is, one student from each group leaves and rotates to an adjoining team to give the report. The designated student shares with this new team the results of his original group's discussion, giving proposed solutions to problems or summarizing discussions. A second rotation may be desirable if the topic prompted divergent thinking and solutions.

15. Assessment for experiential education activities You should include assessment for any experiential activities lasting more than a few minutes Assessments should include formative and summative aspects - Formative/Process – how students do along the way: how they hit intermediate goals, how they problem solve how they work as a group - most likely using a rubric or checklist - Summative – a culminating assessment including: a) individual accountability a written test, lab, oral exam format, or paper for content, reflection piece b) an authentic group product/assessment – a presentation or a tangible product for a specific audience: a simulated city councilora faculty &/or community expert panel; a Wiki; a presentation/product to give to a school or NGO; an actual test of new skills such as a CPR exam

16. Peer Evaluation

17. Getting Started Get together for a colleague or new friend for 5 minutes to start brainstorming/sharing ideas Be ready to give a couple of ideas for how you might use Experiential Education in your classes