LOSE THE LECTURE

Nobel Prize winning physicist Dr. Carl Wieman once found that a mere 10% of students remember information they received in a lecture a mere 20 minutes before. These pedagogical alternatives help teachers put the students to the center of the action. Browse libraries of similarly themed activity collections inside of the blue section located just below, or scroll down to the white section to explore an ever-expanding array of totally unique ways to Lose The Lecture  that you can start using right away.

LOSE THE LECTURE COLLECTIONS:

Emc2 Resources

Big Sheet Showdowns

Sometimes the best way to break up what otherwise might have been a traditional sit-and-get lecture is to think big! The Big Sheet Showdown collection offers teachers all kinds of creative ways to get students up and moving in your classroom using oversized anchor charts.

Devilish Debates

Any parent of a two-year-old or a teenager will be quick to tell you that our kids really love to argue. But helping young people craft arguments that are more than just bluster can be a bit of a challenge for any teachers of any content area. This resource collection helps students hone their argumentative abilities.

Hero Builder

Which of these two approaches sounds more engaging: “Reading long-form unit introductions with the sole intent of memorizing random dates, facts, and unfamiliar vocabulary words?” Or “Crafting your very own historical avatar to prepare for an epic quest?” You can feel the difference, right? Welcome to Hero Builder.

Hexagon Hunters

With Hexagon Hunters, teachers can quickly transform *any* lesson plan into a showdown of student-centered strategies and problem solving. This handy hexagonal approach to small group learning uses an interactive board game approach to put students squarely in the driver’s seat. Simply print, project, and play!

QR BreakIns

Picture a class escape room… in reverse! Student teams working through a series of modular challenges in an effort to crack the code on your course content. This fully-editable collection of QR Break In activities helps teachers turn any old-school-centers activity into a pulse-pounding competition.

Reality TV Roundups

In the Reality TV Roundups collection, the only thing more exciting than student-centered creativity is the *drama* that awaits. In this lineup, your pupils become producers with the chance to re-cast their favorite TV shows with brand new celebrity stars inspired by your course content. Binge your favorite series with a click!

Rehash Rally

Working on retrieval practices with your students and want them to mix the current unit and past units? Take your students for a spin with this resource that will have them recalling all sorts of info in a fun and fast paced way. These make great activities before long breaks like winter recess!

RPG Dice Roll Rumble

Looking for a way to level up your classroom activities? Meet the RPG Dice Roll Rumble, the ultimate gamified learning adventure that turns any subject into an epic quest! Transform ordinary lessons into extraordinary experiences, with small groups battling bosses through up to five sequential activity stations at their own pace.

Scramble Centers

Not quite ready for a full-blown QR Break In? No sweat. To quote The Six Million Dollar Man: “We can make him better than he was. Better, stronger, faster.” Scramble Centers combines the most engaging elements of the QR Break In with a streamlined, quick-design interface for even faster lesson planning.

Socratic Seminar Upgrades

In ancient Greece, Socrates was regarded as the wisest teacher ever to have lived. But not because he pretended to have all of the answers. Rather — the “Socratic Method” was a series of well-timed questions that forced the wiseman’s students to explain their thinking. This collection helps teachers do the same.

Suit Strategies

Grab a deck of cards and shuffle up some serious student engagement! Suit Strategies turns everyday lessons into high-stakes showdowns of skill and strategy. Teams earn, wager, and win their way to victory—testing brains, nerve, and teamwork in every round. Pick a theme and deal out a low prep alternative to your ordinary lecture.

Sundown Showdown

Sundown Showdown is a multi-day pedagogy inspired by the long-running reality TV juggernaut series “Survivor.” Only in this series, your students won’t be competing in physical challenges and voting one another off of the island — they’ll be engaging in a daily battle of wits against their classmates and rival tribes!

Station 2 Station

Teachers often talk about the difference between “Centers” (a loose collection of related activities that students can visit as they wish) and “Stations” (a fixed collection of activities that you want to make sure that every student completes). Station 2 Station shows you how to turn the latter into a total game changer.

Territory Takedown

This is a fantastic activity that will have students giving you a TON of content. The premise is simple, and the action is epic: students answer questions to earn the right to lay claim to different spaces on a massively oversized game map. The action is larger than life, which makes Territory Takedown a big hit for content acquisition or review!

Text Quest

One simple pedagogy + Three small choices = Limitless classroom potential. Text Quest is a step-by-step lesson planning framework that show helps teachers transform any day’s instruction into an interactive Role Playing Game — with your students gleefully digging for relevant text evidence in hopes to win the game.

EVEN MORE WAYS TO LOSE THE LECTURE:


Each resource in this collection is totally unique to itself, and can easily be used as a replacement or a single day’s lecture or multiple classes in a row.

Zodiac Trials

Step into the Zodiac Trials—a classroom adventure where students become celestial heroes. With sign-based powers, team challenges, and Star Shards to earn, this flexible activity brings strategy, story, and excitement to any subject. Curious how it works? Explore the full guide and bring the cosmos to your classroom!

All Dice On Deck

Set sail on a high-energy classroom adventure with All Dice on Deck! In this fast-paced game, students use dice as ships, play cards, and race to activate special powers while mastering course content. Easy to learn and endlessly replayable, this resource blends strategy, luck, and learning into one unforgettable voyage.

Civolution

Step into Civolution. Part Civilization, part Sim City, this epic resource is a gamified “second skin” for your classroom. Rival dynasties rise, tech trees unfold, and achievements await—perfect for teachers ready to push their gamification experience to the next level.

Sunken Secrets

Have your students dive right into content they have never seen before. They will be searching for sunken secrets and with each they pull up to the surface they will need to share some details about with you. This is a great one you should try with your students today!

LIEwitness News

Step into the fast-paced world of LIEwitness News, where student teams create investigative reports—some factual, others fictional—and it’s up to their peers to determine what’s true and what’s a clever fib. Perfect for critical thinking and learning new content!

Microlab Matinee

We’ve all had those days where we inevitably end up showing a movie in class. But sustaining student engagement through a full length film can be a trick. So kick back, relax, and let the Microlab Matinee turn your movie day into a must-see showcase of student learning!

Overlap Overload

In Overlap Overload, it’s everything Venn — again and again! This deceptively simple approach to content review or acquisition will push your students to examine (and re-examine) your course content through a series of overlapping lenses and ramp up the rigor!

X Factor Frenzy

Ready to tap into students’ hidden potential? We call these incredible powers the “X factor.” And just like in mathematics, where “X” represents the unknown, here it symbolizes the unique and limitless potential that lies within each of us. Unleash your genius!

ICEE Paragraphs

Writing a rock solid body paragraph takes a ton of practice. It can be so hard to tell just what information to include and when! Thankfully, that’s where ICEE Paragraphs can help us keep cool every time. Give a click to help your students learn the recipe for success!

Sneaky Peaks

Traditional sustained silent reading can often feel you’re trying to make students make their way up an impossible mountain. But Sneaky Peaks adds a blast of strategy and a base camp of team-against-team competition to take any ho-hum reading assignment to new heights.

Pyramid Pass and Dash

What happens when Crossfit meets the classroom? The Pyramid Pass and Dash is home to ancient tombs, blazing hot weather and blinding sandstorms. And to conquer these challenges, your students will need teamwork, mental flexibility, and all kinds of intellectual stamina.

CODE BREAKERS

Want a great way to teach students how to take notes, learn the material, review a document, work through the text book. Well look no further. Check out Code Breakers for a fun way to explore just about any text.

Taco Burger Toss Up

Taco Burger Toss Up is a brilliant balancing act that puts an instant upgrade on Venn Diagrams. Because for as helpful as those time-tested graphic organizers can be, there really is so much more nuance to be had from standard compare and contrast activities.

Imagination Station

Kick classroom creativity into high gear with the EMC² Learning Imagination Station! In this team against team challenge, your students will have the opportunity to showcase their outside-the-box thinking and practice all sorts of spontaneous problem solving.

Beat the Bot

Think you’ve got what it takes to Beat the Bot? This clever game of close reading and deduction will challenge your students to develop “an eye for A.I.” as they try to separate what’s authentic from what’s artificial. And there’s no ChatGPT required to use it!

Sundown Showdown: Season 3

It’s lights out for Sundown Showdown, and time to celebrate Moonlight Madness! This third season of this gamified pedagogy works just as well as a stand-alone resource or as an expansion to Seasons 1 and 2 — and features 12 all new plug-and-play activities!

The Firm

Want your kids looking at content in a different way? Well here is a great chance for you to do just that. Teams of students will act as junior lawyers at the Firm and they will be building a case for or against some bit of your content with the use of one of six different legal strategies.

Slapdash Slideshow

Typically when a person uses the word “Slapdash” to describe a project, the remark is intended to be anything but a compliment. But don’t worry: Slapdash Slideshow gives students the chance to work together as a team to slap something together that’s truly impressive!
Emc2 Resources