On Campus Blog

How an "active learning" class differs from others

Back in August, I posted a few bits on the University of Minnesota's new Science Teaching and Student Services building, and now MPR's Tim Post has gone in and experienced a biology lesson in one of its "active learning" classrooms first-hand.

Seems cool -- interactive technology, a professor who acts like a motivational speaker, an arrangement more dinner party than biology lecture.

As Robin Wright, an associate biology dean, tells Post:

"You can't fall asleep, you can't work on the Sudoku, you can't relax and wait until the night before the exam to do something," Wright said. "It's not necessarily the norm, or what they're used to."

Read the full story, watch the slide show and listen to the audio here.