This paper is a practical how-to guide to help you start using active learning or to have greater success and more fun with it. We categorize active learning techniques as Think, Pair, Share, Composite, Group, Move, or Lead and discuss how to implement activities in each category, along with advice on creating engaging, effective, and equitable…

Escape the Math Room is a fun, interactive, sequence of puzzles designed to encourage mathematical collaboration, team work, and ingenuity. Using advanced mathematical topics in an accessible way, Escape the Math Room appropriately challenges students ranging from high school to advanced undergraduate. The activity can be adjusted by adding or…

The Euclidean Discus Toss is an active and tactile learning activity that models the extended Euclidean algorithm with a frisbee relay. The extended Euclidean algorithm involves both iterative and recursive programming and is regularly taught throughout the mathematics and computer science curricula. The Euclidean Discus Toss invites students to…

To identify clicker questions likely to provoke rich and engaging student discussions, we recorded the percentage of the class voting on each option on every clicker question used throughout each semester, encompassing nineteen sections of introductory statistics, taught by three instructors. Working from the hypothesis that seeing student votes…

This article presents an experience in teaching mathematical thinking through games in a math course for non-science majors. The course described here has run twice on the campus of Sam Houston State University and is a combination of escape room pedagogy and game-based pedagogy. From these courses, I note an increased engagement of students with…

As studies repeatedly show the benefits of students participating in undergraduate research, off-campus research opportunities have become increasingly competitive. In order to provide our students with research experiences, students from Murray State University and Centre College engaged in a year-long cross-institutional undergraduate research…

We describe a lecture-free problem-solving Mathematical Communication and Reasoning (MCR) course that helps students succeed in the Introduction to Advanced Mathematics course. The MCR course integrates elements from Uri Treisman's Emerging Scholars workshop model and Math Circles. In it students solve challenging problems and form a supportive…

We discuss two proof evaluation activities meant to promote the acquisition of learning behaviors of professional mathematics within an introductory undergraduate proof-writing course. These learning behaviors include the ability to read and discuss mathematics critically, reach a consensus on correctness and clarity as a group, and verbalize what…

Students often view their role as that of a replicator, rather than a creator, of mathematical arguments. We aimed to engage our students more fully in the creation process, helping them to see themselves as legitimate proof creators. In this paper, we describe an instructional activity (i.e., the "group proof activity") that is…

We describe how faculty and staff used improvement science design Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles and engaged in interdisciplinary conversations in an effort to improve students' performance in introductory mathematics courses. This initiative started with College Algebra a course with a large enrollment of students that had a high failure rate.…

In the context of national collaborative efforts to increase the prevalence of active learning strategies in undergraduate precalculus and calculus classrooms, we discuss the context, strategy, and processes used at one university to create change within a mathematics department. We highlight the use of a unified active learning approach and the…

As students learn to problem solve in authentic situations, they must also develop metacognitive tools to manage and regulate their problem-solving process. To foster process-focused metacognition utilized by mathematical thinkers and problem solvers, inquiry-based learning classroom practices and an adapted version of portfolio problems were…

This paper describes the development and implementation of course modules intended to encourage creative thinking in an undergraduate general education mathematics course. The modules were designed to address the characteristics of creativity outlined in the literature through explorations of mathematics relevant to non-mathematics majors. A…

Large lecture halls are a common feature of many undergraduate mathematics programs. However, teaching effectively in a large lecture hall can be challenging. This paper discusses the use of personal whiteboards for students as a way to make large lecture halls a more productive learning environment. I discuss the logistics of using whiteboards,…

This paper is written to provide ideas and guide faculty who want to design a mathematical modeling course for undergraduate mathematics majors and minors. We discuss course goals, assignments, and projects that can be used to help students gain experience relevant for careers and mathematical modeling opportunities. The authors designed this…