Education research has shown that interactive activities increase student learning gains (e.g., Hake, 1998). Earth science courses are incorporating more interactive activities, such as the use of clickers, lecture tutorials, and other learner-centered activities into the classes. When students actively participate, rather than simply passively listening, the result is deeper understanding. It is possible to be creative and flexible when creating activities to incorporate into a course and assessments can be summative or formative. Several types of interactive activities were employed in a mineralogy course for geology majors at the University of Hawaii. Mineralogy is one of the first upper level geology courses geology majors take as undergraduates. This mineralogy course included optical mineralogy. In order to help prepare the students for the optical mineralogy labs, a pre-lab was assigned. In addition to the pre-labs, students were given a PowerPoint presentation at the start of the lab with multiple choice questions that were answered using clickers. Clickers can be used as a tool to collect “real-time” data on student understanding of material. The students that had completed the pre-lab did statistically better on the clicker questions compared with the students that did not complete the pre-lab. Furthermore, the clicker questions and student responses allowed both the instructor and the students to identify areas of confusion before the lab was begun. This was particularly helpful as there were 20 students and only one teacher. Recognizing potential common problem areas and addressing these questions while the students are all invested in learning the answer increased understanding and decreased replicate questions during the lab.

Additional activities using different media were used to engage the students. For example, students were provided with play-dough, magnetic rods and balls, and a movie camera and given the assignment of creating a movie about elements and how they relate to coordination number. Another assignment was to decorate cupcakes with interference figures. Conversations with the students the following semester indicated that these activities provided the students with some of the most memorable portions of the class and resulted in long term retention of the material.