Novel Approaches to Teaching Aging and Disability: Active Learning Through Design and Exploration

Active learning emphasizes student engagement and collaboration instead of more passive learning, which involves primarily listening to lectures in the classroom setting. The benefits of active learning are many with an emphasis on the expansion of higher-order processing and critical thinking skills. Active learning can be found in many best practice approaches in the Medicine, Science, Engineering, and Mathematics (MSTEM) fields. Hack-a-thon and hack events are examples of active learning. These are gaining popularity in research institutes, and specifically in engineering, computer science, business, and healthcare settings. Wikipedia defines hack-a-thon as the blending of the words “hack,” referring to exploratory programming, and “marathon,” referring to a timed event. This article describes a hack-a-thon approach for active learning in the classroom setting.