College courses typically end with a silent and solitary final exam for each student. In this talk, we’ll consider ending semesters with an “epic finale” instead. While a standard exam can be given during any class period, we’ll discuss the benefits of ending with experiential, celebratory, and even mysterious culminating activities. This talk will include examples of epic finales, guidelines for crafting your own, and the ways in which virtual reality technology might make these more broadly available.

1. Creating Epic Finale
Final Exams Using Play and Games
Tony Crider
Elon University
@acrider

2. 20172017

5. 20072007

6. 20072007

7. 20072007

9. 20182018

14. Lev
Horodyskyj

15. Nick
Yee

16. Carl Sagan’s
Contact
Frank Drake’s
Equation
Enrico Fermi’s
Paradox

17. Interdisciplinary, Team-taught
Sophomore Honors Seminar
Life in the Universe

18. TEACHING
as the ART of
STAGING
A SCENARIO-BASED COLLEGE PEDAGOGY IN ACTION
ANTHONY WESTON
Foreword by [to come]
Anthony Weston

19. sage on the stage
guide on the side
impressario with a scenario

20. FINAL EXAM
THE MONOLITH

21. And wear comfortable shoes!
Syllabus for
Life in the Universe

24. 30 minutes

25. 1 hour

26. 1.5 hours

27. 2 hours

29. FINAL EXAM
ANIMAL PLANET

32. THE KICK ASTRONAUTS (2012)

33. THE AURORANS (2012)

34. FINAL EXAM
THE WORMHOLE

37. Colonnades D
aka William W. Staley Hall
aka STEM Living Learning Community

42. FINAL EXAM
LANDING PARTY

53. How do
you grade
this?!?

54. How would you all have reacted
to this on the first day of class?

55. …and articulates a rationale for
appropriate actions by the student
LEVEL 3
…that reflects learningLEVEL 2
appropriate statement or questionLEVEL 1
LEVEL 0 inappropriate behavior or statement
…with evidence of impact
from beyond the classroom
LEVEL 4
Our Experiential Exam Rubric

56. BONUS ACTIVITY
HIDDEN MESSAGES

57. CALL ME PROFESSOR PLUM

60. A few days later…

63. THIS IS A MESSAGE.

64. …and articulates a rationale for
appropriate actions by the student
LEVEL 3
…that reflects learningLEVEL 2
appropriate statement or questionLEVEL 1
LEVEL 0 inappropriate behavior or statement
…with evidence of impact
from beyond the classroom
LEVEL 4
Our Experiential Exam Rubric

65. •Low Stakes
•Collaboration
•Something New
•Mystery
•Awesomeness

66. A LIVELY ELECTRONIC COMPENDIUM OF RESEARCH, NEWS, RESOURCES, AND OPINION
Astronomy Education Review2012, AER, 11, 010202-1, 10.3847/AER2012033
Experiential Education on the Edge: SETI Activities for
the College Classroom
Anthony Crider
Department of Physics, Elon University, Elon, North Carolina 27244
Anthony Weston
Department of Philosophy, Elon University, Elon, North Carolina 27244
Received: 08/13/12, Accepted: 08/29/12, Published: 10/4/12
VC 2012 The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
Abstract
In a sophomore-level, interdisciplinary honors class, we introduced students to the Search for Extraterrestrial
Intelligence through assigned readings, student presentations, classroom discussions, and multiple experiential
activities. In this paper, we present four of these novel experiential activities. In the first, students suddenly find
themselves trying to make contact with an unknown person who is simultaneously trying to contact them. The
second is a course-long role-playing exercise patterned after a “first contact” simulation held annually at the
CONTACT: Culture of the Imagination conferences. The third and fourth are parts of a unique final exam where
students must respond as a group to two surreal encounters, one being a “2001”-style monolith that shows up, as
in the film, entirely without warning or instructions. For the final, we also developed an assessment rubric
appropriate for this kind of open-ended test. We conclude by discussing recommendations for implementing
similar experiential education activities, both specifically and in spirit, in other classes.
1. INTRODUCTION
In the spring of 2012, the two of us—an astronomer and a philosopher—team-taught a sophomore honors class
entitled “Life in the Universe” at Elon University. This essay is an account of some of the more venturesome
experiential education activities we created, of some of the (hopefully) useful insights we came to as a result,
and, along the way, what may be the most awesome final exam in the history of final exams.
Elon is a private university in North Carolina with approximately 5000 undergraduates. Each year,
approximately 50 entering freshmen are selected to be in the Honors Fellows program. During the first two years,
these students are split into two honors classes each semester. The sophomore-level honors classes are
interdisciplinary in nature and team-taught by two professors.
There are many definitions of “team-teaching.” One model would be a single class section taught by multiple

67. Welcome, citizen!
You have some decisions to make.
You must make them together.
If you are one of the first 6 people to exit the room, you earn a C.
If you are one of the next 7 people to exit the room, you earn a B.
If you are one of the last 6 people to exit the room, you earn an A.
Anyone still in the room in one hour will earn an F.
AFTER EXITING QUARANTINE REPORT TO THE BPAC LOBBY.

68. Mark Carnes

69. REACTING BOOKS

71. 20122012

72. 20132013

75. Creating Epic Finale
Final Exams Using Play and Games
Tony Crider
Elon University
@acrider