F.O.R.T.E.
(Forum for Offering Ribbons of Teaching Excellence)
Adrian College Professor's Teaching & Learning Methods, Strategies, & Tips
(Forum for Offering Ribbons of Teaching Excellence)
Adrian College Professor's Teaching & Learning Methods, Strategies, & Tips
Timothy Clark
I like to send out weekly Reflections as a Google Form. These assignments list the learning objectives covered in class and/or the reading that week and ask the students to rate their current understanding of each on a scale of "N: I do not yet understand this topic," "P: I partially understand this topic," or "E: I have an excellent understanding of this topic."
There is also space at the bottom for comments or questions. I have gotten some wonderfully insightful questions from students this way and students have remarked that they enjoy the additional opportunity to ask questions (especially open-ended questions or questions they felt embarrassed about asking).
The rating scale is kept simple to make sure these assignments are short and easy to complete - ideally taking less than 5 minutes. The goal is to keep students informed of what we covered and help them briefly reflect on their current understanding consistently throughout the semester. This is intended to build good learning habits and promote self-efficacy, metacognition, and growth mindsets.
Participation is encouraged by having Reflections account for a small portion of the overall grade. Credit is awarded upon completion and students can miss 2 Reflections with no penalty.
A huge advantage of implementing Reflections via Google Forms is that I can link the response data to a Google Sheet, allowing me to quickly identify topics that may need supplemental coverage or students who may need assistance. Also, students are automatically emailed a copy of their responses, which I advise them to use as personalized study guides for quizzes and exams.
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Renee Collins
Seven Ideas for Active Learning:
1. Ice Breaker: Give each student one of those stick-on nametags. Have them put their name, hometown, major, and a secret or little-known fact about themselves on the nametag, place it over their heart and then spend about 10-15 minutes “mingling” in the classroom. I encourage them to meet every single person, and I also go around to each student and introduce myself to them. What I like about this exercise is it seems to make students more comfortable with each other and going forward they are less shy about participating in discussions.
2. New this year: I collect postcards when I travel so I usually have a few dozen in my desk. This year, at the end of each of my “first day of class” classes, I asked each student to write their mom/dad a postcard. I then stamped all the postcards and sent them in the mail. I like them to be in touch with communication that does not involve texting or email; in journalism classes, I invite them to actually telephone someone they have not talked to in a while so that they get used to phone interviews instead of relying on emails or text messages. In the postcard classes, I had a few students who had me for more than one class so they had to send postcards to their dads, grandparents, and/or brothers. I was shocked some of these students had no idea how to write a postcard, let alone how to address it. I expect to do this again from time to time. The receivers of the postcards were overjoyed, according to the student feedback.
3. Just a reminder: I typically write on the whiteboard at least four days’ worth of activities/homework/assignments and announcements, including the activity of the day. I use different colors of dry-erase markers for each day. (I have a pack of 12 different colors of the markers) Then, I take a photo of the board and use the AirDrop feature on iPhone to drop the photo onto the phones of the class. IF the students don’t have iPhone, I text it to them on the spot. The point of this is to reinforce the work that is expected in the coming class periods, but also utilize technology in the classroom in a different way. Moreover, they don’t have to waste class time during small group work writing everything down.
4. Who are you? Since it’s a journalism class, I spend time having students pair up and interview each other, write up a short summary, and then introduce the person to the rest of the class. This is usually an activity the first week of class. The students are NOT allowed to just read their summary aloud, they actually have to interact with their subject and talk about him or her to the class. They may use notes.
5. Games, games, games: I’ve used “Sorry” in class after seeing it in another program Garin Horner ran last year or the year before. The students break up into teams and then they move on the board by rolling dice. However, they cannot advance unless they can correctly answer questions on a particular topic. It’s a great way to engage the whole class and it’s surprising how competitive they can be!
6. Students were asked to read the first nine chapters of the book. I had a student write “Chapter 1, 2, etc.” on the white board with space for writing responses. Then students have to share at least one discussion question or conversation starter under each section. It gets them thinking of the reading plus they have to walk around the room so it m helps to get the blood flowing. The discussion was much better than usual.
7. I prepare Kahoots based on current events, usually 10-20 questions. Students play individually to see who has been staying on top of the news. I also have turned this around and used it as a class activity where the students have to work in small groups to develop 5-10 questions on a kahoot and then the rest of the class has to play each group's kahoot. What I found is that they are doing a great job of paying attention to the news, not just the sports and entertainment.
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Tony Coumoundouros
For every assigned reading I have my students submit a one-page response. The response entails three sections: (1) Analytical thinking: they are supposed to identify main points, the premises and conclusion of an argument, and to identify sections of the text that puzzled them; (2) Critical Thinking: they are supposed to evaluate the argument's logical validity, discuss the author's assumptions, assess the implications of the conclusion. (3) ask a discussion question for class. This assignment is worth anywhere from 10-20% of their grade depending on which class it is.
The purposes of this assignment are: (1) to encourage students to read the material , (2) to encourage them to read and engage the material carefully enough so that they can respond thoughtfully in writing, (3) to practice writing clearly and coherently, (4) to prepare them for class discussion, (5) to allow them to engage the material from their own perspective and to form their own opinions about it.
The assignment has worked very well in my classes. I have several of the students share their responses with the class and their observations and questions are the starting point for our class discussions of the material they read. This assignment has helped me get students to read the material, to read it more carefully and to increase student participation in my classes.
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Al Craven
“A good teacher, like a good entertainer first must hold his audience’s attention. Then he can teach his lesson” -John Hendrik Clarke
In your classrooms consider……
- Music (entering the room, movement in the class)
- Prizes (for reviewing previous lesson content)
- Costumes/Hats (relevant, interesting, attention getting)
- Movement (you learn better standing up, brain breaks, students are kinesthetic learners)
- Treats (chocolate, candy, refreshments)
- Balls/Frisbees (toss light soft balls or Frisbees during class)
- Celebrate Success (blow bubbles)
- Teaching Location (stand on chairs/tables, move around, outside)
- Story Telling (relevant, funny)
- Vary Routines (mix it up)
- Hooks/Anticipatory Sets to begin class (grab their attention)
- Meaning Makers (A learning episode that is brief and illustrates, with clarity, the material, principle or concept being presented.)
Attention
Rule #4
We don’t pay attention to boring things!
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Fritz Detwiler
Two years ago I began to require my upper-level students to prepare and submit reading notes of between 150 and 200 words and questions arising from them prior to every class. Of course, they did not like the idea. By the end of the semester, they were very supportive of the idea because they realized how much better and deep the class conversations were.
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Deb Field
Course Preparation Assignments
This is a technique I learned at the Lilly Conference last fall in a talk by Dr. Lynn Gillette,
who is the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Lake Superior State
University and I have used it with some success in 200 level classes.
Class Preparation Assignments are quick and fairly simple reading questions. Their
purpose it to make sure that students have prepared for class by doing the reading. I look
through them very quickly and grade them as satisfactory if I can tell that students have
made a good effort to answer the questions. CPAs serve as a threshold to earn grades, but
they do not guarantee those grades. In other words, students cannot earn an A without
turning in the designated number of CPAs, but turning in that number of CPAs does not
guarantee an A.
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Nathan Goetting
How to Improve Student Writing
I incentivize going to the Writing Center with rough drafts by awarding students extra-credit when they visit. This encourages their development as writers and often helps improve the quality of their assignments.
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Nathan Gordon
Bullseye
1) Draw a huge bullseye on the whiteboard or place one in a PowerPoint/Prezi slide.
2) Come up with a question that you would like the students to answer anonymously. If the class is large, you may want them to get together in groups so the number of responses are limited.
3) Have your students, or the group, pull out a blank sheet of paper.
4) Ask them to write down their response or collective response to the question.
5) Tell them to crumple up the sheet of paper into a ball and throw it at the bullseye (papers will fly so watch out), doing their best to hit the center. This is their favorite part of the game.
6) Collect the pieces of paper, open them up, share the responses, and discuss.
I find this activity to be highly beneficial for class in certain situations where the students are too timid to share their thoughts, or they are afraid of giving the incorrect response. This allows for anonymity, but also allows you as the professor to easily correct mistakes or errors without making individuals feel bad or embarrassed.
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Amber Gray
During class immediately following each lecture, I start with a 15 question Kahoot on the main topics from that lecture. The students enjoy competing with each other (and the winners receive candy). However, more importantly, I get an instant gauge of which concepts they understood and which concepts need more clarification, without having to wait for formal assessment grades. The students also get immediate feedback on how well they understood the chapter. I then have the rest of the class period that day to expand on what is needed. (Each chapter is covered over two class periods).
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Jo Lynne Hall
I use formative assessment strategies throughout the class to help me adjust the teaching to things students are struggling with. (Sometimes, I get the information from them at the end of class and use it to start the next day's lesson off. Sometimes, I can only get small tweaks in, but I think it helps.)
Class Work: students work out a problem on the topic we've been covering in class. They do their best on that problem. They can work with a partner or alone. Then I go over the problem with them at the board. I have them make corrections to the right of their work. This allows them to see what they do and do not understand. It allows me to see what they do and do not understand. Then I can use that information to work another problem or move on to the next if they've got the concept. To get them to take the Class Work pages seriously, they are automatically worth 5 points. If they make the attempt, they get the points. At the end of the semester, I will take all of these class work papers' grades and make them into one quiz. That helps them recover from one bad quiz grade in the course. (Obviously, I don't collect a huge number of these, but I make sure I get about 50 points worth, which is about one quiz grade worth.)
Exit Cards: students fill out a short set of questions over the day's material. What was one concept you really understood well? What was one concept you are really struggling with? They have to hand me the card as they leave the class. This gives me ideas of what they've got and what they're struggling with to help me start off the next class.
By the way, formative assessment can be quick and on the fly, too. It doesn't have to be written down. You can use thumbs up-thumbs down as a quick on the fly formative assessment. Thumbs up if you've got it. Thumbs down if you don't. It's a quick and easy way to see if they've got it or not.
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Scott Hill
OLD: I bought a graphics tablet, and using a free program called OpenBoard I write all of my notes on the computer and project them onto the screen. They are more legible from farther away, and I can save the notes and upload them to my website for students to access later. They are also very helpful in subsequent semesters when I want to know when I covered any particular material. I also record the audio from the class with my laptop and post that to my website as well, which is appreciated.
NEW: Automatically giving 2-day extensions to any student who asks for one in writing, no reason required. Forcing them to ask puts some of the responsibility back on them, but I don't have to pry into their personal lives. I don't want to ask a grieving student for proof that their grandmother just died. Students can request longer extensions if they need them, but they must meet with me in person before I approve it.
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Garin Horner
17 T&L Tools for the Last 20 Minutes of Class
1. On a post-it, write 1-3 questions you have about what you just learned. Put your name on it and stick it to the door on the way out. The instructor will collect these post-its. Then, during the next class, the instructor can briefly cover the answers. Or, even better if there is enough time, have students pair up, exchange questions, and answer them for each other. They may use Google if they like.
2. Teach us something that isn’t about photography.
Write down a couple of sentences that teach us something. Then exchange the cards and ask students to explain how photography can relate to what you just learned.
Journal of Excellence in College Teaching, 25(3&4), 275-302
Effective Task Design for the TBL Classroom
By Bill Robertson and Billie Franchini
3. Cognitive Wrapper (Jose Bowen explains this one best)
4. Naïve Tasks to Prepare Students for Their Upcoming Course Content:
“…ask students to make decisions that they perceive to be above their current level of expertise.” This practice is designed to induce an attitude of inquiry. Put students into groups and ask them to solve a problem based on the knowledge they have acquired (they will soon learn tools that will help them further). Give them 5 minutes to solve the problem. Then they explain to everyone their reasoning. This exercise prepares students for upcoming course content. It helps become curious about what they are learning. It helps students view their homework as something that introduces information that is useful and will help them grow as photographers. When skillfully crafted, these exercises can answer a student’s question, why is what I am learning important?
The Photography Teacher's Handbook by Garin Horner
5. Time Travel. Write on a card 5 pieces of advice that you can send back in time to you last class. The advice is anything that will help you to better learn what you just learned. Include examples.
6. Muddy Point. Students write down on a card or piece of paper a point they feel was unclear or they didn’t understand. Along with the point they write 2-three lines about what they think they understood.
7. Top 3 things. On a post-it, write down the 3 take-aways, important things you remember from the stuff you just learned. It can include homework and activities in class. Stick your post-it to the inside of the door on the way out.
8. Top 3 things (Fun Variation also called the Snowball exercise). On an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper, write down the top 3 things you learned from the materials you studied. It can include homework you did for class and/or what happened in class. Crinkle up the paper and throw it to someone else in the class. They open it and write down 2 or 3 more things (can’t be things you already wrote or listed on the paper).
9. Trashketball (Extended Snowball exercise). For Trashketball, first divide the class into two teams. Each team sends a representative to the front (or you can choose a representative). The representatives are then asked a review question. If the question is answered correctly, the representative’s team earns two points. Then the representative has a chance to earn another two points for his/her team by shooting a ball made of trash into the class trash can from a set distance. Then, a new set of representatives face off. Whichever team is in the lead in the last 2 minutes get to leave first. (https://www.weareteachers.com/what-to-do-with-that-awkward-5-or-10-minutes-of-class-you-have-left/)
10. 1 Minute Paper. Write 3-4 lines about the thing you learned that you think will have the most impact on your photography. Or, simply, what is the most important thing you learned today?
11. 1 Minutes Paper ideas (2 more). Write 3-4 lines about the thing you want to most learn about in photography. Or, what could I help you learn that would help you grow as a photographer?
12. Benefits. Write down 3-4 lines about how what you learned today will benefit you personally?
13. The world outside. Identify an instance where what you learned today about photography could have an impact on your life.
14. Ask students to write ends to the sentences you propose, having to do with what you were just studying:
-Photography is life-changing because…
-Photography is teaches me to think because…
-Photography can change the way other people think because…
-Photography changes the way I see the world because…
-Photography is something I enjoy doing because…
15. A short, 3 question quiz to get them to think about the main points they just learned.
16. Mystery Prize. Put a prize in a bag with a question mark on it. Offer whatever is in the bag to the student that asks the most insightful question from the homework and/or the class.
Gary T. Green quote from the Chronicle of Higher Education, Dec. 9, 2016. Vol. LXIII, No. 16, pg. A12.
17. Your Goal. Ask students write a few sentences about their goal or what they want to do with everything they have learned about photography.
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Linda Learman
Teaching Tip: Using Metaphor for Working with Conceptual Thinking
Engages Ribbons of Excellence: Thinking Critically and Developing Creativity
Using metaphor to have students articulate their understanding of a concept or even an assumption they bring to a subject invites creative and critical thinking, can spur invigorating discussion, and often leads the whole class to shared insights and understandings that promote deeper learning beyond a cursory glance or textbook definition. The word “metaphor” comes from ancient Greek and means “transfer;” metaphors often serve as a bridge allowing students to transfer what they do know to what is unfamiliar or strange to them, thereby making it more familiar. Linguists and cognitive scientists have argued for decades that metaphors allow us to understand one domain in terms of another.
Application Tips:
Short version example (3-5 min)
Ask students to write a metaphor about the subject of the class or the discipline (e.g. English is like being in a canoe, going upstream, without any paddles. *Doesn’t matter that this isn’t technically a metaphor, any kind of figurative language will do). This short activity allows students and teacher to see what kinds of assumptions and connotations students have about the discipline, course, topic, etc. that can serve as a starting point to a discussion or lecture that might help bridge any gaps in knowledge or conceptions. Understanding where students are starting from can help instructors get them where they need to go. This can also be used at the end of a course or unit as a way to help students reflect on their learning.
Longer version example (20+ min)
The following is intended to help students engage in deep learning with big, threshold concepts central to a unit, course, and/or discipline—something worth spending some time on. After students have initially been introduced to new a concept through reading and/or class lecture/discussion, instruct students to work in small groups and come up with a concrete metaphor illustrating the concept. They have to think through how well the metaphor represents the concept and how far the metaphor can go to illuminate it. Once the group has a working metaphor, they must then illustrate it in a way that can be presented to the class. Students can draw on the whiteboard or paper, use sticky notes, build models out of materials on hand, design a computer graphic, or physically act something out—whatever they wish. In using concrete language and a visual representation to understand abstract ideas, students begin to articulate for themselves not only the meaning of a particular concept, but often its complexity and implications that aren’t immediately apparent in the definition alone. By using language that stands in for something else, concepts are often opened up in ways that extend and illuminate their significance.
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Vic Liberi
- I require each student to keep a list of "Take Home Messages." These are the key components of each lecture, the main message as to not get lost in the detail. I review this list at the end of each semester.
- In clinical classes, I try to provide each student with a skill they can use "Today."
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Thomas Muntean
Daily Quizzes to Increase Engagement and Outcomes in Introductory Level Courses
My teaching tip is one that some of our colleagues have heard from me before but for those that have not, I believe it is worth sharing. My tip applies to all of my introductory level courses.
In each 100-level course I teach, I have daily quizzes that are built into my lectures. The quiz questions are interspersed throughout my lectures, typically with one to two questions per slide and with a question slide occurring approximately every 10-15 minutes during the lecture. Students record their responses on the quiz form provided to them at the start of the class session. At the end of the lecture, we review and answer each of the questions as a group.
Although I collect the quiz forms at the end of the lecture, I do not individually grade them (after all, we went over the correct responses at the end of the lecture, so there would be little point in grading them). Instead, my purposes for the quizzes and their collection are as follows (all of which is explained to my students on the first day of class – I want my students to understand how the quizzes benefit them):
- Presenting a question every 10-15 minutes requires each student to change from a passive/listening mindset to an active/interpretational mindset. These “mental break/reset” events should, and from my experience seemingly do, help students to remain more active and engaged in the classroom, thereby increasing understanding of the course content.
- The questions allow each student to self-assess his/her level of comprehension of the lecture topics in nearly real-time throughout each lecture. Therefore, the quizzes provide the immediate opportunity to ask a question or request clarification on a topic before we move forward.
- The quizzes allow the students to get a “feel” for my style, that is, experience in how I write questions. This allows them to walk into their first exam with me with a better idea of what to expect on the exam. This presumably helps to reduce test anxiety in some students.
- The quiz questions provide an extra study tool, in addition to the formal exam review guides I provide. The quiz questions emphasize important topics and are sometimes even recycled (typically modified) for exam use.
- Though not individually graded, the quizzes do count as 2.5% of their final course grade. This is effectively a free 2.5% “participation” grade; an incentive for attending lecture. Improved attendance correlates to improved understanding and performance in the class. With 12 semesters of “participation” (i.e., daily attendance) vs. course grade data since I implemented daily quizzes I can state that, yes, there is a statistically significant correlation (at the 99.9% confidence level) showing increased attendance correlates with higher performance in the course. While I understand that correlation does not necessarily equal causation, that potential must be considered.
Michael Neal
Creative Freedom
During my short time in the classroom I have come to realize the importance of embracing my students unique modivaters and creative abilities. After deciding on the set of skills required for any given production course, I try to give my students assignments that allow for completely individualized projects. By giving my students the freedom to create within their own area of interest, they tend to embrace the necessary production skills in an attempt to produce a final product that effectively represents their passion. Although working outside of a more specific template can be difficult at time, it gives myself a better opportunity to understand what drives my students and how/where they may be able to succeed in the field.
We all like to work hard when the work is personally rewarding.
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Cheryl Nutter
The first item that comes to mind is that I offer a weekly podcast (just audible) that ties course content to a practical situation. These sessions range from 10-20 minutes and are effective tools to help students make connections with material, especially when they are off campus. Recording comments is easy to do through just a regular PowerPoint blank slide and the option is always available to fully or partially narrate a set of slides.
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James Spence
As an alternative to regularly scheduled writing assignments having the same due date for each student, I include in the syllabus a reading question for each reading and require students to write a certain number of short papers on a reading question by the end of the semester.
To encourage students to start writing early in the semester I do two things. First, I allow them to do an additional paper and will drop the lowest grade if they complete at least half of the required short writing assignments before the midterm. Second, as the course progresses the standards for a 'A', 'B', etc, increase. Mistakes that I am willing to overlook the first few weeks of class won't be overlooked later in the semester. The result is that I have a steady stream of assignments coming in throughout the semester, and most students learn early in the semester what I expect from them regarding the reading.
Structuring my short writing assignments in this way allows students to choose which topic they will write about and to manage their time according to their needs. It also ensures that at least some students will have done the reading carefully each week, and will speak in class with some confidence about that reading. Finally, it distributes my grading responsibilities more evenly throughout the semester, so I have a few papers to grade each week instead of a large number of papers at the same time.
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N. Renuka Uthappa
On the first day of class, I tell students I have a secret goal of getting them to love language as much as I do. I also say I want to help them increase their vocabularies. To that end, we start each class during the semester with interested students sharing a word. These can be words they enjoy for any reason—because they like the definition of the word, the sound of it, the spelling, anything. I explain that after all the words have been collected from my classes, there will be extra credit offered to any student who can use all of the words in a creative story. (Students read these out on the last day of class, and the experience tends to be lots of fun!)
I start out the first day sharing my favorite word, “defenestration,” and explain that I love that one because I think it’s great that there’s a word for the act of shoving someone out a window. (We also discuss the “Defenestration of Prague” briefly.) Some classes are reluctant to participate much in this activity, while others take to it with gusto. Below is a list of the words collected by the freshman in my four sections of CORE 101 thus far:
9am:
zephyr: a gust of wind
versatile: good at many things
spontaneous: making random decisions on the spot
bumfuzzle: to confuse someone
brouhaha: an over-exaggerated response
enigma: a mystery, a puzzle
10:30am:
forensic pathology: the study of dead bodies
popcorn: a tasty snack
excited: happy, ready to go
scribere (with line over the i): Latin , a noun that means writing
astonish: to surprise
exhausted: extremely tired
desire: a strong feeling of wanting something to happen
contagious: spreading from person to person (gross, hard to be around)
appraise: to set a value on something
implementation: process of putting a plan or decision into place
marine biologist: studier of plants and creatures underwater
honcho-leader of the team
1pm:
frivolous: light, not serious
vicarious/vicariously: experienced through the experience of another person
ineffable: unable to be expressed in words
peculiar: strange
plethora: an assortment, lots of something
tinnitus: a ringing in your ears after a loud noise
gardyloo!: a warning shouted before water or waste is thrown from a window
unctuous: oily, greasy, slimy (sometimes describes a person)
loquacious: talkative
extemporaneous: spoken without a script
discombobulate: to confuse
extrapolate: to infer or estimate by extending or projecting known information
muffin: a baked good
2:30:
loquacious: tending to talk excessively
corndog-a tasty fair food
tumultuous: loud and chaotic
ambiguous: not having a specific meaning
bourgeoisie: members of the French middle class during the Revolution. Also, in Communist lingo, this term refers to the upper class, as opposed to the proletariat
proletariat: The class of industrial wage earners who, possessing neither capital nor production means, must earn their living by selling their labor.
onomatopoeia: a word that sounds like the sound it describes (squish, pop, bang)
auspicious: favorable, boding well
kumquat: a tropical fruit
serendipity: a fortunate discovery
epiphany: a sudden idea or revelation
auspicious: indicative of good luck
voluptuous: curvaceous, sexually attractive
kerfuffle: commotion caused by conflicting viewpoints
rhombus: four-sided leaning square
maladaptive: not assisting or promoting adaptation
pterodactyl: a prehistoric dino-bird
deleterious: having a harmful effect, injurious
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