Effective teachers can organize the learning environment to provide students with hands-on learning opportunities and authentic tasks and audiences. Opportunities for “active” learning experiences—in which students are asked to write and talk about ideas, create models and demonstrations, solve complex problems, and construct projects that require the integration of many ideas—have been found to promote deeper learning, especially when they are combined with reflection. Teachers can develop learning activities with real purposes, audiences, and structures that mirror those outside-of-school settings, providing rich materials (ranging from models and manipulatives, to learning centers, texts and computers) for students to work with, manipulate, and use to gather information and create representations of their learning. When students are presented with choices about classroom work and feel a sense of belonging to a classroom community, their motivation to learn is increased. By encouraging discussion among students about ideas, concepts, and relationships, teachers can create environments where students are also sources of knowledge for one another.