Building Community through Collaborative Presentations early in the semester

This exercise is designed to bring students to the center of learning early in the semester and to give them the experience of working with others.  It also seeks to contribute to the learning goals of oral presentation and collaboration.   For example, in a seminar about cities, students paired up early on to collaborate and picked an individual city facing a current crisis.   They would then present for five minutes and take Questions and Answers for a few more.   But this idea could be adopted for lots of different kinds of classes.   It is not a high-stakes presentation, and it contributes to community building plus learning.