Creating effective ways to help students learn complex ecological content and develop scientific skills is challenging. What innovative teaching techniques are ecology educators using to best help students learn? This session will provide an opportunity to hear about pedagogical models and specific learning activities that innovative educators are using to promote effective undergraduate student engagement and learning. The goal is to disseminate teaching strategies that can be adopted easily in a wide range of teaching contexts, including short timeframes, traditional classrooms, and diverse student populations. Speakers will focus on strategies including games, writing to learn, concept models, metacognition, citizen science, decision making, and making ecology "real" for students. The shared approaches can help educators transform their classrooms in small and big ways, to help their students learn ecology better.