This primer is intended to assist teaching faculty at institutions of higher education with the integration of new teaching techniques in their classrooms. The primer offers a list of possible approaches and provides some useful links, which can serve as inspiration and a starting point. After providing a general overview of interactive teaching techniques, we adapt our examples to the field of teaching environmental and energy topics. While this primer should be useful for teaching a wide range of undergraduate and graduate classes, it has a particular focus on environmental and resource economics, energy policy and economics, entrepreneurship, sustainable business and management.