Create a Character
Trace around your hand:
- Fill in each part of your hand with the following details:
- Palm: name and age;
- Thumb: where they are from;
- Index finger: their family;
- Middle finger: their cultural background/identity;
- Ring finger: what they look like;
- Pinkie finger: their job/school;
- Around the outside: their opinion of the issue.
Tips:
- This activity is particularly useful for socio-scientific projects that require students to think about the opinions of a range of people.
- It could easily be adapted to create a character from a non-human entity. For example, describing the ecologial niche of a seagull. You could still include many of the categories, but change “cultural identity” to “behavioural adaptations”, and “what they look like” to “structural adaptations”.
I am a…
Give your students this as a starter to a story, to explain the day-to-day life of a scientific character. For example:
- I am a virus: describe the journey into a human body and what they encounter from the immune system when they get there;
- I am a red blood cell: describe the journey of a red blood cell around the circulatory system;
- I am a hydrogen electron: describe the behaviour of a hydrogen electron when moving up and down energy levels using Bohr’s model.
They can go straight into their story or use the Create a Character activity to develop the voice of their character.
Tips:
- It’s a good idea to give an example sentence or two to get the students started;
- Put some key terms on the board and make it a challenge to see who can include all of them;
- This requires quite creative thinking, so don’t be surprised if students don’t catch on straight away.
The Quick Write
I can’t claim responsibility for developing this one, but it is extremely good for helping students get over their fear of writing, especially in preparation for exams. Give your students a topic and some keywords, then set a timer for five minutes.
Example:
Describe how a sodium atom becomes an ion.
Keywords: Electron, valence, reaction, charge.
Tip: Do one of these every day and get students to hand in their best one at the end of the week for feedback.
Acrostic
Use the letters in a scientific term as starters for each line of a poem or story.
Example:
Found in dark, damp places such as
Under trees and rotting wood. They’re
Not plants because they don’t photosynthesise. Instead, they
Greedily feed through hyphae using enzymes to break down food.
It’s called extracellular digestion.
Write About the Object
Find an object (e.g. a plastic dinosaur, water bottle) and use it for writing inspiration. Give the students five minutes to write about that object. They could describe what it looks like, give it a personality and backstory, write about something that the object reminds them of. The key is to give freedom to write anything, without the pressure of it being “good”.
Tip: This activity could also be done with a picture of a scene.
Musical Writing
Give the students a topic and some options for backing music. Individually or in groups, get them to write lyrics for a song or rap about that topic.
Tip: YouTube Audio Library is a great place for music. You have to sign in first, but the tracks are free for you to use.
A Crap Story
- Take five minutes to write the worst story you can (not a tragic story, a badly written story).
- Pair up with someone and read your story to them.
- Swap and listen to their story.
- Write a list of all the reasons the story was crap.
- Now write a list of things a good story needs.
- Share with the class.
- Take another five minutes to re-write your story to make it a good story.
Tip: Use pass the pen for sharing ideas – hand out a few whiteboard markers and get the students to write their best idea on the board. Keep going until there are no new ideas.
Comic Strip
This one is great for sequencing ideas and making a scientific process into a relatable experience.
e.g. “Imagine you are stranded on a desert island. You have only the clothes on your back, your watch, your water bottle, and lunchbox (both empty). You need pure water to drink, how will you get it?”
Using the website: https://www.storyboardthat.com/ learners can make a comic strip of up to 6 cells without having to sign up. There is an enormous range of backgrounds, characters, and items they can include in their comic strip. They can also change the layout to have a text box underneath each picture to explain what is happening in each cell.
Tips: I found an island scene on YouTube and played it on the screen for this activity (complete with sound):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6keMWL6GKw
If students want to save their comic strip without signing up, they can take a screenshot of it.
Acknowldegement:
The activities, “Create a Character” and “Write About the Object” were adapted from exercises from the Writing for Children course run at the Wellington High School Community Education Centre, tutored by Helen Vivienne Fletcher.
Do you have a question or an idea to share? Contact me.