Year 11 Science students turned the events that lead to the death of the dinosaurs into a narrative using storytelling techniques.
Task: AS90955 Investigate an astronomical or Earth science event.
(I’ve left this generic so you can alter it to suit your classes)
Death of the Dinosaurs Power Point
This was the first time I or my students had tried using storytelling as a way to share science understanding for an assessment. Using the narrative form to organise events was perfect for this task. Here’s how it ran:
Week One: Fact Finding
- Start the unit with an introduction to the events that led to the death of the dinosaurs. This documentary is a good introduction to both the events and use of storytelling techniques to share scientific information: Last Day of the Dinosaurs (National Geographic, Director: Richard Dale, Writers: Graham Booth, Billie Pink). My school has a copy of the DVD, but there are plenty of other suitable documentaries out there.
- While they are watching, students can begin to fill in this template (print off A3 size or share as a GoogleDoc) to organise the events.
The rest of this week is for learners to do their own research, filling in their research template.
Tip: Collect these in at the end of the week and MAKE the students fill in the bibliography section. This reduces stress and admin when they come to hand in the finished product at the end of the four weeks. Ideally, save an electronic copy of student work now, many of them will lose the paper (and some the electronic copy) over the next few weeks and will have no idea where they found their information. I kept all paperwork in a file box in my classroom, but some still went missing!
Week Two: Planning
- This is the most important part of the process, so do spend the whole week on it. No one can start making their presentation until ALL the planning is done.
- We started with A Crap Story to help the students identify what makes a good story by writing a bad one. This was great for kids who don’t see themselves as good storytellers or writers as there is no pressure to do it well.
- Tip: At the end of the activity in pairs, play pass the pen to make a whole class brainstorm of what makes a good story. Divide the class into four or five groups. Each group gets a pen to write their best idea on the board (as long as no one else has written it first), then pass the pen to the next person in the group until there are no new ideas.
- In my class, every student simplified their big plan into a planning template then filled in A Good Narrative to make sure they were sharing their own understanding of the events, not just a copy-pasted version.
- Slideshows: need a rough plan of how many slides they will have and what information will go on each one.
- Videos: take the most planning. First, they need an outline of the main events, then a storyboard of the shots they will need to get, then a plan of how to actually get each shot (all very well to plan a giant rock flying in from above, but can they actually create this?). This will need a lot of teacher support but is so worth it for the finished product.
- Tip: The group that made videos in my class all worked together to get the footage, then edited in two groups. After that, each student wrote and recorded their own narration then added it to their own copy of the video. This circumnavigated any authenticity issues.
- Posters: similar to a slide show, need a plan for each section.
- Board game: this is a tricky one to achieve. It requires a lot of planning out of how to include the information as well as a functioning game. It needs a template, and a clear understanding of how each stage links to the next, with supplementary information on the gameboard. Has huge potential for creative thinkers, but not for those who aren’t 100% committed to it.
- Written report: requires a basic essay planning template. I whipped this one up during a lesson and it seemed to work fine.
Weeks Three and Four: Presenting
- The fun bit. Because they are so well planned, this should go pretty smoothly. Students will need your support with making sure they have reached the criteria of the standard and with some of the technicalities of their presentation. If you have experience with editing, it will be extremely valuable to them.
Tip: Collecting in these presentations can be a bit of an admin nightmare. You will need some way of getting them from the students to a safe place to store them. I used my school hard drive and downloaded them from emails and GoogleDocs. This took a really long time and was particularly difficult if students didn’t put their name first in the file name. It is a great opportunity for students to learn how to be organised with their work. If possible, stagger this step. Some students will finish super early, so collect their work as soon as it’s done.
Extra Resources:
Here are some useful articles to help students with their research, especially if they don’t have a device:
Why Did the Dinosaurs Die Out?
Here’s What Happened the Day the Dinosaurs Died
Curious Kids: why did the dinosaurs die?
Asteroid that killed the dinosaurs created endless night and 18-month winter as it rained fire
Acknowledgements
The template for the Death of the Dinosaurs Research Template was based on one made by Dr Maria Zammit.
Writing Plan Templates are from Literacy Solutions https://www.literacysolutions.com.au/index.php. These are beautifully made printable resources for writing. Why reinvent the wheel when these guys have made so many great resources? (I used the templates on pages 27 (basic) and 30 (advanced) for my class).
Gameboard Template from https://www.sparklebox.co.uk/6941-6950/sb6941.html
Do you have a question or an idea to share? Contact me.