Students creating science resources

Based on these scenarios: Students creating science learning resources

Inspiration for these learning activity packages:

I want my students to become more interested in science topics, and decide to ask them to create exhibits that they show to younger students of other schools.

I start with a formative test to evaluate how much they know about the course’s topics. Then, I create small heterogeneous teams that mix different expertise (see activity 1). Each team works on one science concept and produces an exhibit that illustrates it.

To support the students, I give them pointers to various resources, including people and related events (see activity 2 and 3). They browse and learn together and teach one another. They try different ways to teach the concepts, give each other feedback, and choose those that seem to work best based on a map that visualizes out the findings of their trials concretely (see activity 5 and 6). Based on these experiences, they construct their “virtual science museum exhibit” (see activity 7). A poster, one physical and one virtual simulation, a video recording of a lecture, a rap song, and a puppet play are among the most exciting exhibits by the students in my class. Each group also creates a few sample problems to accompany their exhibit.

I monitor team progress and ensure that their productions are accurate and complete (see activity 4). In some cases, I suggest improvements. When the exhibits are ready, each team finds students of a lower grade that would be interested in learning the concepts, and work with them and their exhibit to teach them (see activity 2).

After the course I can use the exhibits and sample problems created by the students to prepare year-end subject reviews, and later use the resources to spice up my courses.

This post is also available in: Turkish