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The Story of Science

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Science content can be viewed as a narrative, a story. So have your students assemble in a circle and tell a science story, chapter upon chapter. If someone forgets part of the narrative, others chime in to help. If you are teaching about plate tectonics for example, your students can begin with Wegener’s hypothesis of continental drift and end with the discovery of magnetic stripes. Younger students could create a story centered on the topic of pollination—allowing children to add bees, butterflies, fruit, flowers, grocery stores, people and what-not to the unfolding story.

A variant of this game was taught to me (Suzanne) by Nitai Deranja of the Living Wisdom Schools (Thanks Nitai.) It’s called “Fortunately/Unfortunately.” In Fortunately/Unfortunately, students tell a progressive story. But in this case students begin their turn with the word “Fortunately” or “Unfortunately.” This game, when turned into a science game, can be quite challenging; it requires knowledge of all the effects of a particular natural event. For example, Player 1 says: “Unfortunately, an earthquake occurred yesterday.” Player 2: “Fortunately, the earthquake only registered 5.1 on the Richter Scale.” Player 3: “Unfortunately, the epicenter was in downtown San Francisco.” Player 4: “Fortunately, seismic gaps indicated an earthquake was probable. Player 5: “Unfortunately, seismic gaps can only predict earthquake probability within a window of 10 years or more.” Etc.

Science Sequence Games

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Science is full of processes that proceed in steps: the development of a plant from a seed, the stages of cell division, the formation of a sedimentary rock, succession in a meadow, the steps of a chemical reaction, etc. Learning these processes can be turned into cooperative games in various ways.

For example, depict or describe individual steps of the process you want the students to learn on different cards. Students shuffle the deck and draw cards. When each player draws a card, he places it in the correct sequence with respect to the other cards.

Or play a line-up game. In a line-up game, students again put items in order. But now, they hold their cards and walk themselves into a line in the correct order without talking. Sequences such as the steps of cellular division can be used. Or, relative distances can be put in order. For example, geographical locations can be lined-up in terms of distance from your school. Or, students represent astronomical objects and line up in terms of distance from the Sun.

Cooperative Stories

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Students sit in a circle and build a story together by taking turns. Where one storyteller leaves off, the next one begins. This basic structure is adaptable to all grade levels and can be used in various ways.

The most challenging version is for each storyteller to add a single word to the progressive storyline. But players can take turns adding sentences or paragraphs. To make this game more academic, students can practice building proper sentences or paragraphs. Or the format can be used to review a story that the class has read together.

A modification of this game (attributed to Arnold, 1972) is called Because. In Because, the first player describes an event; the second player describes the cause; and the third player describes a consequence. For example: (Player 1) “The cat jumped out of the window onto the lady’s head”; (Player 2) “The cat jumped out of the window onto the lady’s head because there was a fire in the house”; (Player 3) “The cat jumped out of the window onto the lady’s head because there was a fire in the house. Then the lady realized the house was burning, and she called the fire department.” Now it goes on to another Player #1 to begin a new thread in the story.

Cooperative Alphabet (reading practice)

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This game is like the foregoing where kids line up in alphabetical order. But in this version, kids each choose a card with a picture on it. The pictures show items beginning with each letter but the words are not spelled out. (For example, “A” is represented by a picture of an apple not accompanied by the word “apple.”)  Again, children are encouraged to help one another get into line but no words can be exchanged!