Hands-on science
activities with short-answer writing
In many cases, I simply wish to give students basic writing
practice using STEM-related prompts, rather than craft complete essays. I was
drawn to activities from elementary school science class. Initially, I wondered
if my students would find this somewhat insulting, as they were projects and
topics that I remember from fourth grade. But in reality, they seemed to enjoy
this. I wondered if in their country, education was not so hands-on and perhaps
they did not engage in such activities.
One activity was to make homemade flashlights. After reading some articles and reviewing
diagrams of electric circuits and their components, I distributed to each pair
of students a AA battery, small light bulb, copper wire, paperclips, and some
cardboard and tape for mounting. After they all spent some time putting it
together, each group had quite a unique looking flashlight, some of which
worked more successfully than others. Then, I had the students write a short
paragraph explaining how their flashlight worked. Sample language would include
such sentences as:
First, the electricity flowed from the battery
terminal into the contact on the end of the light bulb. The filament inside the
bulb illuminates and emits lights. The electricity flows out again and through
the copper wire to the negative electrode on the battery. A switch on the wire
can either break the circuit or let the electricity continue flowing.
Another activity involved growing bacteria cultures. I had our department order in two sets of petri
dishes pre-filled with agar. In groups, the students decided which surfaces to
swab for their cultures. Key vocabulary included bacteria, exposure, surface, replicate, incubate, and so on. I took
the petri dishes home and left them for a couple of days inside my oven with
the light on, which resulted in a nice warm environment for the bacteria to
grow. Back in the classroom, they wrote answers to a series of short-answer
questions, requiring the use of the target vocabulary.
