50 Methods in Science

50 Innovative Teaching
Methods in Science
Hands on Learning
This is the best teaching method invented so far that
involves the active participation of students to
experience scientific concepts than to just have an
audience view.
Schools are promoting the use of low cost apparatus in
classrooms to helps students to have hands on learning
experience.
Story Telling
Students love to hear stories and therefore, storytelling is one
of the best ways to get their attention in class.
Teacher can explain the facts of biology or the laws of physics
in the form of stories. This is a mental organizer as human
brains can remember stories than just plain facts. Some
teachers present the whole concept as a story while some
others use a story to open and end the session.
Role Play
This innovative method is becoming an integral part of science
education as students can intellectually and physically involve
through activities while learning a new concept.
Activities can be organized in classroom sessions where a
group of students can take the role of atoms or molecules to
study a chemical reaction or they can represent a scientist
group to demonstrate the particular scientist’s laws.
Sports Based Learning
This is an interesting approach to learn problem solving in
physics or a step wise method to study complex chemical
reactions.
A game of football or cricket helps them to learn about

percentage, average or probability which can find its use in
physics problems. Sports are mostly played in teams which
also promote the importance of team work that helps them
to synchronize better in group projects.
Visual clues
Using visual clues easily supplements auditory information and students
can easily connect better with ideas.
The multi-sensory experiences improve their understanding and
memorization. This includes drawings, diagrams, and pictures to assist
theory and setting up examples to show its application side.
The sequence of lab procedures can be better taught using pictures with
words approach.
Instructional Conversations
Building instructional conversations is a key method to teach
science vocabulary. Let them talk in between the lectures
about the experience they had with an application related to
the topic of discussion.
This promotes their dialogue construction in science as they
communicate using scientific and technical terms. Make this a
classroom strategy to help students to easily learn science
vocabulary.
Science Text Cards
This is an innovative teaching method to convey the science
facts in an easy and organized way. In this activity, statements
related to science concepts are written on index cards.
Students can work individually, pairs or in groups to sort the
cards based on the given format. The formats include
true/false,agree/disagree, matching pairs, classification,
sequencing and more.
Word Games
This is a creative strategy to help elementary students to
experience the language of science.Pictionary, Bingo,
Scrabble, Odd One Out, Charades, Trivial Pursuit etc. are the
common games.
Playing these games using scientific terms helps the students
to work closely with different hard to understand words and
use them fluently in their subject.
Graphic Organizers
This teaching approach is helpful for students to interact with

science in a more organized and structured way. Teachers can
use different types of templates to represent the data
according to the topic that is being handled.
A typical format for graphic organizer contains a central point
from which different branches are formed and there may be
sub-branches in certain cases. Arrows are used to point the
direction or sequence of a process.
Word Parts
This teaching strategy is followed by teachers to educate the

basics of science to elementary students. While introducing
new scientific terms, they can reinforce the structure of words.
Students are asked to identify and understand prefix, suffix,
and base word, and to relate their meanings. For example,
metamorphosis — meta (large), morph (change), osis (process);
photosynthesis — photo (light), synth (make), isis (process).
Social media
The different social media platforms can be used wisely to teach
science to make the science classrooms more interesting and
engaging. For instance, students can be asked to follow
scientists in Twitter and share his/her new thoughts and findings
in class or to use FB for improving the content of their research
projects.
Students can also use Vine to document and to share science
videos, Pinterest account for sharing images for research
projects or writing prompts or WordPress class account for peer-
to-peer learning.
Virtual science labs
There are many virtual science labs available online for free and
therefore, this approach almost gives hands on experience of
learning the subject without much expense.
Detailed diagrams, illustrations or close up pictures allow
students to virtually get inside a plant or animal part without
actually doing it. Dissections in biology can be studied
thoughtfully with a virtual hands-on sensation without the
problem of odor and similarly, experiment a chemical reaction
without burns.
Word walls
Science word walls in classrooms can stimulate the interest of students in

the subject and an opportunity for them to illustrate different concepts. In
an advanced technique, a more in-depth understanding of different
scientific terms can be made possible with pictures that accompany the
words.
This is also an option to help them better understand words with multiple
meanings. Teachers can design creative word walls or ask students to
contribute to the idea weekly or monthly.
Thinking Maps
This is an ideal way to visually represent different thought processes

which help to organize the science education with a better flow. There
are different types of thinking maps available which can be chosen
wisely to represent the particular topic.
This includes bridge maps to teach relation between ideas, brace maps
to break larger objects into smaller parts, flow maps to show sequence
of events, multi-flow maps to show effects or causes of an event, tree
maps to classify objects or ideas and more.
.Mini anchor charts
These interesting charts are a great idea to give a detailed overview or
explanation of a science topic. Teachers use it to interactively teach areas
such as scientific methods, types of energy, plant life cycle, states of
matter, mixtures and solutions, force & motion and more.
To make the whole idea interesting, teacher brings variations such as
black and white charts, colored ones; fill in the blank models, and full
page anchor charts for large classrooms.
Crossover Learning
In this teaching method, students are given opportunity to learn in

multiple settings such as inside the classroom, museums, field trips or
clubs.
Teachers can use this method effectively by proposing a question in
class, taking students to informal settings to find answers and then,
going back to classrooms to discuss and share the findings. This way,
learners can record, link, recall and share their diverse learning events to
explore the topic and get a deeper level understanding.
Argue with Science
Learning through argumentation gives students a widened

thinking to contrasting ideas which in turn deepen their
understanding.
They can refine ideas with others and engage with open-ended
questions, and re-state observations or remarks in a more
scientific language. Teachers can also guide them in their
approach and share the intellectual expertise with them.
Context-Based Learning
In this method, students are given the opportunity to create context and
explore ideas from them. They interact with surroundings, hold
conversations with subject experts, make relevant notes and attempt to
modify the nearby objects.
The context can be understood in detail by exploring the world around. This
gradually helps them to interpret new information from the context and
relate to what they already know.
Computational thinking
This is an advanced technique to improve thinking and problem solving

skills. The method comprises decomposition i.e. breaking large
problems into small units and pattern recognition-related problems to
the ones which were already solved successfully in the past.
Computational thinking skills also cover algorithms-step by step
approach to reach a solution; abstraction-neglecting unimportant
details and debugging-refining these steps.
Remote labs
Learning by doing is an unparalleled approach to teach

science and this is made a reality with remote labs. Students
are given access to authentic scientific tools and
opportunities to control remote lab experiments.
This would enhance their inquiry skills and conceptual
understanding and also, the students can learn and explore
with motivation.
Embodied Learning
In this approach, mind and body of the students work together

to explore science. The physical feedback as well as the
resultant actions will reinforce their learning process.
This idea is well supported by today’s technology such as visual
systems that track movement or wearable sensors to collect
physical and biological data.
Science museums
Give opportunity to students to visit a science museum as part of the

learning process. This gives them access to innovative resources and they
can visualize data they learnt in class.
They can have a look at the real work of scientists which improves their
urge to learn about it further. Regular visits to museums make learning
science more engaging and interesting.
Projects
This can be an individual activity or group activity which helps

students to showcase the application side of what they learnt
through theory.
This method involves choosing the idea, building a plan,
executing the plan and finally evaluating it. When students pass
through these stages, they can improve their skills to express
ideas, problem solving, overcoming the challenges, team work
and self assessment.
Multimedia Approach
This method is a blend of text, audio, animation, video, still images or

interactivity content forms to teach diverse difficult to understand
concepts in science.
The educator can convey vast information using advanced media,
devices and techniques, and involve a wide range of activities to provide
a meaningful learning experience.
ICT Enabled Learning
ICT refers to the use of Information and Communications

Technology to teach the scientific ideas that promotes open
source learning.
In order to make the accessing, storing, transmitting, and
manipulation of information more easy, this approach
integrates telecommunications, computers and relevant
enterprise software, storage, middleware, and audio-visual
systems required to handle the topic.

50 Methods in Science

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50 Innovative Teaching

A game of football or cricket helps them to learn about

This teaching approach is helpful for students to interact with

This teaching strategy is followed by teachers to educate the

Science word walls in classrooms can stimulate the interest of students in

This is an ideal way to visually represent different thought processes

In this teaching method, students are given opportunity to learn in

Learning through argumentation gives students a widened

This is an advanced technique to improve thinking and problem solving

Learning by doing is an unparalleled approach to teach

In this approach, mind and body of the students work together

Give opportunity to students to visit a science museum as part of the

This can be an individual activity or group activity which helps

This method is a blend of text, audio, animation, video, still images or

ICT refers to the use of Information and Communications

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