Introduction:
Studying science via drama can help students experience science in a way that involves and motivates them to develop an understanding of the world. Acting can be a different technique to incorporate to break the continuity of conventional teaching methodology and also it is a very useful tool to help students communicate their emotions and stimulate classroom conversation.
Pedagogical Methods and tools:
Our aim in using this strategy is not to teach students but to check how well they have understood the states of matter and its characteristics.
Each of these activities can be used to define the characteristics of Solids, Liquids and Gasses.
Characteristic 1 – Motion/Shape by Silent Simon Says! drama activity
Divide students into groups, each acting as an atom.Consider marking a circle outline for each state.When the teacher says, “Solid”, students (particles) must run together, form a grid pattern and walk on the spot as solid particles at motion vibrate in their fixed position and their shape remains same irrespective of the outline givenWhen the teacher says, “Liquid”, students must walk around each other but still be quite close and take the same shape as the outline.When the teacher says, “Gas”, students must run as far away from each other as possible and move out of the given outline.
Characteristic 2 – Density/Compressibility of a state by Keyword Charades drama activity
Allow a group of students to pick a card in which the density of each state is written. For instance, particles are tightly packed together or not compressible, particles are loosely packed or slightly compressible and particles are widely spaced and very compressible.The group acting out will first have to decode the characteristic to find which state is being mentioned.Teacher can suggest to the students that one member of their team can act as an alien atom trying to fit in their given state and to act how the other atoms of the state would react to this keeping in mind the density of each.For instance, Can he/she run through atoms in a solid as easily as a gas?
These activities are a great opportunity for a teacher to find out what students are really thinking and where they have not understood the concept properly.
Science is a fun subject which can be taught with experiments and activities. Using unconventional methods of teaching subjects will give a new dimension of seeing things and help teachers to break the stereotypical classroom norms.
