Table 1 Examples of the subject areas, questions and type of activities used by teachers (Alexopoulos et al., 2019)
From: STEAM teaching professional development works: effects on students’ creativity and motivation
Subject | Questions | Activities |
|---|---|---|
CERN | • What happens at CERN? • What does the LHC do? • How do particle detectors work? | • Animated videos with photos of student’s work • Group work – poster/model making • Video link session with CERN • Web page displaying student’s research work • Immersion play activities (games using digital apps) • Creative story/comic writing |
The scientific process | • Why and how did early man discover science? • How does science work (observations, patterns, possible explanations, testing experiments, revisions, judgements)? • How do we know what we know? | • “Black box” activity • Immersion play • activities (puzzles) • Simple class experiments • Animated videos |
Famous scientists | • What did Newton believe about gravity? • What did Einstein believe about gravity? • What did the ancient Greeks know about science? • Who are the most important physicists of the 19th and twentieth century and what did they discover? | • Group work – poster/model making • Immersion play activities (treasure hunt) |
Fundamental particles | • What are the fundamental particles of matter? • How do particles interact with one another? | • Immersion play Activities (dramatization, quiz) • Group work – poster/model making • Creative story/comic writing |
Fundamental forces | • What is gravity? • How do fundamental forces compare in strength? | • Immersion play activities (games) • Group work – poster/model making • Interactive talk with demos from teacher |
Structure of matter | • What are atoms and molecules? • How did Rutherford discover the structure of the atom? | • Group work – poster/model making • Group work using simulations • Immersion play Activities (dramatization, cooking) • Interactive talk with demos from teacher |
Matter and Antimatter | • What is antimatter? • How does matter interact with antimatter? | • Group work – poster/model making • Immersion play activities (dramatization) |
Light | • How do the different colors of visible light combine? | • Simple class experiments |
Cosmology | • How did the Universe begin? • What is in our solar system? • Why is the sky at night black? • What is the relative size of planets, stars, galaxies? | • Creative story writing • Sky observation using mobile phone apps • Group work –poster/model making • Creative story/comic writing |