Using Arts in Science Instruction

by: Aliza Marie S. Sagun

Underlying concepts in arts integration…

There are essentially three ways that the arts are

taught in schools.
1) The arts as the curriculum—
standards-based lessons in dance, music, theatre
and visual arts, usually taught by an arts specialist
teacher. For example, a lesson on singing
technique is taught by a credentialed music
teacher.
 Underlying concepts in arts integration…

2) The arts enhance the curriculum—the arts

help to create understandings in other
curricular areas. For example, a
classroom teacher uses a song to teach the
Elements of the Periodic Table
Underlying concepts in arts integration…
3) The arts are integrated with another curriculum in
a balanced way that supports learning in the arts
discipline and in the other curriculum. For example,
learning about meter and musical notation is
integrated with the understanding of “parts to a
whole” in mathematics.
 

The arts and arts integration in the schools are

enriched and supported when students are able to
experience high quality artwork and high quality
performances of dance, music and theatre.
Underlying concepts in arts integration…

Arts Integration is…

an APPROACH to TEACHING
in which students construct and demonstrate
UNDERSTANDING through an ART FORM.
Students engage in a CREATIVE PROCESS
which CONNECTS an art form and
another subject area and meets
EVOLVING OBJECTIVES in both.

The John F. Kennedy Center

for the Performing Arts
 Underlying concepts in arts integration…
Integrated arts lessons can be extremely rich and deeply
layered learning experiences for students who
experience them. Teachers report that with an integrated
curriculum that includes the arts, students have moments
of exhilaration, personal transformation, and academic
or life choice change…Many teachers, parents, students,
and administrators believe that integrating the arts
makes classrooms better learning environments. The arts
provide a window to understanding the connections
among all subject areas.

Southeast Center for Education in the Arts (SCEA),

University of Tennessee, Chattanooga
 Why Art and Science Together?

Science and art are two ways of knowing. As we make art

we practice what the two disciplines share:

•In both Arts and Science we

observe Nature closely.

•In both Arts and Science we

image and record what
we observe.
 Why Art and Science Together?

• In both Arts and Science we

discover and express
essential qualities.

• In both Arts and Science

we search for pattern and order.

• In both Arts and Science

we ask: "What if...?"
and then experiment.
The Arts Motivate Learners Powerfully: How?
• Art communicates to the whole person.
• Art-making combines a willingness to play with
the intense mindfulness of the child.
• Art makes a commitment to beauty, and to the joy
it brings.
As we make art we discover that we know more
than we thought
• Art has a splendid ability to heal the human heart.
 Some possible outside-the-box suggestions for
science teachers to bring some artistic expression in
their teaching

• Literature
•Videos
•Visual Medium
•Creative Writing
•Photography
•Singing/Dancing
Simulations in the Science Classroom
 What is a simulation?

Simulation is the imitation of the operation of a

real-world process or system.Students are
encouraged to learn through collaboration ,
conducting experiments and testing hypothesis.

Three Types of Simulations :

•all machine simulations
•person- machine simulations
• all-person simulations
 Why Use Simulations in the classroom?
• Shift from an industrial to a knowledge based society
demands that students acquire a new set of skills.
• Students need to develop the capacity to use
technological tools.
• Encourage Inquiry based learning.
• Studies suggest students think and learn more
effectively in an inquiry environment.
• Learning occurs when active experimentation is
combined with reflection.
• Educational programs need to foster creativity and
imagination.
• Students depend on seeing or interacting when involved
in learning opportunities.
• Students are already using technology.
Advantages to Using Simulations
 Have the ability to advance the experimental
knowledge of students regardless of age, stage or
location
 Allows students to input conditions and manipulate
an environment that can be analyzed
 Enhance the students’ active involvements in the
learning process.
 Enabling them to apply principles more often, and
helped students to meet the learning unit goals.
 Students tend to perform better on tests of scientific
and critical thinking skills.
 Advantages to Using Simulations
Promotes collaboration among learners as the
simulations can be manipulated and discussed.
Offers opportunities for learners to control and
manipulate variables for better understanding in a
safe environment.
Can record and track learner actions.
Use critical and creative thinking skills.
Increase students tolerance and their level of
acceptance of others’ thoughts and ideas.
Exposes learners to different ideas and experiment
with ideas.
Disadvantages With Using Simulations
•Some learners have difficulties interpreting the effects
of their actions due to lack of prior knowledge. Using
scaffolds to enhance their learning is critical.
•Time
•Money
•Technology
• Role of the teacher is very different than the
traditional role: now the facilitator, organizer and
manager.
•Teacher must be able to admit ignorance, let go of
total control or be able to tolerate chaos, and have the
confidence. Flexibility!
 Things for Teachers to Consider when
Implementing
1. Assign roles, allow students to chose the
roles or perhaps interview students for
various roles.
2. Assessment may have to be readjusted.
3. Simulations need to match the interests and
ability levels of the learner.
4. Be aware of the number of participants
required by the simulation, implementation
materials and space, implementation time
frame and time for debriefing.
Role-play in Science
Teaching
 What is role-play?
Role play is the act of imitating the character and behavior of
someone who is different from oneself.
Reasons why role-play may be a valuable educational tool:
1.It gives science teachers another option that can be used to link
their work with ‘the more feeling, creative side of education and as
a method of increasing the manipulation of factual material by
children. Example: Asking children to describe the water cycle to
their peers in the role of television weather presenters.
2.Many role-plays are based upon analogy, which helps children to
conceptualize and greatly increases learning. Example: Kinetic
theory, electrical currents and antibody–antigen interactions.
 Reasons why role-play may be a valuable educational tool:
3. It gives children a feeling of ‘ownership’ of their education.
‘Ownership’ refers to the way a child facilitates their own learning by
creating their own role-plays through either scripted or improvised
work. Example: To explain the way the planets orbit the Sun.
4. It can be used effectively to teach about moral or ethical issues arising
from the curriculum. Example: Debates about genetically manipulated
food production or the arguments for and against the opening of a new
quarry in the school’s playing field.
5. It can help children across the full spectrum of educational needs to
‘interpret their place in the world’. Example: Describing predator–prey
relationships gives children a chance to experience these events in a
physical way, which may be more appropriate to their personal learning
style.
Categories of Role Play
 Some examples of the uses of games in the science
curriculum.
1. Cut-and-stick - worksheets containing jumbled words, phrases or
pictures which children cut out and stick in the correct order. Examples of
curriculum applications: All aspects of the science curriculum, e.g. names of
planets; bones and organs of the body; Periodic Table; electrical symbols;
etc.
2. Card cycle - children work in groups to organize prepared information
cards into a loop. Examples of curriculum applications: Cyclic aspects of
science, e.g. water cycle; carbon cycle; nitrogen cycle; blood circulation;
decay cycle; rock cycle; food webs.
3. Memory game - ask pupils to remember everything that was on a table or
tray after looking at it for one minute. Examples of curriculum applications:
Biology, chemistry and physics apparatus or terms; metals and non-metals;
toy animals; various fuels.
 Some examples of the uses of games in the science
curriculum.
4. Matching cards - prepared cards of words and pictures; words and
definitions or word associations are arranged face-down on a table. Only
two cards can be picked-up at a time. The child keeps the matching pair.
The child with most cards at the end wins. Examples of curriculum
applications: Aspects of science that lend themselves to being matched,
e.g. terms and definitions; type of radiation and its source; machines and
how they work; devices and energy changes; organs and function;
diagrams and descriptions of electrical circuits; sound and source.
5. Board games - question and chance cards; trivial pursuits; ludo;
snakes and ladders; blockbusters; bingo. Examples of curriculum
applications: All aspects of the science curriculum, e.g. growth and
development; sex education; properties of chemicals; habitats; forces;
etc.
 Some examples of the uses of games in the science
curriculum.
6. 20 questions - stick a word or picture label on children’s backs.
Children can ask up to 20 questions to guess what is written on the
label. Answers are limited to yes or no. Children work in pairs.
Examples of curriculum applications: Elements, compounds and
mixtures; the Periodic Table; metals and non-metals; the skeleton;
cells and their function; classification; energy resources; types of
forces; chemical equations; electromagnetic spectrum; planets in the
solar system.
7. Dice game - children throw a dice to assemble a scientific diagram
which has had numbers assigned to various parts of it. Examples of
curriculum applications: Skeletal system; organs of the body; parts of
a flower; parts of the Periodic Table; electrical circuits.
Thank You For
Listening!