Science and Culture

Activity to Enculturate Students to Scientific Culture

Activity Name: Bio Role Play                          

Grade: VI-X

Time: 120 minutes

Activity Description

Scientific way of thinking, investigation, and knowledge production is one of the prominent aspects of Scientific Culture. To enculturate students to scientific way of thinking, students will be involved in a Bio Role Play based on “Scientific Method”. In this activity, students will be divided into the groups of 5 students. Students will be first made aware of the scientific method. Teacher will give a detailed introduction of the scientific method. Then, teacher will ask students to think of the scenario and make a role play on that, in which they will have to go through the scientific process in order to develop the new scientific knowledge. In that scientific investigation, they will have a subject(topic) for investigation in which they must have to go through the steps of scientific method. They will have to make a role play of 5-8 minutes in which each student have a role to play. When students work on the role play, teacher will monitor students' work. She will guide them to the right track, assist them when they need, also give them feedback on their ideas to work in the right direction. When they will finish working on their role play, they will have to present it in front of the whole class. Teacher and other students can ask questions, provide feedback, give comments, and suggest something for improvement.

Purpose of the Activity

The purpose of this activity is to involve students in the scientific thinking-an important aspect of scientific culture. Students will also experience the way scientists work through a systematic way to produce the new knowledge. They will also identify honesty, integrity, objectivity, adherence to ethical guidelines, data collection, logic, evidence, and evaluation as the core aspects of the scientific investigation and scientific knowledge production. 

Time for each Activity

Topic Introduction by Teacher: 15 minutes

Time for Preparing the Role Play: 40 minutes

Time for each Group’s Role Play Presentation: 5-8 minutes (40 minutes for 5 groups)

Time for questions answers/feedback/comments/suggestions: 3 minutes(for each group)

Note: Time for each activity can vary in accordance with the teacher presentation time, nature of the topic, time allowed for role play, number of students, and level of students.