There are a variety of science teaching methods you can draw upon when helping students

understand their world.

Whilst there are several approaches to try, the most important thing to keep in mind is that our
role as science educators is to help students understand how the scientific method actually
works and why science impacts upon their own lives.

Things to keep in mind when considering a science teaching method

 Group dynamics.
Who works well with who? Who can handle cooperative group situations and who needs time to work
by themselves?
 Student ability.
This is not simply about science understanding, this also about their ability to undertake the work with
the materials at hand.
 Timeframe.
Is the teaching method likely to be successful given how long it takes to get students on task and the
anticipated outcomes?
 Context.
How does the scientific concept relate to their lives?
 Content.
Which teaching method will help the students best understand the lesson material?

Methods for teaching science

All science teaching methods come down to either teacher-centred or student-centred
instruction. Both types of instruction have their place, however in practice have very different
dynamics in the classroom.

Lecture (teacher-centred)

In this approach, it is the teacher that is the focus. Students either passively take notes or ask
questions through the teacher’s presentation. Handy for large groups of students or for when you
need to get through a large body of information. The key to this lesson style is to keep it lively by
inserting graphics, video snippets, animations, science demonstrations, audio grabs or guest
appearances via video conference. To help increase the engagement during a lecture, try
incorporating student polling using Poll Everywhere, Plickers, Quizizz or Kahoot. The advantage
of getting active student feedback is that this formative assessment can help shape your lecture
and future lessons to fit the student’s needs.

Hands-on activities (student-centred)

Break out the experiment materials! Whether the students work in small groups or by
themselves, the lesson has a clear question that students need to find an answer to with the
teacher acting as a facilitator. There are a few variations here;

 Students follow an experimental procedure with a clear set of instructions and scaffold for
their scientific report.
 Students explore the materials themselves to design and test their own fair experiment,
keeping variable testing in mind. This version is better for students who already have a clear
understanding of the scientific method and are now ready for independent thinking
 Station-based rotations. Here the students rotate around the classroom to explore a variety of hands-
on materials that all cover an aspect of your lesson topic. The trick here is to ensure that there is
enough time for the students to complete each activity and that there are no bottlenecks in terms of
access to resources or one particular activity taking too long to complete. A fun way to link all the
 stations together to pull together a scenario such as a forensics investigation; some students will
enjoy the role-play!

You can find over 150 free science experiments here

Project Based learning (student-centred)

This teaching method draws on the hands-on nature of the activities above and extends this to
involve students in a deep dive into a given topic. Time is the key here, as students will be
engaged over an extended period of time in researching their topic, designing their experiment or
model, writing a scientific report or creating a poster and presenting their findings in a short talk.
When planning this in your scope and sequence, consider access to resources both within and
beyond your school and how the students might be able to involve the community in their
research or as an audience for the final presentation at a school science fair. Often part of
inquiry-based instruction, the outputs of Project Based Learning (PBL) can include several of the
following as a major work;

 Field journal
 Student Podcast
 Working model
 Science poster
 Research paper
 Video diaries
 Augmented reality or Virtual reality
 App creation

The outcome doesn’t necessarily have to be informal too; try emulating the entrepreneurial show
Shark Tank and have students compete for a prize in a pitchfest!

Peer-led team learning (student-centred)

Peer-led team learning (PLTL) is about empowering the students to teach other students. Often
employed in undergraduate studies, this approach also works in schools where it is most
effective when connecting older students with younger students. Alternatively, PLTL can also be
used when pairing students with a high subject aptitude with students needing help. Guidance is
important here as you need to ensure that what is being covered is correct and safely performed.
With supervision, this approach can be effective for students to learn leadership skills and can
create a positive atmosphere around scholarship.

Flipped learning (student-centred)

Flipped learning has gained a lot of popularity in recent years. The idea is that the instructional
content is given to the students outside of normal school time, with the intention that students
can then come to school with deeper questions for teacher clarification. you can present this
content via a series of videos, articles and books to read, podcasts to listen to, investigating a
problem and so on. There is much debate on how to best implement this in the classroom; in
essence, you need to consider how your students will respond to flipped learning and how you
can motivate them to trial it. A handy app to use with this is Flipgrid, whereby you can record a
very short video question to your class and the students then respond to you with their answers
via video as well.

Differentiation (student-centred)

Differentiation is all about ensuring that students of all levels can be involved in your lesson. You
may want to create worksheets with different tasks or levels of difficulty, perhaps have a variety
 of activities for students to choose from or create a variety of job roles for students when running
PBL. Of course, with differentiation comes a time requirement to prepare the lesson, however it
can help with students being more on task as they can choose tasks that they can achieve. You
can differentiate tasks as both extension activities as well as design activities for students who
need more support.

It’s up to you!

Without a doubt, the list of teaching methods above is just a brief overview of what you can try in
your classroom. In reality, there are many ways to teach science and you might find that you’ll
blend methods together and change on the fly depending on how your students are responding.
No matter what, it’s not just about the technology but more about the pedagogy. Have a chat with
your fellow teachers or reach out to others via Twitter on the myriad of professional learning
networks for advice. As always if you’ve got any thoughts on the above or advice, pop it in the
comments below or get in touch!

Methods for teaching science

 Lecture (teacher-centred) ...
 Hands-on activities (student-centred) ...
 Project Based learning (student-centred) ...
 Peer-led team learning (student-centred) ...
 Flipped learning (student-centred) ...
 Differentiation (student-centred) ...
 It's up to you! ...
 Further enrichment ideas.
Science Teaching Approaches
and Strategies