Science teacher Pam McWilliams facilitated a workshop on strategies for integrating critical creativity into the classroom, which included creating Phrankonwords, (re)captioning comics, and sharing other ideas (Eg, birth announcement, baby book or eulogy for an element and blackout poetry).  It wasn't, however, until I was reviewing her presentation several days later that I realized her work and workshop had been inspired by a book, Intention: Critical Creativity in the Classroom.  I immediately ordered a copy from Amazon...and upon its arrival, I realized I knew one of the authors, Dan Ryder.  In fact, it was during EdCampWesternMaine that I'd first learned about SketchNoting during a mini-session that Dan facilitated! 

​I've only just started to dive into the book, but I've already used it not only for designing several creative challenges for my chemistry students.   Building on the idea of having students create an analogy or metaphor to represent a topic, I recently had my students create quick comics (they only had about 15 minutes to complete the task) using Storyboardthat.com to convey key concepts related to covalent bonding (student sample).  As a quick formative assessment, it was useful for helping me to see where students had misconceptions or had not yet solidified key ideas, and pave the way for a conversation about the common mistakes to clarify the differences between ionic and covalent bonding. For example, in this example, students highlighted the idea of sharing electrons, but were incorrectly attributing charges (partial or full!).  In another example, my student mixed up covalent and ionic bonding all together.   It also provided an opportunity to talk about the accuracy or limitations of analogies in representing specific science concepts.     

On a personal level, the idea of critical creativity resonates with my own teaching-to-learn strategies for targeting 21st century skills (6Cs) by getting students to creatively problem solve, to practice communicating their understanding using multiple modalities or media, and to make personal connections with the content we are learning.  Not only does the book provide ideas for having students show their understanding in a plethora of different ways, it also provides strategies for better assessing and providing feedback about creative products. Based on the assessment section, I recently modified our podcast rubric to a #SinglePointRubric format, and asked my students to use the rubric to provide feedback.  I think students had a clearer idea of what proficiency looked like and how to comment on what was exceptional or needed some love--and it was considerably less convoluted and bulky than our normal 4-scale rubric.  

If you haven't yet checked out this book, or Dan and Amy's work, I would highly suggest it--it is inspiring and FUN!  Every time I go exploring through their work, its a bit of an adventure down the rabbit hole--and while getting lost in the multitude of side-trips, I always find a variety of gems to immediately take back to my own students.

How are you integrating critical creativity into your own classroom?  What are your favorite tools and challenges?  And, how do you support students who are less comfortable with or confident engaging with creative challenges?

It's been a while since I've taught chemistry, and in all honesty, the content has always intimidated me a bit, in large part because I just couldn't relate to it on a human-level the way that I could in bio and even physics.  In order to help my chemistry students connect with our content on a more personal level, I decided to take an unorthodox approach to our study of atomic structure and nuclear chemistry: a focus on the nuclear arms race, research ethics and the nature of science.*

My original inspiration for this was a workshop I'd attended at the 2013 National Noyce Conference by Regina Toolin and Beth White of the UVM that was focused on teaching science for social justice.  During the workshop, the facilitators had us participate in a gallery walk reviewing photos of the devastation of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, coupled with an audio experience listening to an interview of author Denise Kiernan talking about her book The Girls of Atomic City.  

​has photos of Oak Ridge and the female workers at Atomic City.  Students use a "Noticings & Wonderings" T-chart to record observations and questions about the gallery they observe, then engage in discussion about their gallery before viewing the other gallery.  Afterwards, students listen to the audio clip, then write a blog post reflecting on their perspectives regarding the ethics related to development of the bomb and hiring of workers to refine uranium without disclosing what they were doing (sample blog 1, sample blog 2). 

Although I think this approach was effective at helping my students to connect with the content and scientists, I think I would modify this in the future to better diversify the story line.  

• read only select segments of Bomb (discovery of fission, chain reaction)
• incorporate parts of Trinity: A Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb
• incorporate parts of Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women​

In the past, after studying fission/fusion, we have also investigated nuclear disasters and the impact of radiation on the human body, which I think I would bring back in lieu of focusing on the entire book.  

Well, you never know until you try, right?!