Bringing Abstract Concepts to Life in Science Classes

Biology is often a challenging subject for students to grasp, especially when we start tackling some of the more abstract concepts. A few years ago, I was getting ready to start our unit on cellular respiration—the process of using sugar in our body to make a usable form of cellular energy known as ATP—and wanted to find a way to make this topic more engaging and more memorable for my students.

After taking some time to think about what might work, I finally settled on using skits to help my students explore biology concepts. Not only were my students far more engaged than I’d seen before, but they were genuinely understanding the content.

USING SKITS TO ENHANCE LEARNING

Skits can improve self-expression, perspective taking, and collaboration. Additionally, they allow more students to participate in new ways and provide a real-world context for the topics we are exploring. For the cellular respiration unit, our first skit was about three people at an apple-eating contest during which they ate so many apples they got sick. I handed out copies of the script and asked for three volunteers to participate. 

Apple-Eating Contest Script, Part 1

“Tatiana, Amy and I are going to an apple-eating contest! Wanna come?” Samantha asked.

“Sure, Samantha. I’m a true health advocate, and I think apples will be good for me!” Tatiana replied happily.

“Well, don’t try TOO hard because I’ve been practicing every day,” Samantha said.

“How?” Tatiana asked.

“You’ll see!” Samantha replied.

“Amy, you look like you’re ready for the contest!” Tatiana said.

“What’s that?” Samantha looked at the bag Tatiana was carrying.

“Oh, it’s some bagels I’ve been munching on this morning,” Tatiana replied.

“Nice, Tatiana, but I don’t think it will help you eat more apples,” Samantha said.

While some of the students who wanted to perform were the same students who would often raise their hands to answer questions, there were also a number of other students who were excited to participate in class in a way that didn’t have the pressure of answering a question correctly.

After watching part one of the skit, students began formulating questions about the scenario. I then introduced part two of the skit and asked for new volunteers. This allowed for more of my students to participate in a new and exciting way. In part two, our character Tatiana wakes up feeling sick, later faints, and goes to the emergency room.

Next, I handed out Tatiana’s lab reports from the hospital, all made up by me, and asked students to deduce, based on the information provided, what happened at the cellular level. They found out that there is cyanide in apple seeds, and highly excessive consumption of them can lead to the disruption of cellular respiration. As students worked through the information provided, they were acting as the clinicians in the skit to figure out what had happened.

INCORPORATING SKITS IN SCIENCE

After that first skit, I knew I wanted to incorporate skits more frequently in my science classroom and continued to do so throughout the year. If you’re looking to create a memorable and engaging experience in your classroom, I recommend trying skits too.

To do so, start by picking a unit with a particular phenomenon that connects to students’ lives. For example, in one unit, I focused on caffeine, which all of my students are familiar with. Once you have the topic, you’ll need to create a data set for students to explore. I like to include varied information—interviews, diagrams, genetic information—that students will get to explore as part of the skit.

Then, it is time to weave together a narrative that addresses the specific phenomenon you’ve chosen. I try to make the scenario relatable and interesting, but also make sure there is a question for students to answer—generally, the question is, why did this happen? It can be helpful to leverage AI when writing a script if you are struggling to put together the narrative.

I don’t do this for every unit—partly because it can take a lot of planning time to put together, and because not every unit is a good fit for it. But when I do incorporate a skit, my students benefit from the real-world application and ability to engage with the content in a different way.

Once you have decided to create a skit, and you have the script and data needed, it’s time to bring it to life with your students. You may decide to randomly select students to act out the parts or rely on volunteers. I’ve found that relying on volunteers works well for my students, as everyone gets to participate in the investigation portion of the activity when students work together to review the data and determine what happened to the patient in our story.

Once students have determined what they think has happened, we come back together as a class to discuss their ideas and formalize the learning. I ask students to write up an explanation letter to the patient in the story that includes their diagnosis and the scientific explanation of their situation.

Over time, you can introduce more variations into your skits as students get more comfortable with the format. For example, you can ask students to work in small groups to create their own scripts to illustrate a specific scientific concept and then perform it for the class.

I’ve seen how much my students not only enjoy our skits in class, but also enjoy how much the skits really help them engage with and understand the content. Concepts come alive in our classroom, students work creatively together, and they build their analytic skills, all while having fun.