Tips For Science Instruction Blog730x398

Tips for science instruction with Flocabulary

Hip-hop videos and supporting activities for earth science, life science, physics, chemistry, and technology & engineering will complement and enhance your instruction, whether you’re introducing concepts, mastering key terms and ideas, or reviewing before exams. Flocabulary’s science videos are aligned to Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and state standards. 

Connect science with current events

The Week in Rap often includes science news. Preview The Week in Rap video each week to see if it includes a story you’d like to share. You can also get more proactive with your science news: each week, ask students to find a news story related to science and set aside time to share it with the lass. Bonus points if it relates to a current topic you’re studying!

The Week in Rap is available for grades 6-12 and The Week in Rap Junior is available for grades 3-5 with Flocabulary’s signature hip-hop video and supporting activities like the Vocab Game, Vocab Cards, Quiz, and Lyric Lab.

Relate the scientific method to everyday life

Students can practice using the scientific method to create an experiment relevant to their daily lives. In this activity students will define the steps of the scientific method and use it to create an experiment, demonstrating mastery of the scientific process through the lesson.

Students can start by watching Flocabulary’s Scientific Method video. Students should pay particular attention to the hook of the video, which lays out the steps of the scientific method. After, review the scientific method steps as a class. When the video is complete students can click on the Lyric Notes for more information.

Students can use the steps of the scientific method to answer many questions in everyday life. If they can ask the question, they can apply the scientific method to answer it. As a class, choose one of the questions from the list below – feel free to add your own! Discuss how you would use the scientific method to answer the question.

List of everyday questions to test scientifically:

  • What is the fastest route from my house to school?
  • What breakfast gives you the most energy in PE class?
  • What is the most popular lunch option in the cafeteria?
  • What type of joke makes my little brother laugh the most?
  • What annoys my best friend the most?
  • What time of day do I feel most awake?
  • What is the best baseball team in the league?
  • When is the best time to go to the grocery store to avoid lines?

Ask students to design their own experiment to answer a question from their list. Their experiment outline should include the question, hypothesis, experiment summary, the analysis of results, a conclusion to show whether the hypothesis was correct, and a discussion with the class to communicate the results as the last step of the scientific method.

Bring literacy and informational texts into science instruction

We know teachers are always looking for ways to bring literacy into every curriculum area through informational texts. Grade-level informational texts can sometimes be difficult to find in some subject areas. With Flocabulary, every lesson in every subject area includes a Read & Respond activity which increases students’ vocabulary exposure for that lesson. In Read & Respond students read an informational text about the lesson topic and respond to questions about the text. This activity is great for simulating what standardized tests look like and having students practice comprehension of informational texts regularly.

Connect science to historical science figures

With Flocabulary’s K-12 standards-aligned lessons teachers can create cross-curricular lessons by bringing in social studies and ELA into any lesson. Flocabulary’s collection of historical figures include many historical science figures students could research.

Check out a few of our favorites:

Check out Flocabulary’s science lessons on life science, earth and space science, physical science, technology and engineering, and scientific practices.