Students’ age range: 12-14
Main subject: Religious education
Topic: Theories of Creation
Description: Given prepared observation sheets for students to use as a guide in watching videos related to nature. Students will give an oral report of their observations from the videos. Using observation sheets, students will be asked to identify the numerous plants and animals seen within the video. A guided discussion will develop to discuss the students’ observation and to help the students better understand the concept of nature.
After the discussion, the students will be brainstormed by the teacher to ascertain the definition for each key term. The terms nature, creation, stewardship, theories and stories will be recorded on the board in the form of a semantic web. The students will be instructed to look under their chair for a term or phrase that is associated with each term, which they will pin on the semantic web. The students will then be given 5 minutes to formulate a definition for each term. Selected students will share their definition for each term which will be recorded on the board. A guided discussion will ensue to discuss each definition given by the student and to clarify any misunderstandings.
The students will watch a digital story about the theories of creations. The students will be given purpose questions to guide them as they watch the digital story. As the students watch the digital story, the students will be interrupted at different intervals to answer the purpose question (s) associated with that particular theory as well as to get the students’ understanding of the theory. A discussion will develop to clarify the students’ misunderstandings.
The students will then be given a S.T.E.M activity in pairs to see how well they are thinking about the creation of the world.
S.T.E.M ACTIVITY
What You Need
? 12-inch (30-cm) round latex balloon
? a permanent felt-tip marking pen
? 24-inch (60-cm) piece of string
? metric ruler
What to Do
1. Inflate your balloon until it is about 4 inches (10 cm) in diameter, but do not tie the end.
2. Using the felt-tip marker, make six dots on the balloon in widely scattered locations. Label one dot "home" and the others A-E. The home dot represents the Milky Way galaxy, and the others represent galaxies formed in the early universe. 3
3. Without letting air out of the balloon, use the string and ruler to measure the distance from home to each dot. Record the distances in the worksheet table under the heading "Time 1."
4. Inflate the balloon so that its diameter is about 2 inches (5 cm) bigger. Again, measure the distances to each of the dots, and record the distances under "Time 2" on the worksheet.
5. Inflate the balloon in 2-inch (5-cm) increments three more times. After each inflation, measure and record the distances on the worksheet.
6. Answer the follow-up questions on the worksheet.
The students will then engage in a fishbowl activity. The students will be given a series of guiding quest...