Science ROCKS! (wk 2)

Welcome to week 2 of My Drama Toolkit!

This week, we focused on Gardner's U Curve which essentially discusses young children and adults tend to draw more expressively and creatively, where as middle aged children (around age 8 - 11) tend to draw more literally and therefore less creatively. Essentially, when they are in this in-between stage, students tend to be scared to take risks because of the fear of "getting it wrong or failing". Therefore, they want to be with the rest of the class and not really stand out. This is important to remember when teaching students of this age - not only in the Arts, but in ANY subject area! This is where Drama can be integrated in other curriculum areas! Drama allows students to express themselves, open up to different perspectives and have fun with their peers in an environment free from judgment!

This week, our class was focused on integrated Science and Drama through the topic of the Rock Cycle. This topic is found in the Grade 4 Science Curriculum. (To be completely honest, learning about sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rocks was a review for me!) A great resource that was introduced to us, was Online story Captain Igneous Rock Cycle - https://goo.gl/CeaUZJ . This is essentially a book based on the rock cycle but written for 4th grade students. The first way we integrated the Drama into the rock cycle was through a Tableaux. Tableaux's are essentially a still image that communicates a process/interaction/idea. Essentially, we had to use our bodies to portray how the rock became that way. In my group, we were Metamorphic rock which has the force of the ocean and heat from the magma acting upon it. So, for our tableaux we had 3 different still images. The last image was the one on the right, where we have 4 individual rocks (the people sitting on the table), the force of the ocean (the person on top pushing down) and the force of the magma (the person under the table). Tying this week's theory by Gardner and connecting it to last week's theory by Dwyer (1996), we were given the freedom to express the Rock Cycle in a way that was meaningful to us. And through the act of DOING, I am able to better understand the cycle myself and I am able to explain to others what is actually happening. Essentially, we are active learners and are making meaning of what we are learning. 

In addition to creating a tableaux, it is important to consider the following:

Feature	Descriptors
Character	Who? / What?	When? / Where?	Why? / How?
Levels	High	Medium	Low
Expression	Open	Neutral	Closed
Gesture	Relaxed	Neutral	Tense
Space	Expanded	Neutral	Confined

The game that really stood out to me, was the Chair Game where students are split into the 3 different types of rock. When Igneous is called, all the students with that name must get up and move to a different spot. There will always be one person left over who calls the groups to move. When "EROSION" is called the entire class must get up and find a new seat! I think that this is a great way for students to become familiar with the vocabulary before diving deeper into the content. This game could easily be modified and changed for other subject areas! 


Another great activity was the Machines where students are able to dramatize a process. For example, since this week we were talking about the rock cycle, we made a "rock machine". Essentially, acting out the different stages that a rock goes under within the process. I think that this is a great consolidation activity where the teacher is able to see whether the students grasped the concepts or not. To the right we can see the process of how our rocks were getting pushed by both the force of the ocean and heat from magma to create metamorphic rocks. 

When teaching any subject, some students may find Voice Over Narration to be a fun way to express themselves. In the presentation this week, the group played a video on Youtube and each group had to come up with a voice-over of what was shown on the screen. Through this activity, students are able to take on different perspectives and creatively think through their lens. Therefore I believe that this can be a great tool to teach students persuasive writing and knowing how to argue your point.

Science should be a subject where students are able to express themselves. They are able to do so through the integration of Science and Drama!