A Discussion Storyboard is a storyboard that is designed to promote discussion in the classroom. Each storyboard is a situation or a question that is paired with a visual and different viewpoints on the situation. At the most basic level, they will show a problem with fictitious students giving their opinion on the problem. Normally at least one of the characters will give the scientifically accepted viewpoint, with the other characters giving misconceptions.
In the example above, the students are looking at how a simple circuit works. There is a cell that briefly shows what the students are looking at, then four additional cells where each student gives their opinion on the phenomenon. In each of the opinion cells, there is a circuit diagram to support the opinion statement of the students.
| Sara | “The bulb will be brighter the closer it is to the battery.” | Sara is incorrect because the brightness of a bulb does not depend on its location in the circuit. This statement was chosen because it is a common misconception among students that the closer a bulb is to the battery, the brighter it will be. This misconception stems from students not correctly understanding current. |
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| Chelsea | “It doesn’t matter where you put the bulb in the circuit.” | Chelsea is correct because the brightness of a bulb does not depend on its location in the circuit. If students need further evidence to believe this is correct, it is easy to demonstrate this using a battery, a bulb, and some wires. |
| Jose | “The bulb will be dimmer the closer it is to the battery.” | Jose is incorrect because the brightness of a bulb does not depend on its location in the circuit. This statement was chosen to elicit any other misconceptions surrounding bulb brightness due to its location in a circuit. |
| Curtis | “The bulb will be bright if we only connect it to one side of the battery.” | Curtis is incorrect because in order for the circuit to work, it needs to be complete. This statement was chosen to elicit many misconceptions about complete/incomplete circuits. Some students believe that circuits don’t need to have two wires to work. This misconception could come from the fact we only plug one cable into an outlet in our homes. |
Discussion Storyboards are extremely useful tools in the Science classroom as both a pre-assessment tool and creative way to get students thinking critically. They allow you to assess student understanding within a topic; this assessment could take place at the start of a topic as a baseline, or at the end of a lesson or unit to check the level of understanding of a concept. Discussion Storyboards provide a fantastic stimulus for meaningful classroom discussion by encouraging students to think and talk about complex science ideas. This forces students to be active in their learning and creative in explaining ideas. They motivate all students to get involved and are especially effective with students for whom literacy is a barrier to learning, as they are designed to have minimal amounts of writing.
Discussion Storyboards are also a great tool to elicit student misconceptions. Students have a wide range of ideas coming into the Science classroom; students form misconceptions when they are young and trying to make sense of the world, usually heavily influenced by experiences. These misconceptions are individual for each child, but often students have similar ideas on how the natural world works. Such preconceived notions can be very difficult to get rid of. Each of the Discussion Storyboards listed below has been designed so each of the viewpoints are on equal footing. Students will be unable to work out which is the accepted viewpoint from the context of the storyboard, leading to in-depth conversations about student ideas and reasoning.
Students can be open and free to criticize and challenge ideas without feeling they might upset someone. Because the idea doesn’t belong to them or anyone else in their class, they can be more confident in pointing out the flaws in reasoning. No student enjoys getting the wrong answer in class, so the imaginary characters can help students discuss their ideas without fear of hurting feelings. While the completed examples here all use the same four students, Sara, Chelsea, Jose, and Curtis, you can create Discussion Storyboards with any characters.
Discussion Storyboards can be used in a number of ways. First and foremost, they are used as a stimulus for discussion, whether they be for teacher-led class discussions or for student-led discussions of pairs or small groups. When beginning a class discussion, the simplest question to ask is, “Who do you think is correct?”. You can make this more difficult by asking, “Why do you think they are correct?”. This question encourages students to explain their thinking. To stretch your most able students, have them try to spot the misconceptions that feature in the viewpoints of the other students by asking the question, “Why do you think the other students are incorrect?”. Differentiate your questions to different students to allow all of them to access the lesson.
You can also give them to students to discuss in groups. This encourages students to manage discussion on their own and learn how to deal with a difference of opinion effectively. This can then be wrapped up quickly as a class discussion with a show of hands. An advantage to discussing in smaller groups is students will spend more time talking and discussing their ideas and less time listening.
They can also be a great tool to inspire scientific investigation. After discussing the different viewpoints, have students design an investigation, individually or in groups, to see who is correct using the Storyboard That experiment planning resources.
The easiest way to use Storyboard That alongside these Discussion Storyboards is to give students a completed storyboard and instruct them to add a cell onto the end. In this cell, students can explain who they think is correct and why. Or, get students to show their ideas and understanding by completing a storyboard like the ones below.
Ultimately, to really challenge your students, have them make their own discussion storyboards. This is a great activity to complete at the end of learning about a topic.
There are a number of Discussion Storyboards already prepared for a number of different topics at all school levels below. For these to be most effective, it is important to tailor these to your students, either by modifying the examples given, or creating your own from scratch.
When making your own from scratch, consider the following:
Use images to help describe the context or the characters difference viewpoints.
Research misconceptions in the topic that you are teaching and include common misconceptions as wrong answers. Including these will allow you to challenge these misconceptions head on.
Mix up the students. Make sure that one of the Discussion Storyboard characters isn’t always right or always wrong. Alternatively, have different characters each time.
Think about leaving one of the speech bubbles blank. Leaving a speech bubble blank means that no ideas are off the table. This then allows you to open up the conversation to student ideas, which can elicit any further misconceptions students may have.
Try to steer away from contexts that are too abstract by framing the problem in an everyday context. This way, students can easily relate to it and make links with their everyday world.
Make sure that at least one of your characters viewpoints is correct.
Looking for other ways to incorporate these discussion boards in your classroom? Create worksheets to facilitate science discussions. These worksheets can be used digitally, or you can print them out to have students fill in. They're so easy to customize that you can gear them toward any topic! Completing a worksheet may be beneficial for students who still find it hard to participate in the class discussion, and allows you to review any still existing misconceptions after a unit to ensure no students are singled out.
Feel free to adapt any of these examples for your class by creating a copy and modifying as you would like.
Check out these discussion storyboard activities from our guides on Motion, Basic Cells, and States of Matter.
Teachers can use science discussion storyboards in a variety of ways. They can assign students to create their own storyboards to demonstrate their understanding of a concept, or they can use pre-made storyboards to introduce new topics. Teachers can also use storyboards as a starting point for class discussions, asking students to analyze the storyboard and discuss their observations and conclusions.
Science discussion storyboards can be created for almost any scientific topic, from the life cycle of a butterfly to the physics of sound waves. Some examples of scientific topics that are particularly well-suited for discussion storyboards include the water cycle, the human body, the solar system, and the periodic table.
Yes, science discussion storyboards can be used with students of all ages, from elementary school through college. The complexity of the storyboard should be tailored to the age and knowledge level of the students.
Science discussion storyboards can support STEM education initiatives by helping students develop critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills. By creating and analyzing storyboards, students can learn to think creatively and systematically, and they can develop the skills necessary to solve real-world problems. Additionally, using storyboards can help make STEM topics more accessible and engaging to students who may not otherwise be interested in science.