Watch a team of fifth-grade teachers share how they used science theater to help students understand how dye molecules in chromatography. The teachers identify the importance of active movement and familiar metaphors to support understanding of unobservable explanatory ideas.
Engaging in kinesthetic learning can enhance access to complex ideas and expand what learning looks like in science. Further, integrating the mind and body resists dividing these ways of knowing and privileging one over the other.
Also, see our example from a dual-language classroom, with a critical equity stance.
Read more about how science theater can resist a mind-body divide: Varelas, M., Kotler, R. T., Natividad, H. D., Phillips, N. C., Tsachor, R. P., Woodard, R., Gutierrez, M., Melchor, M. A., & Rosario, M. (2022). “Science theatre makes you good at science”: Affordances of embodied performances in urban elementary science classrooms. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 9(4), 493-528.
Teacher Jenny teaches Science along with other...
This page compiles the contributions to the 2026 NARST symposium, drawing on the expertise of local teachers in Seattle who participated in the PASTEL research project.
To raise awareness of the class’s diverse needs and expertise, teacher Emma intentionally adopts anti-ableist and linguistically-inclusive pedagogies that showcase her commitment to building a classroom of interdependence and care. See how she does this!
This site is primarily funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through Award #1907471 and #1315995