Science Analogies

Science Analogies are a perfect warm-up to start your science lesson! They are also a great science station. Both applications will elicit deep thinking about science concepts and will force students to make connections to help them remember what they have learned.

I used science analogies as a warm-up in my 5th grade science classroom. We played the "ticket game" to get students to think of multiple answers. Our school-wide reward system was tickets, so every new answer that was defended with a good reason earned a student one ticket. If the student repeated someone else's answer, they owed that student a ticket! They had to listen to each other to keep their tickets! I also had a "secret answer" that was worth 2 tickets, so when a student gave me that answer, their reward doubled. It was amazing to hear connections that I hadn't ever thought of! This is perfect for challenging the G/T type thinkers to come up with the different and unusual connections but equally good for ESL and at-risk students to make basic connections.

Another teacher used analogies in her science stations, usually giving the students the card with 3 analogies and having them list as many possible answers as they could.