Imagine Science

(2017)

Imagine Science is a co-design project developed in collaboration with a 9th grade biology class at Børne U.N.I. på Vesterbro, an elementary school in Copenhagen. In this project, I and a fellow co-designer, Andrea Østmo da Costa, explored how traditional ways of teaching could be challenged by creative methods. We were interested in exploring whether including more creativity in science classes could inspire students and make them learn and retain knowledge better (compared to traditional teaching), as well as better including the students that would normally find science classes a bit challenging.

Throughout the project we were in continuous dialogue with both teachers and students of the 9th grade biology class. Together with them we designed a creative activity, based on the curriculum of Darwin’s evolution theories, that involved the students to come up with their own ideas and use theory in new ways. The project developed into a teaching concept/framework, Imagine Science, aimed at science teachers who would like to challenge their “traditional” teaching didactics and inspire their students to creatively engage with the theory at hand.

The students’ feedback from participating in the project was that being given a creative task as such, where they would have the freedom to create their own content and learnings, based on theory, was especially rewarding and empowering. The teachers’ feedback resembled that of the students, as well as having a concrete framework to work from made it easier for them to engage with the material.

 After the project’s end, we have been in contact with the teachers at Børne U.N.I., who have told us they are still using the framework for their science classes, which we (of course) were very happy to hear. The images and videos below explain the process of the project, and the content of the final deliverable.