The strengths of Chatta in supporting pupils’ oral language skills, vocabulary use, and understanding, along with subject knowledge, are completely transferable to fit any subject.
It’s easy to teach multiple concepts at once. For example, in a science activity looking at the water cycle, alongside the subject knowledge and technical vocabulary, pupils can learn to use the features of an explanation, develop skills in extending sentences with conjunctions, and also improve their oral presentation skills. A lot of learning happens in a Chatta activity, all at once, while also opening up numerous opportunities for retrieval.
Science is a perfect fit for Chatta. A Chatta activity helps strengthen pupils’ subject knowledge, making learning accessible and inclusive, and removing barriers for pupils with additional needs. Here are some examples:
Circulatory System:
Understanding the basic components and functions of the circulatory system, including the heart, blood vessels, and blood.
🩸Example Chatta Activity: Describe the journey of blood through the circulatory system, perhaps as a heart surgeon might, or even in the first person – as blood itself!
States of Matter:
Learning about the three states of matter; solid, liquid, and gas and how they change through processes like melting, freezing, and evaporation.
🧊Example Chatta Activity: Explain changes in states of matter, as if you are a professor at the local university lecturing students.
Plants and Photosynthesis:
Understanding how plants grow, the process of photosynthesis, and the parts of a plant such as roots, stems, leaves, and flowers.
🌼Example Chatta Activity: Speak as a botanist, giving an introductory welcome to visitors at the Botanical Gardens.
Forces and Motion:
Exploring basic concepts of forces, such as push and pull, gravity, friction, and how they affect the movement of objects.
🧲Example Chatta Activity: Create an overview of forces from the point of view of Isaac Newton.
Habitats and Ecosystems:
Learning about different habitats, the organisms that live in them, and how ecosystems function and sustain life.
🐫Example Chatta Activity: Describe a habitat or ecosystem, perhaps as a script for a David Attenborough nature documentary.
Electricity and Circuits:
Understanding the basics of electricity, how simple circuits work, and the importance of electrical safety.
💡Example Chatta Activity: Create an expert guide to electrical circuits for trainee electricians.
All of these activities can be taught easily and impactfully through Chatta, regardless of how the context is adapted for audience and purpose. Sometimes, the pupils will simply explain the key points and what they’ve learned.
Chatta also fits well with other skills related to science teaching: explaining and interpreting experiments, making predictions, unpicking misconceptions, and describing and explaining observations. The language, understanding, and transferable skills can all be taught strongly through Chatta’s modelling, scaffolding, and oral activities.
Try This:
Look at the learning objectives for your next science topic. You’ll see that you can probably cover them in one or two Chatta boards. Create the board with the class at the end of the unit of work to summarise what has been learned. The pupils will be able to explain it to each other and to the class, and they will also find it easy to complete a short written summary of their understanding, which can inform your assessment.
As ever, we’d be glad to prepare a Chatta activity with you, if you get in touch. There are also lots of editable example templates in the Chatta Community area of the software, which can be helpful.
