Educator guide

10 activities to
practice writing in
the STEM classroom

Created by educators for educators

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 STEM | Educator guide

Contents
10 activities to practice writing in the STEM classroom 3

The 10 activities:

Deconstruct a prompt 4

Connecting claim, evidence, and reasoning 4

Scientific principles and ideas 5

Writing a qualitative/quantitative claim 5

Support claims and counterclaims with data and evidence 5

Organization overall 6

Connecting ideas 6

Write like a scientist 6

Evaluate peer responses 7

Focus on evaluation criteria 7

2 STEM | Educator guide

 10 activities to practice writing in
the STEM classroom
Writing in STEM classrooms can present many new challenges for students. They are required to
use domain-specific vocabulary and formal, technical writing formats to communicate their ideas,
both of which can be unfamiliar territory for many students. However, just as in any other class
where specialized writing is required, it’s necessary for those new concepts to be explicitly taught
and to provide time for students to practice them. When students are able to spend targeted
time practicing these new concepts and skills, they will be able to gain a new level of familiarity,
strengthening their comfort in these writing situations and allowing them to demonstrate their
expertise of the STEM content.

Consider implementing some of the activities listed below to provide a low-stakes practice

environment for students to develop their STEM writing skills. The following activities for
remote learning are accompanied by templates hosted in Google Docs. Copy and save
the templates to your Google Classroom or Microsoft Teams account, then edit to fit the
needs of your class. The templates are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

General tips for facilitating activities in a

remote learning environment
Tip for assigning pairs/group work: Depending on the activity, there are several ways students can virtually
work in pairs/groups. Students can use 1) an email to share their document with another student and leave
comments, 2) a video conferencing tool to share screens and discuss work, or 3) a collaborative application.

Tip for classroom discussion/instruction: Classroom discussions are best facilitated using a 1) video

conferencing tool to screen share, 2) discussion forum, or 3) collaborative application. If you’d like to address
the class as a whole, consider recording and sharing mini instructional videos.

Tip for providing feedback on student work: Provide feedback virtually on student work by 1) using a video

conferencing tool to share your screen and discuss their work, 2) recording a video of you reviewing their work
on the screen, or 3) using a classroom application (such as Turnitin Feedback Studio) to leave text and audio
comments on their work.

3 STEM | Educator guide

 Deconstruct a prompt 1
Help students break down a STEM writing prompt into manageable parts.

Using a collaborative classroom application, such as tools available in Google Classroom (copy template here)

or Microsoft Teams, provide students with a sample STEM prompt on a topic with which they are familiar. Have
them work independently, then meet in pairs to answer the following questions about the prompt (consider
using a T-chart or another familiar graphic organizer):

- What is the topic you are being asked to write about?

- What type of writing is required? (Are students expected to explain a scientific concept or defend a position on a topic?)
- What key points does the task ask you to address? (Is there more than one part to the task? Are students expected to
reference provided sources or find their own?)
- Is there a specialized format or organizational pattern required for the writing? (Is this a lab report? Should students
follow the Claim-Evidence-Reasoning format?)

Have pairs of students share their documents, then meet using a video conferencing tool to compare, contrast,
and modify their responses. Discuss findings during a video class meeting or have students share in a discussion
forum or collaborative application.

Discuss commonalities and differences across pairs, as well as what information might separate a basic
response from a proficient or advanced one.

Extension: Instead of answering this prompt with a full essay, have each pair of students type a list of the
information that would be included in a proficient response to this prompt (i.e. “a clear claim on [the scientific
topic], data and evidence from each source, clear explanations about how evidence connects to the claim,” etc.).

Connecting claim, evidence, and reasoning 2

Help students focus on connecting their claim, evidence, and reasoning about a STEM writing prompt.

Using a collaborative classroom application, such as tools available in Google Classroom (copy template here)
or Microsoft Teams, provide students with a sample STEM prompt and an accompanying sample response
(consider using this exemplar). After reading both the prompt and essay in full, have students meet in pairs
using a video conferencing tool. Students should work together to identify and highlight the essay’s claim,
provided evidence, and then associated reasoning. Emphasize that in an effective essay, students should see
a clear claim, evidence that distinctly supports that claim, and then effective reasoning that explains how and
why the evidence supports the claim.

Have students “map” the information in the essay by answering the following questions:

- Is the claim clearly stated?

- Is there relevant and accurate data and evidence from sources included?
- Is each piece of data or evidence followed by clear reasoning that explains how and why that evidence is important to
the topic and claim?

Identify areas where these connections aren’t clear or particularly strong. During a video class meeting,
emphasize ways that the writer could improve those connections within the response in order to build a
stronger, more cohesive essay.

Extension: Complete this exercise with students’ own writing, allowing them to revise to improve their writing based
on what they’ve learned about building strong connections between their claim, evidence, and reasoning.

4 STEM | Educator guide

 Scientific principles and ideas 3
Help students understand the importance of connecting all of their reasoning to scientific principles and ideas.

Using a collaborative classroom application, such as tools available in Google Classroom (copy template here) or

Microsoft Teams, provide students with a sample STEM prompt and accompanying sample response. After reading
both the prompt and essay in full, ask students to highlight any content that reflects scientific principles and
ideas. During a video class meeting or using an instructional video, discuss those areas and how those principles
and ideas should help to fully ground the evidence and explanation in science that is known to the larger scientific
community, effectively bolstering the legitimacy of that evidence. In places where these principles and ideas aren’t
evident, ask students to explain what could be added in order to create those larger connections.

Extension: Ask students to return to their most recent piece of writing and to complete the activity as outlined
above. Then provide time for students to revise their work in order to better integrate scientific principles and
ideas from their recent study.

Writing a qualitative/quantitative claim 4

Help students understand the importance of creating a high-quality, qualitative and/or quantitative claim.

Using a collaborative classroom application, such as tools available in Google Classroom (copy template here)

or Microsoft Teams, provide students with a variety of sample claims in response to a prompt on a STEM topic.
These claims should be of varying degrees of quality. Ask pairs of students to assess the claims, ranking them
from strongest to weakest. Direct students to consider specific qualitative and quantitative concepts and words
(i.e., “understanding, observations, descriptions” vs. “measurable facts, statistics, numerical”), as well as the
structure and wording of the claim as a whole. During a video class meeting or by posting in a discussion forum
or collaborative application, examine why students placed the claims in the order that they did, discussing
aspects that they focused on to rank them, in particular, highlighting the inclusion of qualitative and/or
quantitative elements, which are necessary for the creation of effective STEM claims.

Extension: Provide pairs of students with a new prompt. Ask them to work together using a video conferencing
tool to craft a claim that would begin to answer the prompt question, being sure to include elements that were
highlighted during the practice discussion. Pairs can post claims in a discussion forum or collaborative tool to
provide peer feedback regarding how each claim could improve.

Support claims and counterclaims 5

with data and evidence
Help students identify scientifically accurate and relevant information to support claims and counterclaims.

Using a collaborative classroom application, such as tools available in Google Classroom (copy template here)

or Microsoft Teams, have students read a STEM prompt and the associated sources. Identify the two opposing
positions on the scientific topic and assign pairs of students one of the positions. Using a video conferencing
tool, have student pairs work to identify the most accurate and relevant data and evidence from the sources
to support the team’s position. Then, have teams switch positions. Ask students to search for evidence for the
opposing side and work collaboratively to develop ideas for refuting these potential counterclaims. Have each
team share their ideas about evidence and counterclaims either during a video class meeting or by having
students post in a discussion forum or collaborative application.

Extension: Ask each student to take a position on the scientific topic and draft an independent practice essay
incorporating the data and evidence discussed as a class, as well as any other ideas they may have.
5 STEM | Educator guide
 Organization overall 6
Help students understand the importance of a logical organizational structure within their writing.

Using a collaborative classroom application, such as tools available in Google Classroom (copy template here)

or Microsoft Teams, provide students with pieces of an essay written about a STEM topic. Instruct students to
copy/paste the pieces of the essay (currently in random order) into a meaningful manner in order to create an
essay that is a cohesive whole. Have students share their documents and review the placement of sentences,
considering where and why students have placed each sentence, as well as the originally intended placement
and rationale. In particular, highlight the organization of the claim, evidence, and reasoning within the essay as
a whole.

Extension: Ask students to return to a previous piece of their own writing, examining the organization of their
ideas. Students should reorganize appropriately, revising in order to ensure cohesion throughout.

Connecting ideas 7
Help students identify and articulate the relationships between their ideas.

Using a collaborative classroom application, such as tools available in Google Classroom (copy template here) or

Microsoft Teams, present examples of cause-and-effect statements that use transitions (“Many people think that
social networks have impacted the world positively because of how people can connect to one another all over
the globe”). Use a two-column chart to have students arrange information into “the causes” and “the effects.” Ask
students to highlight the transitional phrase for each statement. Emphasize the role that transitional phrases
play in helping readers see the relationships between information in an essay or other text.

Extension: Provide students with a list of transitional phrases (ask your favorite English educator or use this
categorized list) and a selected STEM text. Using a virtual graphic organizer, ask students to record each
transition found and identify how it connects information in the text. (Does it show cause and effect, compare
or contrast information, further explain information, etc.?) Consider having students perform the same
exercise with their own writing, and adding transitions to make their ideas more clear.

Write like a scientist 8

Help students adopt an academic, professional style and tone when writing in a scientific setting.

Using a collaborative classroom application, such as tools available in Google Classroom (copy template
here) or Microsoft Teams, provide an excerpt of a scientific source or other formal text. Ask student pairs
to skim the excerpt, highlighting vocabulary that is precise and specific to the scientific topic in a particular
color. Emphasize that sentence structure is appropriate, varied, and often complex. Then ask students to find
examples of sentences that fit these descriptions and highlight them in a different color. Explain that precise,
unbiased, domain-specific vocabulary and appropriate sentence structure lead to the clarity of ideas in writing.

Extension: Provide sentences that do not meet the aforementioned criteria (perhaps pulled from this low
scoring example here). Have students virtually work in pairs to transform the sentences into formally written,
grammatically-appropriate, and unbiased, domain-specific language.

6 STEM | Educator guide

 Evaluate peer responses 9
Help students evaluate task criteria and learn to offer purposeful feedback.

During a video class meeting or by posting an instructional video, discuss with students the importance of peer
reviewed work in the STEM fields. While that work is normally reviewed for accuracy and replicability, students
should still welcome review of their work in terms of accuracy and writing.

Assign partners to perform a peer-review of each other’s completed essay drafts. Using a collaborative classroom
application, such as tools available in Google Classroom (copy template here) or Microsoft Teams, have students
focus on answering the following questions about their partner’s work.

- What position does the claim take?

• Is it accurate in the context of this STEM field?

• Does it address the qualitative and/or quantitative aspects of the topic?

- What data and evidence is provided?

• Which of the evidence is qualitative and/or quantitative?

• Is the evidence factual and grounded in scientific ideas and principles?

• Is the evidence followed by a clear explanation of how it supports the claim?

- What transitions are used to connect ideas?

- List five vocabulary words that are most specific to the scientific topic (or the most academic phrases)
used within the response.

• Are there any areas where language seems biased?

Ask students to virtually share their responses with their partner or meet using a video conferencing tool to discuss.

Consider using digital collaboration tools like PeerMark from Turnitin to allow students to highlight and comment
on student drafts.

Focus on evaluation criteria 10

Help students understand the elements that make a STEM response strong.

Using a collaborative classroom application, such as tools available in Google Classroom (copy template here) or
Microsoft Teams, share a high-scoring STEM essay for all students (consider this example here). Choose one focus
area of which students will find and highlight examples:

- accuracy of scientific/STEM content

- the claim

- data and evidence from the sources

- explanation/reasoning of evidence and its relation to claim

- paragraphs for introduction, support, and conclusion

- transitional phrases to connect ideas

- academic/scientific vocabulary, formal tone, unbiased language, etc.

Share the rubric or other evaluation criteria and have students reflect on why the highlighted examples are strong
in relation to performance descriptors. Discuss during a virtual class meeting or have students post responses in a
discussion forum or collaborative application. Repeat with other focus areas and discuss.

7 STEM | Educator guide

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Collections of resources:
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– Source Credibility
– Paraphrasing
– Social Studies
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– STEM

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