In this article, we explore the idea that comedy, with its often unorthodox ways of looking at, experiencing, and responding to the world, offers untold possibility for classroom literacy instruction. The article focuses on the potential of Improv comedy as socio-materialist literacy in the classroom. It provides an account of Improv as a form of…

In this paper, we present a novel approach to defining, teaching, and assessing creativity by examining its origins and delineating the processes involved. The rationale for introducing this framework developed from studying existing thinking and questioning the current metrics for measuring creativity, which we posit are unfit for purpose. We…

A hands-on symmetry project is proposed as an innovative way of teaching point groups to undergraduate chemistry students. Traditionally, courses teaching symmetry require students to identify the point group of a given object. This project asks the reverse: students are instructed to identify an object that matches each point group. Doing so…

Helping children to visualise what is inside them and how their bodies work can be a challenge, since teachers are often reliant on secondary sources or investigations that can only measure outward signs (such as pulse rate). Another way is to involve the children in an imaginative role-play exercise where they explore the insides of a…

The use of humor in the mathematics classroom has been advocated by many as an example of good practice in learning and teaching. In universities where the student body is drawn from diverse ethnic and social groupings, it is not clear whether a common understanding of what constitutes humor exists and therefore whether students would benefit from…

"The Chemedian and the Crazy Football Match" is a comic strip developed by the authors to bring humor to aspects of the UK primary science curriculum. The comic strip was tested in six English primary school classes (years 3-5; ages 7-10); over 150 children participated in the project, together with six teachers. Children found the comic…

A wonderful way to engage science students is to make them think a demonstration is not turning out the way the instructor intended. Basically, throw a little humor into teaching, and they will be hooked. Described in this article is a demonstration that uses Milk of Magnesia (MOM) as a visual and humorous method to review equilibrium chemistry…