“Students explore the ethical implications of medical DNA testing through drama,” explains Dr. Richard Spencer

Head of Science at Middlesbrough College, UK, Dr. Richard Spencer created the ‘Mitosis Mamba’ and the ‘DNA Boogie’ in a successful attempt to help his students understand their lessons. He explains in our exclusive interview that Science classes can be fun and memorable with the right techniques – and that includes incorporating less traditional methods of learning.

How do Song, Dance, and Poetry enhance a Science Lesson?

I teach A-Level Biology to students aged 16-18 years. Twenty years ago, I taught a lesson about mitosis (a type of cell division). Students learned the theory, supported by videos and animations. They used pipe cleaners to represent chromosomes, so they could move them about to simulate events during the stages of mitosis, including how chromosomes duplicate and separate. They did a root tip squash to observe chromosomes in living tissue. A thorough job. Or so I thought. At the end of the topic, one (A grade) student said to me: “I just don’t get this”. I was taken aback! I started to explain what the chromosomes were doing in each stage of mitosis using my fists as nuclei and my fingers as chromosomes. When I’d finished, I said “It’s a bit like a dance”. I realized that it could be a dance. I found some suitable music and choreographed my hand actions to it. The ‘Mitosis Mamba’ was born and I eagerly tried it out on my students, teaching them the actions. It worked. Not only could students understand mitosis better, but they could remember the sequence of the stages and events in each stage much more easily too.

Spurred on by my students’ positive response, I started to become more adventurous, creating the Meiosis Square Dance (based on a ceilidh dance). My students bought me an anthology of poems by Spike Milligan. In the front, they had written: “Thanx (sic) for making Biology lessons so much fun! Turn to page 121” and there I read the poem ‘A levels’:

“Those energy-wrought children, their limbs loaded into school desks. In the shadows, they are fed Algebra-Science Syntax. Outside, the ignorant are laughing and playing in the Sun.”

The poem changed my approach to learning. I realized the power of “putting the A in STEAM” and the potential of increasing student interest and engagement by fusing art and science. More dances followed (DNA Boogie, Aerobic Respiration and Cell Membrane Celebration), all designed to help students to visualize complicated biological structures and processes. They inject energy and change of state into lessons, breaking up the heavy theory with meaningful physical activity and they work!

I began to explore other ways in which learning in science could be enhanced by introducing a more interdisciplinary approach in my lessons. Realizing that students find it difficult to remember specialist scientific vocabulary because they never say the words (when would they?) I wrote several biology songs, including ‘The Heart Song’ on heart structure and circulation, ‘It had to be U, Uracil U’ – a song about DNA, mRNA and transcription and ‘Conidiospores!’ a song about the fungus Penicillium. The Gram Stain Rap helps students to remember a microbiological practical and how it works. A poem about plant growth substances entitled ‘I Am a Seedless Grape’ helps students remember the effects and commercial uses of substances such as auxins.

During the ‘Kidney on Tour’, students travel through part of the college as if it is a kidney nephron (filtering unit), each part themed by music which represents the major event (for example, ultrafiltration to ‘Under Pressure’ by Queen). I created a video linking modes of nutrition to the pantomime story ‘Jack and The Beanstalk’, a video on plant succession in Iceland themed to the dramatic music of Grieg’s ‘In the Hall of the Mountain King’ and ‘Wonderful World’, a video which engages students emotionally with many of the challenges of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, by placing ironic contradictory images to the words of the song of the same title. Another video, ‘You Can Make Me Whole Again’, is an antidote to ‘ecogrief’, showing ways in which humans are tackling global challenges.

Students explore the potential ethical implications of medical DNA testing through drama, by taking part in an employment hearing, during which they decide whether to give a talented scientist a research post when faced with the evidence that the scientist has an allele for the Huntington’s disease, a degenerative disease of the nervous system. One group of students was inspired to write, act and film a fascinating award-winning drama about DNA paternity testing and chimerism. For the past three years, I have worked on the Erasmus Plus project “DesignSTEM” in which teachers from nine countries have worked together to create an open-source set of fifteen projects which integrate design and STEM subjects (for example, I developed a practical simulation of tattoo permanence).

How has Middlesbrough College successfully integrated song, dance, poetry, and design into science? What have been some of the positive outcomes?

Six years ago, I moved to my present college in Middlesbrough. In my previous college, my use of STEAM had evolved over many years and was accepted. Would it be possible to transform student learning experiences elsewhere? The answer is ‘yes’. In 2014, 0% of students gained A* to B grades in A-level Biology at Middlesbrough College and value-added scores were significantly negative. Lesson materials were unimaginative and disengaging. Combining previous experience with a new, blank canvas, I had the vision to create a truly amazing work of art: a great science learning experience using STEAM. I completely rewrote the scheme of work. This led to a year-on-year improvement in results. In 2019, 57% of students achieved A* to B grades in A-level Biology and value-added scores were significantly positive. Feedback from student surveys and lesson observations show that my students thoroughly enjoy A-level Biology: it is the favorite subject of many, and many are inspired to study Biology in higher education.

Do students join in the dances willingly? Of course – as long as the teacher is 100% committed and enthusiastic! Not only are the dances great fun, students soon realize their value. I’ve lost count of the number of times students have told me they didn’t fully understand a process or pathway until they danced it out, or the number of times students have come out of an exam and told me how much a dance had helped them with recall.

Several years ago, as part of Science in Norwich Day, I taught members of the public the DNA Boogie and danced it in the street. The Mitosis Mamba has taken me to science festivals in France, Germany, Belgium and Denmark as part of Science on Stage, a European Festival of Science. This has generated further interest from teachers across Europe, with dance instructions translated into Swedish, Dutch and French. I have shared my work with hundreds of teachers locally, nationally and internationally in literally dozens of workshops and presentations in dozens of countries and received much enthusiastic feedback.

Of course, I have come across cynics or those that believe song, dance and drama in science are not for them. I always beg the question “but are they for your students?” There are teachers who say they haven’t the lesson time for such activities and yet they do not take up much time at all (and in any case, it is time well spent). Teachers should have the confidence to try new methods. I remember one science teacher in Denmark who was not impressed with my ideas during a training event but he went away and gave them more thought.  Later, he did a play on protein synthesis with students, which received an educational award and culminated in students from his school dancing the DNA Boogie at the Ministry of Education. The training acted as a catalyst for him and I feel privileged to touch not only the lives of other teachers but also their students.

Can you tell us more about your upcoming session at GESS titled “Integrating Song, Dance, Poetry and Design into Science Teaching”? What can visitors expect to learn from the session?

I always get the audience to participate: it is one thing to listen to someone extolling the virtues of STEAM, but quite another to experience the methods. Visitors will experience examples of song, dance, poetry and the use of drama and design. I hope they will become inspired to be more creative themselves as a result. Feedback from similar sessions has been very positive, for example:

• “Really good ideas, highly enjoyable session”
• “Inspiring. All science teachers should meet this man to catch some of his contagious enthusiasm”
• “Superb, engaging, fantastic!!”
• Absolutely brilliant and lots of great ideas.

STEM careers are still mostly dominated by men. As a science educator, how do you encourage young girls to participate in STEM activities, such as coding and robotics?

By the time students come to my college, they have already made their decisions about which subjects to study and it is too late for tertiary teachers to have much influence if the students made their decisions about what subjects to study when they were in Year 9 (aged 13 – 14 years). Therefore it is important to consider how STEM subjects are perceived by younger students – I would say even before they reach their teenage years. We have healthy numbers of female students studying Biology, Chemistry and Mathematics. However, very few female students apply to us to study Physics, Computer Science or Engineering. I think the reasons are manifold – a lack of well-known female role models in these subjects (for example, female science TV presenters), a shortage of excellent and enthusiastic teachers to inspire them (and very few female teachers of these subjects), poor STEM careers guidance (leading to an ignorance of what job opportunities these subjects bring) and a perception that Physics and Computer Studies, in particular, are for ‘nerds’. TV shows such as ‘The Big Bang Theory’ don’t help in this respect! One of the answers it to involve girls in STEM clubs at school – to experience the practical and creative nature of all aspects of science and engineering – and to invite inspiring female guest speakers into schools.