An America’s Got Talent dance team lit up the stage with suits that contained electricity! But how did they do it? 

Teaching with real-world phenomena is one of the most effective tools we have to bring science to life for our students. It’s a research-backed strategy that helps students develop the complex thinking skills they need to succeed in education and in life. That’s why real-world phenomena are so heavily featured in the new educational standards.

The best teaching phenomenon transforms a “remote” topic from the textbook or outside world into a lived, immersive classroom experience that deeply engages students with the material. But too many phenomena on the market are missing that mark, and it can be surprisingly difficult to select effective phenomena on your own.

When developing phenomena at Mosa Mack Science, we put each topic through a very rigorous evaluation process. Whether it anchors the whole unit or if you’re just using it for one lesson, every successful teaching phenomenon should provoke these four reactions in both students and teachers alike.

Thrill

Could shocking footage of levitating cars be proof of ghosts? Students recreate the phenomenon themselves using a model to discover the laws of force and motion. They then use this knowledge to solve the mystery.

Eerie traffic footage shows cars and vans spontaneously jumping into the air. What a way to start a Force & Motion lesson! Or maybe the topic is electricity where you watch amazing dancers whose costumes light up and blink in sync with their moves!

Just like a suspenseful action movie, a winning teaching phenomenon should grab our attention and keep us on the edge of our seats, swept up in the drama. This emotional engagement is what compels students to inquire and explore further. 

Here are some key strategies to help you identify and present gripping phenomenon:

• Ask Yourself: Do You Love It? If you can’t stop watching that hairless cat video, or if a news story about disappearing monarch butterflies moves you to tears, chances are your students will share that powerful reaction.
• Make It a Visual Experience. Look for phenomena that pull students in through sharp imagery (still or moving).

• Present with Passion. As you share a phenomenon with your students, let your own excitement shine. Enthusiasm is contagious! But craft is key, too. Ideally, you’ll need 2-5 minutes to build a complete story that provokes curiosity, surprise, and debate.
• Create Sustained Engagement. The best phenomenon keeps students passionate and curious for the duration of the entire lesson or unit.

Chatter

When most animals are exposed to extreme cold, they can’t survive. But the wood frog is different. During the winter, it freezes…but then in the spring, it seems to come back to life! How can this be?

We all know what “buzz” feels like. Reading a report about the sharp population decline of western monarch butterflies, science teachers grab their phones to text colleagues. As soon as students watch a time-lapse video of a frozen wood frog “coming back to life,” they immediately start guessing how it could be possible.  

A good phenomenon should get teachers and students alike asking questions right away, whether it is a compelling, unanswered mystery or a grave crisis in need of solving. The buzz should persist, too, with students connecting the phenomenon to related topics in science, sharing the phenomenon with peers outside of class, and relating it to their other subjects. 

Here are some strategies for teachers to keep the conversation alive:

• Facilitate classroom discussions, debates, and brainstorming around the most urgent questions that the phenomenon provokes.
• Have students conduct activities outside of class related to the phenomenon (like planting milkweed to help save monarch butterflies).
• Target cross-curricular possibilities by sharing and collaborating with non-science teachers to develop activities and readings around the phenomenon.

Connection

Roughly 17 people die each day waiting for an organ donation. Can bioengineers grow replacement organs that people can use instead of waiting for organ donations? 

Personal connection is key to student engagement. Look for topics that mirror the students’ daily lives, cultural backgrounds, personal interests, or the environmental, technological, or social issues visible in their communities. By choosing phenomena that resonate with your students’ own lived experience, the lesson is more likely to matter to them once they’re outside of the classroom. 

Here are some examples: 

• All students have seen news stories about extreme weather events or experienced one themselves, which makes a weather phenomenon an effective entrée into the study of climate change.
• Another example from our curriculum: as part of the Interactions of Body Systems unit, students view a report of a life-saving organ donation, a real-world medical drama that resonates on a deep emotional level, especially for those students who have been touched by the issue in their own experience.

Discovery

Typing on a computer, pouring tea, and frying an egg. These are all normal, everyday activities. But how would they look from a thermal imaging camera? And how does observing these images teach us about heat movement?

What’s causing the outbreak of earthquakes in Iceland? To find out, students need to explore Plate Tectonics. A new gene-editing drug is saving the lives of people with sickle cell. To learh now, students need to investigate Mutations. Or to take an example from Mosa Mack curriculum: to understand how heat moves through the body during everyday activities, dive into Thermal Energy Transfer.

When choosing phenomena, this question is crucial: Does it tee up an opportunity for students to take action and investigate more deeply? 

The strongest phenomena aren’t forced to fit a lesson—they set the foundation for the lesson. Phenomena that have the key required content embedded into the foundation of the story allow students to learn the standards, sometimes without it even feeling like a lesson. And when students have a reason to discover the standards-based content themselves, it leads to greater student ownership and knowledge retention. 

Where to Find Great Phenomena

Now that you know what to look for in a successful phenomenon, where do you look? 

Science journals may be the most obvious place to look, but you can also find great ideas on the news, in blog posts, and even on social media. Sometimes phenomena can even be hiding in plain sight. Listen for potential phenomena from your students themselves. Is there science in what they’re talking about, in the latest trends, or in what they’re already reading or watching?

Useful websites for phenomena to get you started:

1. Mosa Mack Science Phenomenon Bank

2. The Wonder of Science

3. Phenomena for NGSS

4. Science News Explores

5. Exploratorium Science Snacks (full of fun demos that can be used as phenomenon)

6.  Realtime Maps/Data – ex. Images of Change NOAA (data sets can also help provoke phenomena when you see the before and after)

7. Using Phenomena in NGSS designed lessons