As a science teacher, it can often feel like we are teaching a different language. The vocab, the experiments, and the concepts are not easily grasped by all. This is why differentiation in science is so important to ensure all students are able to access the learning. Luckily for us there is a plethora of science differentiation strategies we can use to cater to individual students in the science classroom.

So grab a coffee, sit back and relax while I share 44 easy science differentiation strategies for your classroom.

List of science differentiation strategies

Before we get started – what is differentiation?

Carol Ann Tomlinson defines differentiation as the practices of proactive planning and inclusivity to ensure the learning experiences are accessible to all learners to meet their individual learning needs. 

I love this definition as it really encompasses the main point – to meet the learning needs of your students. 

Note that it doesn’t say: plan 32 different lessons so each students has a personal lesson plan. 

Differentiation is an understanding of student learning needs and how to meet them. It requires successful incorporation of multiple strategies in order to meet the individual needs of those in your classroom.

List of science differentiation strategies

What areas can you can differentiate?

There are 5 ways I believe you can differentiate teaching and learning opportunities in the classroom:

1. Differentiate the Content

Differentiating the content means ensuring each student starts where they need to. This may mean that some students need to start at an introductory level, or maybe even a whole grade level behind, while others can jump in at the extension questions. 

This also includes how students receive the content. Whether they receive the content via the teacher, a video, visual resources, etc. 

2. Differentiate the Product

This can refer to either the end product students produce to demonstrate their learning, or the standard of that product.

3. Differentiate the Process

The process or method used is how it is you want your students to learn the content. An example might be that you explicitly teach one group while having another do some research, or watch a video or do some hands-on modelling. 

4. Differentiate the Environment

The environment shapes how or where the activity is completed. This includes whether students complete the activity in groups or individually, and where they might complete that work in the classroom.

5. Differentiate Accessibility 

Ok so this is one I made up – but I felt the need to add another category as there are some differentiation strategies that don’t fit in the above categories. After having a read through let me know in the comments if you think this category is legit!

Accessibility refers to any differentiation that makes the learning accessible or achievable for a student that doesn’t necessarily mean a change to any of the above categories. Examples of accessibility could be providing more processing time for individual students or providing scaffolding that breaks down the concepts, allowing them to still meet the same learning intention and success criteria as other students. 

Often accessibility changes are actually ones that can be given to the whole class without hindering those who don’t necessary need the adjustment. For example, if you have students in your class who benefit from having more white space on the page so it isn’t overwhelming, just create one worksheet for the whole class like this. There is no need to create one worksheet with more white space and another with less. But by providing that resource you have ensured the inclusivity of students into the learning environment and made it more achievable for them.

Now, let’s get onto the good stuff! List of science differentiation strategies

List of science differentiation strategies 

As a classroom teacher, differentiation can seem like a daunting and overwhelming task. Science instruction is already a mammoth task considering the difficulty of the science content, adding differentiation can seem so overwhleming. However, these strategies are easy to implement without adding massive amounts of time or effort to your workload.

40 easy science differentiation strategies for the classroom

Science differentiation strategies for the content

Differentiating the content is the category that will pull on your instructional strategies the most. 

1. Provide various entry levels

Some students might need instruction from the foundations of the topic. Others might need to explore the concept on a deeper level. 

Here are some easy, low prep ways to do this practically:

• In a science textbook or worksheet with multiple questions, students have to get 3 answers correct in a row in each section before moving on to the next. This means those who have understood the content and are ready to move forward will be able to and it immediately differentiates the work for the entire class. 

• Divide your questions for a topic into sections so they gradually increase in difficulty. You can either let students choose which section they begin in or allocate those sections based on where your testing and observations suggest each student is ready to begin.

• Allow students to choose whether they listen to explicit instruction. After doing some pretesting it may become obvious that some students already have a good knowledge of the topic you are about to teach. Don’t waste their time by making them sit through explicit instruction on something they already know. Allow them to get straight into some questions or applications of the learning. 

• Provide the opportunity for peer teaching. If you have some students who already understand the concept then allow them to teach some of their peers. 

2. Incorporate videos & flipped learning

Videos are a great resource to use for differentiation if teaching a mixed ability class. While teaching high school chemistry, flipped learning become a regular teaching method as there was a lot of content to cover in limited amount of time.

How does flipped learning allow differentiation? 

Instead of having the class watch the video together at the front, allow students to watch it individually with headphones. This allows those who need to rewind and rewatch certain parts to do this. Or for those who take more time to process information, they are able to pause the video and reflect rather than watching it all in one stream.

Often I pair my videos with questions. For my higher ability students, they are able to watch the whole video and then answer the questions. For my students needing more support, I give less questions and allow them to complete while watching the video and pausing when they understand the answer. For those needing even more support I provide the approximate time in the video that the question is answered.

Flipped learning is a term coined by Jon Bergmann and refers to students watching the video for home learning, and then coming into the classroom ready to tackle harder questions and apply their learning with the support of the teacher.

Head to my YouTube channel if you’d like some great science videos that are perfect for flipped learning. 

3. Jigsaw activities

Jigsaw is a way of grouping students. First students are split into groups where, as a group, they are to research / investigate / learn about a specific part of the topic. 

For example, for studying renewable and non renewable resources in science, one group might study solar energy, another wind energy, another fossil fuels etc. Once they have become ‘experts’ at their given topic they then get split into mixed groups where each student is considered the ‘expert’ of their own topic. In this group each student takes a turn to teach the group about their area. 

This can be done with random assignments of groups, or you can sort students into groups and provide the expert topic based on their learning needs. For example, solar energy may be easier for students to research than fossil fuels.

4. Incorporate student interests

Being able to know your students well enough to incorporate their interests can sometimes be overwhelming – particularly at the beginning of the school year. 

However, there are definitely ways you can do this without knowing all their individual likes, hobbies and sports. 

For example, in teaching physics I like to have students choose one of Newton’s laws and write about how it applies in a sport or hobby of their choice. For learning adjectives, it could be writing a list of all the adjectives they can think of for their sport / object / place of choice.

5. Changing the context or application

The context or application of the learning can be differentiated. For example, one group of students may apply their learning to an everyday example, while another may apply it to an industrial example.  

6. Doodle notes

Doodle notes (TM) are a type of scaffolding that give students freedom to express their learning and understanding of a concept while also being able to ‘doodle’ with diagrams, colouring or sketches. I like to use these super simple doodle note templates for topic summaries or while watching a video. Click here to get them for FREE!

I actually find that my extension students often need this type of scaffolding to help become more concise in their notes. 

Note: Doodle Notes is a trademarked term used with permission. check out doodlenotes.org for more.

List of science differentiation strategies

7. Encourage cross-curricular application

Some students might be ready to apply their knowledge across subject areas. By incorporating this type of learning, your extension or gifted students will be able to engage in critical thinking and higher order thinking skills. For example, a lot of earth and environmental science crosses over into geography.

8. Less ‘drills’ and more problem solving 

If your pretesting shows that students already have a good knowledge base then allow them to skip the drills and launch straight into the application and problem-solving questions. Providing leveled questions can be a helpful way to do this and allow students to start from where their readiness levels indicate.

9. Have students write their own questions

Another way to extend students would be to ask them to write their own questions. This works well if you can pair up some of your extension students to work together. That way they can each write a question, have their peer complete it, then swap back again to mark their peer’s answer. The level of understanding and critical thinking required to write an appropriate question is far superior to that needed just to answer a question.

10. Graphic organisers / visual representation

Graphic organisers allow for the visual processing of concepts and ideas, and more specifically how they connect to other concepts and ideas. A way to differentiate using these is providing students who need extra support with a graphic organiser or a scaffolded graphic organiser, while those who need extension could create a graphic organiser. 

11. Task cards

Task cards are an easy activity to provide to the whole class. How does it involve differentiation?

Provide choice. Choice in the order they complete the task cards and choice in how many they complete. 

12. Add personification

Personification is my all time favourite differentiation strategy for engaging higher order thinking skills for students. This can be so easily added to any worksheet, activity, or task and super easy to add into a lesson if some students finish their work early. 

So what is it?

Personification is attributing human characteristics or personality to something that isn’t human.

Therefore, to incorporate personification into learning ask students to answer questions like these examples below:

• Science equipment: What would a conical flask say to a beaker?

• Chemistry: What hydrogen bond say to a dispersion force?

• Earth Science: What would a sedimentary rock say to a metamorphic rock?

• Biology: What would a virus say to a bacteria?

13. Use stations 

Station rotation models are a great way to differentiate. How can you differentiate the content? Make you one of the stations! When students come to you in small groups you can tailor your teaching to those groups of students to meet individual student needs. Alternatively, use the opportunity to include ‘help stations’ so students can come to you or a teachers’ aide for help throughout the activity. List of science differentiation strategies

Science Differentiation Strategies for differentiating the product

Science differentiation strategies for the product can be done in various ways to help you cater to all ability levels. The science curriculum lends itself to a wide range of differentiated activities to engage students in the learning process. 

14. Offer choice for the type of activity or type of product

I used to think this was so much work as I didn’t want to have to make 4 different lessons for students to choose. 

But you don’t have to do this! 

For example, research tasks are easy to differentiate in this way as students could choose how their final product will look. Will it be a brochure? A poster? Video? Slideshow? You can still provide the same success criteria and have students research the same key points, but give them choice in how they would like to present it.

For activities, rather than having students go through all stations set up around a room, give them a number to complete. If you set up 5 stations then ask students to choose three to complete. This also allows those who may finish sooner to have the opportunity to complete an extra station. It also means that for those students who need extra time you could easily differentiate and ask them to only choose two to complete.

15. Engage with their cultural background

Providing opportunity for students to engage with their cultural background can not only engage them but allows for differentiation in your classroom. This may be as simple as allowing them to research or apply the relevance of the topic to their cultural practices or traditions. 

16. Incorporate technology 

Technology provides a lot of options for choice for students to learn and demonstrate their learning. Students could choose whether the end product may be a short video, powtoon, infographic and so on. 

17. Differentiate the success criteria

While you might be providing students the same activity to complete, differentiation could come in with the success criteria you provide for students. Students who need some extension could have different levels of success criteria to meet which may extend them in terms of depth or breadth of understanding shown, or the quality of product produced.

18. Provide sophisticated language prompts

For students who need an additional challenge, encourage students to up their language game by providing prompts for sophisticated language examples to include in answers. For example, when explaining ask students to use words such as ‘consequently’ or ‘thereby’, rather than the words ‘and’ or ‘but’. 

19. Change the verb

Differentiating the verb used can prompt students to deliver various products. E.g. design, create, evaluate, assess, compare etc. Blooms taxonomy can be a helpful reference for this.

20. Allow for the expression of creativity

Allow students to be creative with the end product. This could be done by offering choice for presenting information via a model, diorama, painting, sculpture, drama, song etc. 

21. Interview students

I’ve often come across student’s who struggle to express their level of understanding on paper, but can very clearly express it verbally. This is a great option for informal assessment and can be done during a regular class lesson. 

List of science differentiation strategies

List of science differentiation strategies for differentiating the process

Spend some time when you are organising your lesson plans to consider whether you can incorporate any of these science differentiation strategies for the process in your science program.

22. Use technology

There are lots of different programs that allow for easy differentiation by offering students choice. For example, Quizlet allows students to choose how to learn the content, whether it be by using flashcards, multiple-choice questions, typing an answer, practicing spelling, matching the correct term to definition, or playing a game.

23. Offer choice for the order they complete tasks

While there is often a need to have students complete tasks in a particular order, there also often arises the opportunity to change up that order. Allowing students to choose their own adventure allows students to learn the material in the order that makes sense for them.

24. Cut and paste activities

Allowing for students to physically rearrange something can be so powerful for those needing adjustments. This helps their brain to process the information in a new way. This can be easily done in class with simple worksheets. For example, if you are wanting students to match the term with the glossary definition then provide students with a printable version they could cut and paste. This offers another opportunity to provide choice as students could choose to cut and paste, or use colour coding, or write the term in the box with the definition. Three different options for one activity and no extra prep from you!

25. Use virtual or augmented reality

As a science teacher, I find the hardest areas to support my students in are those concepts that are theoretical concepts or those which we cannot see physically. For example, teaching atoms and molecules. Virtual or augmented reality programs allow students to visualise things that usually wouldn’t be possible.

26. Hands-on learning

Providing students with the opportunity to explore learning in a hands-on way provides immediate differentiation as students will engage in a way that makes sense to them. To differentiate you could provide multiple types of materials for students to choose from. For example, to learn about ratios in maths I provided both cordial and paint for students to explore.

27. Modelling

Modelling can be done in many different ways, but it could be that while you send your extension students off to investigate the topic, you may need to go through step by step for other students and show them exactly how you want them to go about solving a problem. Modelling a process could also be done by providing a scaffolded worksheet for students who need it.

28. Inquiry-based learning and project-based learning

Inquiry-based learning is about students discovering the answer to a problem while project-based learning is about exploring the ‘why’ of an answer. Both of these options allow for varying levels of exploration by students and allow for choice in how they go about investigating.

29. Incorporating STEM or STEAM projects

Using STEM or STEAM in the classroom has the benefits of cross-curricular activities and project-based learning while also fostering student development in critical thinking, collaboration, communication and creativity.

List of science differentiation strategies

List of science differentiation strategies to differentiate the environment

30. Group work

Using multiple forms of grouping, or flexible grouping for students in a class provides differentiation as students take on different roles within their groups depending on who they are with. Some examples for grouping could be:

• Grouping students who need some extra support together. This will also allow you to provide this group with more explicit instruction as you move around the room.

• Grouping students of mixed ability together. This allows those who need extension to take on a leadership role within the group and have the opportunity to share their understanding with their peers.

• Groups based on choice. This could be student choice for who is in their group, or students could be grouped by their choice of activity. Both of these options allow for differentiated instruction and learning. 

31. Offer choice for how they work

Offering student choice is an excellent way to differentiate and also increase engagement as students feel they have ownership over their learning. Allowing students to choose how they work, whether it is individually, with a partner, as a small group, etc is an easy way to incorporate differentiation into your classroom without loads of preparation. 

32. Offer choice for where they complete the work

Allow students to choose whether to stand, use different chairs, sit on the floor, work outside etc. Taking a class outside for a lesson on the lawn is fantastic for this. Because there are no chairs, students can choose whether to sit, stand, lie on their stomachs, sit on a rock, choose to sit in the sun or the shade. So much choice!

33. Provide choice for brain breaks

Brain breaks are so important for retaining high levels of student concentration when learning new concepts. Providing choice in how they have breaks enhances your differentiated classroom. 

If you need some brain break ideas read this blog post here. 

34. Pair with a more able student

Pairing a student who may need extra support with a student who needs a challenge can be a great learning experience for both of them. 

35. Allow to complete work in a small group

Allowing some students to work in a small group as opposed to completing a task individually can be a good differentiation option. This provides the support of their peers and together they may be able to accomplish something that individually they wouldn’t have been able to.

36. Changing the environment space

Changing the environment for students can be very powerful. This can include allowing for some students to sit in a more quiet space, while others can work in pairs. This could also include where the students’ desks are facing. One student may learn more effectively with their desk at the front of the room facing the board, while another can work opposite a peer.

37. Allow students to remove themselves from distraction

Similarly to above, this refers to allowing choice for students. For example, wearing noise-cancelling headphones or the freedom to move around the class if needed. For a lot of classrooms, students aren’t allowed to change seats or move during the lesson. Allowing this freedom can allow students to take ownership over their learning and concentration by being able to change their environment if needed. List of science differentiation strategies

List of science differentiation strategies accessibility

38. Cloze passages 

Cloze passages are easy to differentiate quickly by choosing what level of support you want to give your students. Here are some examples of varying levels of support you could provide:

• No word bank. This also provides students with the opportunity to use their choice of synonyms when filling in the blanks.

• Providing the first letter of each word with no word bank.

• Full word bank.

• Providing the first letter of each word with a full word bank.

If you want to see an example of these click here to see my cloze passage for changing states of matter in year 7 science.

39. Provide written or printed instructions broken down into steps

This is one of those differentiation strategies that you can do for the whole class rather than just a few students. It won’t hinder the rest of the class to have instructions broken down into steps. It is also important for students to have these visually represented to them so they can refer back as often as needed, whether it be printed or upon the board.

40. Change the reading level

It is important that students are given the opportunity to engage in learning by being provided resources that are at an appropriate reading level. These days it is so easy to use AI such as ChatGPT to change the reading level of a passage.

41. Provide extra processing time

This could be as simple as giving students fewer questions to complete in the same amount of time.

42. Provide class discussion questions before discussion time

This allows students who need extra processing time to have the opportunity to still be a part of a class discussion. This could be a homework task or as simple as handing out the questions before marking the roll and doing class admin so the students have time to read the questions in advance. For some students, this could be the difference between being able to contribute to a class discussion, or not.

43. Give warning before being called upon in class

This goes with the previous point as well. Students may freeze or shut down when being called upon in class if they haven’t had a chance to consider and process the question.

So, if the activity is to answer a few questions and then go through them as a class, you could go and quietly say to the student that you are going to ask their opinion about question #3. This gives them time to process it, time to ask you questions if they don’t understand, and time to make it an answer they are proud of.

44. Use programs that allow instructions to be read to them

For some students, something as simple as having instructions read out loud to them can allow them to be able to access the learning. Depending on what device they may be using there are different apps or plugins students could install for this purpose.

List of science differentiation strategies

Conclusion

Incorporating science differentiation strategies into your teaching and learning does not have to be difficult or overwhelming.

Which of these science differentiation strategies are your favorite?

List of science differentiation strategies

classroom management strategies for high school

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