CHEMISTORY: Integration of Creative Story Writing in Understanding Chemical Elements in Online Learning

Abstract

This work presents a pedagogical exploration of Junior high school teachers in drawing an integration between creative writing and chemistry concepts in understanding the behavior of chemical elements as means of addressing the competencies of the Science and English learning areas in an online instructional delivery. Titled A SHORT CHEMISTORY, this paper explores the expected skills, challenges, and opportunities in the possibility of integrating the two disciplines as an innovative way of developing engagement and comprehension among learners in a remote platform.  Results uncovered that the said interdisciplinary performance task was pedagogically possible despite the challenges encountered by the facilitators and the learners. Adequate foundational knowledge of the lesson and skills associated with the expected output for both teachers and students, and the need for purposeful interaction and collaboration, are identified as the essential skills expected to attain the objectives of the integration.  Teachers found it challenging to see the seamless integration of the chemical element’s characteristics in the characters of the story through lack of depth of personification and time constraint.  The integrated task paved the way for several opportunities for both teachers and students in terms of creativity, collaboration, and sense of fulfillment.