Role-Playing as an Innovative Teaching Method in Environmental and STEAM Education: Educational Theatre in International School Projects - IULIANA CIUBUC
- IULIANA CIUBUC, Buşteni, România
- Mar 8
- 8 min read
MOTTO
"Bring the child closer to science and let him answer by himself. Let him base what he knows not on what you have told him, but on what he has understood. Let him not merely learn science, but think it. Let us keep his curiosity alive and create the conditions that bring him closer to the world of science. Let us encourage the child to observe, to investigate and to discover."
— J. J. Rousseau
Abstract
In contemporary education, active and student-centered learning strategies play a crucial role in developing critical thinking, creativity, and collaborative skills. Among these strategies, role-playing represents an effective pedagogical method that encourages experiential learning and active participation in the educational process. By simulating real-life situations and scientific phenomena, students are motivated to explore knowledge through observation, investigation, and creative expression.
This paper presents an educational approach that integrates role-playing and creative dramatization into environmental and scientific education activities developed within international school projects. The activities were implemented with students participating in collaborative initiatives organized through eTwinning and Erasmus+. Within these projects, scientific-humorous sketches written in verse were created and translated into English and French, allowing students from different countries to dramatize them and participate in collaborative learning activities and competitions.
The example presented, “The Miraculous Water”, developed within the project “The Harmony of Nature”, illustrates how the integration of science, arts, and language learning can support interdisciplinary education. By combining scientific inquiry, artistic creativity, and linguistic communication, role-playing activities contribute to the development of scientific, artistic, and social competences while fostering students’ curiosity and engagement with environmental issues.
Keywords
Role-playing in education
Environmental education
STEAM learning
Creative dramatization
Project-based learning
International collaboration in education
eTwinning projects
Erasmus+ educational projects
1.Introduction
In contemporary education, the use of interactive and student-centered teaching strategies has become essential for fostering critical thinking, creativity, and active engagement in the learning process. Among these strategies, role-playing represents an effective pedagogical method that allows students to explore scientific concepts through experiential learning. By simulating real-life situations, phenomena, or scientific processes, students are encouraged not only to acquire knowledge but also to develop inquiry skills, collaboration, and creativity.
Modern educational approaches increasingly promote the integration of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) with artistic and linguistic expression. This interdisciplinary perspective, often referred to as STEAM education, emphasizes the importance of connecting scientific knowledge with creativity and communication. In this context, dramatization and educational theatre can become powerful tools for making scientific concepts accessible and engaging for young learners.
The integration of role-playing activities within international collaborative projects, such as those developed through eTwinning and Erasmus+ initiatives, provides students with valuable opportunities for intercultural dialogue, collaborative learning, and the development of key competences. Through creative dramatization, students can actively participate in scientific exploration while also enhancing their artistic and linguistic abilities.
The present educational approach illustrates how scientific-humorous sketches written in verse can serve as innovative teaching tools within environmental and scientific education projects. By combining scientific inquiry, artistic expression, and role-playing, such activities stimulate curiosity, imagination, and critical thinking, while also encouraging students to become active participants in their own learning process.
Role-playing represents an educational application of psychodrama, a psychotherapeutic method created by J. H. Moreno in 1921 and widely developed after 1934. Within the educational context, it is considered one of the active learning methods, based on the simulation of functions, relationships, activities, phenomena, and systems.
Through the application of this method, students become active participants in cultural, scientific, and social life. By assuming different roles, they are encouraged to develop essential:
competencies
skills
attitudes
behaviors
values and convictions
The effective implementation of this method requires teachers to master several key concepts such as role, status, role behavior, and role responsibilities.
Considering the importance of role-playing at all levels of education, for each scientific project implemented on the eTwinning platform, I created scientific-humorous sketches in verse, translated into English and French. These creative materials allowed our project partners to dramatize them and to participate in competitions organized within the projects.
Within the project “The Harmony of Nature”, we planned an environmental education activity as well as an activity dedicated to scientific research education, entitled “The Miraculous Water.” This activity was organized in celebration of World Water Day.
The activity was carried out with students from Ion Kalinderu National College in Bușteni and from the Sanatorial Secondary School, combining research-based learning, curriculum integration, and the dramatization of a scientific sketch through role-playing.
In order to integrate the arts into STEM projects, I created educational sketches through which project partners apply role-playing methods. This approach engages students in developing scientific, artistic, and linguistic competences, encouraging their active participation in eTwinning and Erasmus+ projects.
2.Example
“The Miraculous Water” – scientific-humorous sketch – role-playing activity
The Miraculous Water
Scientific-humorous scenario
Author - Iuliana Ciubuc
Characters:
The Presenter
The Water
The Teacher
The Grumpy
The Amateur Chemist
The Little Researcher
The Curious
The Environmentalist
Narcis
Georgiana
Octavian
1. The Presenter:
Two atoms of hydrogen
And also one of oxygen
Revolution they invented,
When both of them were created.
If they are united and tied
Save anybody side by side,
Because water together forms
And that is the world’s first, of course.
For the whole animal world
And for that of plants, it’s bold
For the living world, I agreed
It’s not just energy, indeed.
2. The Water:
If I had not been created,
Paradoxically behaved,
There would have been no life, no hand
On the pretty ancestral land.
Yes, at zero Celsius degrees
I'm not sunk, anybody sees,
But even I float thoughly,
Just at four saving what's earthy.
3. The Grumpy:
You mean that the anomaly,
In order so weird to be
This mankind it has even saved
And just do you want to be praised?
Rewarded with Nobel as worth
Desiring to conquer Earth?
4. The Water:
My primordial role, although
It’s a miracle, you can know!
Recognized worldwide was to be,
My specialists looked then at me.
Woe to your life without me.
And life on Earth, it would not be.
5. The Grumpy:
You are a saint, are you agree?
6. The Water:
No, just a substance, colorless,
Simple, liquid, and odorless,
Seemingly insignificant,
But really so important.
As two thirds of Earth I cover
That I'm blessed I have discovered
By the good God Himself I think.
I'm living water, don't forget
And memory managed to get.
7. The Little Researcher:
What a wonder for life you are!
When you’re gas, liquid, ice, by far
When you’re gaseous, you’re very light,
Fade gravity, what gorgeous sight!
or ignore it, to heights climbing,
And beautiful clouds forming
Then, in the form of rain or snow,
You start to come down so slow.
8. The Water:
But what do you think of my range,
Then when into snowflakes I change?
And if you better study me
My thousands of forms you will see.
In different this planet’s places
The crystals have various faces,
Which don’t seem to be recovered.
The causes will be discovered!
And because curious you’re still
How precious they are it’s your deal!
9. The Little Researcher:
Influenced by environment
It's molecules’ alignment
Perhaps there is a field of form.
It’s not by chance, so it’s a norm!
10. The Curious
My dear water, delear me,
Your conduct and a mistery,
Why is microclimate next to
The ocean or sea, you have to
Own such a great property
Obvious value seems to be.
11. The Water
You’re clever, you’ve sensed correctly,
A so smart kid you seem to be.
This paradoxical conduct
Important, in your mind so tucked
It's because I’ve specific heat
The highest all people can meet
The warmth in the ocean I keep,
Radiator, sea, as I speak,
Great energy savings I make,
A magic for planet I take.
12. The Amateur Chemist
We learned in chemistry at school
A lot about water, cool!
In physics or biology,
The best solvent it seems to be,
13. The Water
Yes, there are many unknown,
What would you do surely well,
If you know them, keep in your mind
They will help you in any kind.
14. The Teacher
Making things clear, a vision
Let’s make now a small revision!
About aggregation states
What a great value it creates,
The more so as water behaves
In such a way that it praises,
I’d say paradoxically,
We should know, it’d be normally!
Who answers a question, who?
What does sublimation mean, you?
15. Narcis
When the laundry my mum stretches
In winter sun, cold reaches
Gaseous becomes solid water
Molecules easy, no matter
They start, you don’t know how and why
Without seeing them, to fly!
16. The Teacher
What does condensation mean, you?
Who answers me, who’s able to?
17. Georgiana
When water in gaseous state
It is playful and funny, too
So then it becomes liquid fast
It’s fluid, to flow is its must.
18. The Teacher
A glass starts to steam, tell me why
Having cold water, please try.
19. Octavian
Because in the air there are
Various gases, water, when
It gets something cold from the gas
Water in the liquid passes.
20. The Teacher
Many we have to say, no laugh,
On water, it is not enough!
Please, children, all I invite you,
To study hard isotopes, too!
21. The Environmentalist
Because the source of life it is,
That real school subject teaches
The water must be preserved, fit,
Dear kids, let’s not pollute it!
To save money, conventionally,
Let’s use it rationally,
You do not need only for you
Water is global, keep the clue!
That’s why I get this signal far!
Save water wherever you are!
Without it, planet would die!
Launch on the Earth this good message,
Be volunteers, have courage!
Images from applied and artistic research activities
Visual Interpretation
Project partners from Institut Sainte-Marie Arlon, Belgium, created visual interpretations of each stanza from the sketch and participated in an online competition based on these illustrations.
Literary, artistic, visual approach to a project theme dedicated to International Water Day Drawings and collages made by students of a partner school in Belgium[9] (integrated into the curriculum)
3.Conclusion
The integration of role-playing and creative dramatization in educational activities represents an innovative and effective approach to teaching scientific and environmental concepts. By engaging students in experiential learning situations, role-playing encourages curiosity, creativity, and active participation in the learning process. It allows learners to explore complex scientific ideas in a more accessible and meaningful way, while also developing communication, collaboration, and critical thinking skills.
The example presented within the project “The Harmony of Nature” demonstrates how interdisciplinary educational activities can successfully combine science, arts, and language learning. Through the creation and dramatization of scientific-humorous sketches in verse, students become active participants in their own learning while also strengthening their artistic and linguistic competences.
Furthermore, the implementation of such activities within international collaborations such as eTwinning and Erasmus+ projects offers valuable opportunities for intercultural exchange, collaborative learning, and the development of key competences for the 21st century. These experiences contribute not only to students’ academic development but also to their awareness of environmental responsibility and global citizenship.
4.References and photos gallery
Jacob Levy Moreno (1946). Psychodrama. New York: Beacon House.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1979). Emile, or On Education. New York: Basic Books.
John Dewey (1938). Experience and Education. New York: Macmillan.
Lev Vygotsky (1978). Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
European Commission (2020). eTwinning and School Education in Europe: Supporting Collaboration and Innovation in Education.
European Commission (2021). The Erasmus+ Programme Guide. Brussels.
[6] https://giphy.com/gifs/IntoAction-save-water-everyone-deserves-clean-equality-Sbsf1Zsamps1zgZyZj
-IULIANA CIUBUC - fondator proiect „The Harmony of Nature”
Colegiul Ion Kalineru, Busteni, Romania
I am honored that my article appeared in the prestigious international magazine KIDS from India.
Infinite thanks to the wonderful publishing house for the opportunity to publish my work and for the possibility to read articles that are extremely useful for all teachers in the world.
With gratitude and appreciation.
Thank you so much!
prof.IULIANA CIUBUC-Romania
Excellent 👌