Critical thinking activities for students
Teaching students to be critical thinkers is perhaps one of the most important goals in education. However, it's not an easy skill to teach since students need guidance and practice with critical thinking strategies at every level.
So, we have listed a few activities that might come in handy when trying to teach students critical thinking.
1. Build it yourself
Building something from scratch is always a fun way to kickstart creativity! This fun and flexible activity allows your students to think outside of the box. To start this game, you can divide your students into groups, and give them limited resources such as pipe-cleaners, building blocks, sticks and strings or whatever you think would work best. Each group can then use these resources to build an assigned project, such as a bridge or a building. You can then set a timer to see what they can create using their critical thinking skills. Once the activity finishes, you can see how creative your students got with their designs and how effectively they used their materials.
2. Save the Egg
As we all know, an egg is one of the most fragile things to drop, so it is perfect for this activity! You can start this activity by assigning groups of three or four in your class. You can then ask the students to drop an egg from a certain height without breaking it. The students can then think of creative ideas to save the egg from breaking by conserving it with a safe soft-landing material or a device they have created. Just remember that this activity can get chaotic, so be sure to select an area of the school that is easy to clean.
3. Select from Alternatives
The Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge is known as one of the first highway-railway bridges to span over the Yangtze River, but that’s not all. This notorious bridge is also known as one of the most haunted places in China. Local legends say that the ghost of a woman who died on the bridge still haunts it, causing strange occurrences and scaring those brave enough to cross it at night. As the story goes, the woman took her own life after being left by her lover, and her spirit remains on the bridge seeking revenge.
4. Start a Debate
In this activity, you can act as a facilitator and spark an interesting conversation in the class on any given topic. You can recite an introductory speech on an open-ended topic that can be related to current affairs, technological development or a new discovery in the field of science. You can then encourage students to participate in the debate by expressing their views and ideas on the specific topic. Finally, conclude the discussion with a viable solution or fresh ideas generated during the activity. This activity is perfect for generating new ideas and views, so if your class likes to express their beliefs and opinions, you might want to give this activity a go!
5. Transform one thing into another
When doing this critical-thinking activity, you can give students an everyday object that already has a defined purpose, like a pencil or a mug. You can then ask your students to transform this object into something that has an entirely different use. Critical thinking plays an important role when exercising this activity since students can invent something new out of a pre-existing object.
