Carousel Brainstorm: Is it Just Horsing Around?

This blog post was written by Madelyn Cornman, a current undergraduate student at Saint Vincent College enrolled in my course, Reading, Writing, and Differentiation in the Content Area. Read more about Madelyn at the end of the blog.

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Carousel Brainstorming is a strategy that can be used within a classroom to activate a student’s prior knowledge, act as a knowledge check for teachers, or provide background on a future study topic. This strategy is also used to facilitate the development of group skills through discussion and communication at each of the stations. Carousel Brainstorming promotes active student-centered learning during the activity.

How to Use This Strategy in the Classroom 
To use this strategy within the classroom, students should be divided into at least 5 different groups and are placed at different stations within the classroom. Each station has certain questions or statements about a topic that is being studied. At these stations, the students reflect and brainstorm for a specific duration of time set by the teacher. Each station helps students activate prior knowledge about a topic and process new information to share with others within their group. Once the students have returned to their original question or statement students will return to their seats. Teachers then can use the information provided by students to create a class discussion about each question or statement.

The video below by Mark Drollinger (October 29, 2014 YouTube) provides a quick overview of the strategy.

Why This Strategy Works

This strategy is an active learning technique where students actively discuss and reflect on ideas instead of just listening and passively absorbing them. This boosts student engagement and learning. Students who are more engaged at school tend to do better in academics. This strategy promotes critical thinking and communication skills that they can apply across multiple disciplines. Brainstorming can enhance student motivation and confidence. This strategy could be used across multiple disciplines within schools whether it be science to discuss controversial topics, English to discuss an upcoming book, or history to review different events. It could be used as a warm-up activity to introduce a new topic, a follow-up for students to review what they have already learned, or for teachers to understand where the class is in their learning, and to determine what they are bringing to the classroom.

How Would I Use This in My Biology Classroom?

As a biology teacher, I would use this tool when introducing new biology topics to my students. This activity could be used to engage the students in the topic before discussing it. I may change this strategy in the classroom and have each group come up with a question or comment for the other groups to answer or discuss about a specific topic or paper. This would allow the students to direct the discussion within the classroom and explore what they are interested in about different topics.

References

Carousel Brainstorming. (2019, February 10). Retrieved March 09, 2021, from https://ealdaylight.com/carousel-brainstorming/
Carousel Brainstorming. (n.d.). Retrieved March 08, 2021, from https://ggie.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/GGIE_Carousel_Brainstorming.pdf
What is carousel brainstorming technique? (n.d.). Retrieved March 09, 2021, from https://k12teacherstaffdevelopment.com/tlb/what-is-carousel-brainstorming-technique/

About the Author

Hello! My name is Madelyn Cornman. I am a senior biology major and education minor at Saint Vincent College. I will graduate this spring. I love being outside whether it be hiking, kayaking, bird watching, just going for walks. Any time I can manage to spend outside makes the day better. I also absolutely love animals, and I am involved in multiple rescue organizations to promote conservation of animal species and care of pets!

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