Connect your science learning with poetry using 3 prompt videos with lead poet Rebecca Hurst.
Three new direct-to-the-classroom video prompts inspire pupils of all ages to share their scientific ideas and understandings in creative ways.
Connected by Curiosity
Age: 5-7
One of the things poets share with scientists is that we pay close attention to the world around us. Both might observe, for example, a spider spinning its web. As they watch the spider work, both the poet and the scientist might notice that the web looks like a bicycle wheel or dart board.
To record what they’re seeing, scientists make observational drawings. They think about what shapes they can see, the different colours, patterns, textures, and sizes – how big is the spider compared to its web?
Observational drawings help scientists learn about the world around them and share what they have discovered. Writing poems allows poets to describe and connect with the world and share what they observe and feel with others.
Rebecca Hurst introduces the Great Poetry Share 5-7, Duration 1 min
Your task: Describe in detail a leaf, flower, plant, or insect.
Using your powers of close observation, your words should create a powerful visual image - one that is rich in detail as well as using words that are precise.
Include at least one simile in your poem.
A simile is a comparison that uses the words ‘like’, ‘as’ or ‘than’ to compare or connect one thing with another, e.g. Christina Rosetti's poem ‘A Birthday’ begins with the simile – ‘My heart is singing like a bird’.
Using similes will help you connect your detailed description with a larger idea or emotion, and will make your poem sing like Rosetti's bird. Susanna V Evans’ poem, ‘Christmas at the Yard’. also exemplifies the use of similes.
Lighting Up our World
Age: 7-14
Scientists are great storytellers, communicating their discoveries through words and images, graphs and diagrams.
Poetry also illuminates the world, lighting up ideas, or how we feel about those ideas. Writing poems is a way of communicating with other people.
Helen Hurst introduces the Great Poetry Share 7-14 - Duration 1 min
TASK: Think about how electricity has changed our lives over time.
Imagine making a phone call to an ancestor, maybe your great great grandmother or grandfather, living 100 years ago.
How are your lives different and how are they similar?
What separates you besides time and what connects you?
Can you describe the world we live in now and the changes that have happened over time?
Your poem might take the shape of a conversation or a letter, or maybe you can find a way of travelling back in time.
Think about some of the vocabulary around electricity, such as cell, battery, pylon, plug, positive/ negative connection, short circuit, light bulb, switch, conductor, insulator.
Can you include at least two of these words in your poem?
Link your poems to a new Great Guided Enquiry and primary science storybook arriving for World Book Day on 6th March.
Connecting Currents
Age: 7-14
On average it rains one out of every three days in the UK. The rain that falls on our umbrellas usually comes on winds that blow in from the Atlantic Ocean.
Having travelled so far, where does the raindrop go once it lands? Perhaps it will make its way into one of our city’s many rivers, and from there back to the sea.
When we think of the things that connect us as human beings we might first think of electricity, phones, and computers. But before all this technology existed, the ocean connected us to the rest of the world.
Rebecca Hurst introduces the Great Poetry Share 7-14 - Duration 1 min
TASK: Write a poem that explores how the ocean connects us to each other and to the rest of the world, and how we are connected to the ocean.
You will want to do some research of your own before starting your poem.
Have you visited the ocean?
Do you remember the feeling of swimming through a wave or finding a shell buried in the warm sand? Or perhaps you have watched the documentary Blue Planet or visited an aquarium?
Is there something about the ocean that excites you?
Whales or jellyfish or coral reefs?
If so, this could be a great place to start your poem.
Find out more about Rebecca’s career and her work with poetry
It’s easy to share! Upload onto X, Instagram or your preferred social channels - or use the GSSfS Poetry Uploader below.
Link with us @GreatSciShare using the hashtag #GSSFS2025
Creative Manchester is an interdisciplinary research platform based at The University of Manchester. The platform champions research in creativity and creative practice, bringing together research communities with external partners to explore new research areas and address strategic opportunities.
For more information about how your poems can be entered into the 2025 Poetry Competition, visit Creative Manchester
Now explore more in the Great Science Share for Schools suite of resources.
