Science in Creative Writing

2016-17: Powers of Nature wirting competition.

Here you’ll find resources and exercises based on the exciting research in science and literature carried out at the University of Liverpool, which we hope will inspire you to come up with some excellent poems, stories and descriptive passages.

You can also access in-class resources, lesson plans and exercises:

• Suggested lesson plan and exercises on volcanoes for students and staff
• Read about the Sun and solar technology. Then try out one of the creative writing exercises at the bottom of the page
• Don't know what sort of thing to try to write? Try some of the ideas below either in class or at home.

Writing ideas

If you are stuck for inspiration about what to write for our Powers of Nature competition then why don't you try one of these exercises out.

Year 5 writing ideas

1. Use personification to write a poem or short story from the perspective of the Sun, the Earth, or a volcano. This could be a ‘letter to humanity’ or describe a key event.
2. Try and think up some ‘kennings’ about things that you find powerful or terrifying in the natural world. Weave these together to make a poem, or use a kenning as the title of your poem or story.
3. Write a story beginning: ‘Faced with one of the most powerful forces in Nature, there was only one thing for it…’
4. Write a pattern poem/concrete poem in the shape of the sun or a volcano.
5. If you could channel the power of the sun through your fingertips what would you do with it?

Year 9 writing ideas

1. Write a story that begins with the phrase: ‘The only way to escape was to run nearer the Volcano’.
2. Write a pattern poem/concrete poem in the shape of the sun or a volcano.
3. Imagine you are the Earth or the Sun, write a letter to humanity.
4. If you could channel the power of the sun through your fingertips what would you do with it?
5. Write a poem or short story about the ‘power of nature’ from the perspective of an inanimate object…whether that is a tree, a volcano, a lightning bolt, a raindrop, a wave or a tornado.
6. Try and think up five ‘kennings’ about things that you find powerful or terrifying in the natural world. Weave these together to make a poem.