Hexagonal Thinking: Connections and Discussion in Science Class

I first heard about hexagonal thinking when schools were closed due to the COVID pandemic, and I was looking for fresh ways of engaging students while teaching online- quite the challenge! Betsy Potash's interview on The Cult of Pedagogy Podcast caught my attention. She described her hexagonal thinking activities in which groups of students work together to find connections between different terms related to a central topic. While teaching virtually, I tried using hexagonal thinking to facilitate small-group discussions on the concept of evolution and natural selection. Its success lead me to continue using hexagonal thinking when our school reopened.

Using a hexagonal thinking activity at the end of a unit helps students pull all the ideas together and solidify their knowledge. The social aspect of the activity is another plus as students share their understanding of concepts with peers and learn from one another.

Students can engage in hexagonal thinking discussions using digital or print resources, which Betsy Potash offers for free on her website. I customized her resources for an end-of-unit discussion on evolution and natural selection that addressed these Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS): MS-LS1-4, MS-LS3-1, MS-LS4-4, and MS-LS4-6.

The goal of a hexagonal thinking discussion is for students to find connections between given terms, and to indicate these connections by placing hexagons with the terms beside one another. Betsy Potash's template allows you to fill in the terms you would like students to use for the activity. 

On her website, Betsy Potash gives an example of how to use hexagonal thinking to discuss climate change. I chose to use seven hexagons and the following terms for discussions on evolution and natural selection:

• Natural Selection

• Mutations

• Biodiversity

• Survival of the Fittest

• Inheritance of Traits

• Genes

• Variation

• Evolution

This image shows a slide from the template after I customized it:

In small groups, students discussed how to place the terms on the hexagons such that the terms on hexagons with connected sides related to one another. They then chose five of these connections to explain in writing. With seven available hexagons and eight terms, students were able to choose one term to leave out. 

I simplified the activity a bit by not using the arrows provided in the template. The arrows can be used by students to indicate which connections they will write about. Instead, I asked students to name the terms before describing the reasoning behind their decision to connect them.

As I circled around and observed student groups at work, I noticed how students assisted one another with remembering the meanings of terms. As they discussed which terms to connect, they reviewed much of the content of the unit and deepened their understanding.

My students used a digital version of the activity. I found it helpful to give direct instruction on how to drag and drop the terms using their Chromebook, and I included detailed directions for this on the slideshow. It was a little tricky for students at first, but everyone got the hand of it with practice.

Once students had completed the activity, I asked them to write both a self reflection and a group reflection to consider how they participated individually and how the group worked together. Announcing this at the beginning of the activity made expectations clear and helped students be mindful of their participation.

I found hexagonal thinking to be a great way for students to pull multiple ideas together and share their understanding with classmates at the end of a unit. 

If you are interested in learning more about hexagonal thinking, you can check out Betsy Potash's website, Spark Creativity, where she offers a free template for hexagonal thinking activities:

Spark Creativity

Here is a link to Betsy Potash's interview on The Cult of Pedagogy Podcast:

Betsy Potash Interview on Cult of Pedagogy  

Betsy Potash explains how to use hexagonal thinking in this short Edutopia video:

Using Hexagons to Build Critical Thinking Skills

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