Hotspot pictures

Hotspot pictures are a visual approach to science talk with children.

Being able to talk scientifically with children is both about having knowledge about different scientific topics and about knowing how you position your knowledge, your epistemic stance, in dialogues with children.

Step 1: Click and explore the hotspot

In this module you can click into different pictures, showing a variety of landscapes, animals and plants, and explore them through the different clickable hotspots. The idea is that this will make you more conscious about the concrete topic in the picture, but also on how you can talk about it. A good idea is to do this together with a colleague or fellow student. That way you can discuss the topics and discover that you may have different ideas about the same thing.

Step 2: Make your own hot spot picture

Having done step 1, you know how the structure of a hotspot picture can be. Now you can make your own. The first thing you need to do is to take a photo, of something that you find interesting in or around your kindergarten or school, that can be linked to scientific talk, in one way or another. Your hotspot needs to include:

  1. Facts about the object or topic that is being shown.
  2. A way to talk about it. Find a suitable way to approach the situation you are showing. Look through the page 'types of talk' to find something that makes sense for your picture.
  3. A suggestion for an aesthetic way to work with the topic. Song, poem, art, land-art etc.
  4. One or two fun facts if you can find it!

If you have access to canvas, you can use the tool H5P, to make a clickable hotspot picture. You can also create a free account here: https://h5p.org/   Here is a tutorial for making the hotspot. Tutorial for making hotspot picture. It takes some time in the beginning, but you will make it!

It is also possible to make a hotspot in another way. You simply take the photo you want, use paint, a photo-editing program, or you just draw on a printed sheet. You then mark out places for your hotspots, using 1, 2, 3 etc. If you choose to do it that way, you will have to make a list under, that explains each hotspot connected to its respective number.

When you have finished your hotspot, it is nice if you are able to present it to a group of colleagues or fellow students and reflect around new perspectives and ideas that this process might have given you.