Engaged in Science

Just a quick note to share something that happened over the weekend. One of the capabilities that I'm particularly interested in seeing 'happening' is the Engaged in Science capability. This is where children are becoming almost independent in their science thinking of the world around them and in particular issues. If we're serious about the essence statement in the NZC, we need to be deliberate in our efforts to creating responsible, critical and informed citizens.
I was at a DoC centre in Nelson last week and they are releasing lots of fantastic resources to support teachers (http://www.doc.govt.nz/get-involved/conservation-education/) with getting our students engaged in their local environment and doing science stuff! The resources do have the Nature of Science as a part of the planning and it would be simple enough to tag the capabilities alongside.

Anyway, the 'thing'... I was chatting to the hairdresser as she cut my hair and she made mention of the fact the salon seems to always be louder in cool mornings than if it's warm. It got us chatting about this (and if you know me, you would know I was asking lots of questions like "Prove it" and "How do you know that it's louder?"!). We had an observation from the hairdresser and then we were using this observation to think more about this idea. We used prior knowledge about our own memories -that on still days sound does seem to travel further. We also did a bit of science talk as I had read something recently about sound travelling through water very well so was thinking that perhaps a humid day might be better for sound travel... We were musing and discussing and both of us were interested. And those of you who think I'm making this up -the hairdresser then posted this on Facebook!

Rather than getting too deep science-wise, I was wanting to share this as an example of getting science out there. Not just for children but for ourselves as well. Not only is there plenty of science-themed news out there but let's start being inquisitive, curious, wondering... Let's start thinking about what we read... I remember reading something about dogs peeing north and south (http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2014/01/03/dogs-sense-earths-magnetic-field/) and thought pfft! I take my dog for loads of walks and he's yet to show this natural compass bearing (unless there's something up with Te Aroha, magnetically speaking!) preferring to pee in any direction. However, it did make me want to critique and challenge the finding and that's one of the things science is about... Neither the hairdresser nor I really knew that much about sound travelling but we did have some prior knowledge and a few science ideas. She used good ol' Google to give us some more ideas but I'm sure that she will be monitoring the salon in the future... wanting evidence of her theory!

So get out there and find out stuff! Why do some weeds and flowers grow in clumps? How come the cup 'tings' at different pitches with the spoon after you stir the coffee? Why is a fruit a fruit and a vegetable a vegetable? And why does my toast and jam still fall jam-side down?!? 

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/dropping-toast-butter-side-down-2253601

And what interests me is that scientists are fascinated with this everyday science just like us! That last one I put in for fun and then thought 'hmmmmm', googled it and found: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2410532/Why-toast-falls-butter-Scientists-finally-uncover-reason--height-table.html and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buttered_toast_phenomenon. Yes, I know the last one is wikipedia but now I want to look up the link to buttered cats! Science is so cool!

Paul