Just give me the lessons and I'll teach them!

So I have a wee confession... It has changed through the four years that I have worked as a facilitator from "let me give you everything you want to teach science" to "I don't think giving you everything is the best way to do science PLD, let me help you to learn how to plan some effective science units..."; sort of that whole 'give a man a fish or teach him how to fish' idea. When I often have a reflection time for PLD, I do get a few comments wanting lots of lessons and units.

google image

And here's my worry. Yes, I could pass on some resources and I know that there are other PLD providers who do this -sending out a box jam-packed with lots of great science ideas or providing participants with a folder full of lessons and activities for classes, and to be honest, I do share unit plans and lesson activities too (although I'm not sure where they end up as most teachers I work with have no idea about these lovely lessons!)... However, I don't know how this is going to support teachers to learn about the science pedagogy. When I was teaching, I used to sometimes download great units. I would teach them, the kids would love them, but I'm not sure I grew in my own understanding of that curriculum area or the pedagogical knowledge to teach, for example, science well. In fact, most of the stuff I downloaded wasn't New Zealand based but I would decide it was good enough! I was so flat out with all the other curriculum areas that to have prepacked units were marvellous!

Looking back, I realised that I still actually taught Science or Social Sciences or Art the same as I always did. I once found a great website with art critiquing and I remember one lesson where we were a bit behind and I was basically saying look at the artist's work, see those lines? Get them on paper! Our Japanese art (I forget the artist's name but he created beautiful ink art) looked nothing like the art we were looking at because I didn't really 'get' art. Looking at the essence statement in the NZC (p. 17), I think I understand art better now. I think I would spend more time looking at art, a sense of communication, a sense of a message shared with me by the artist and then creating our own 'messages' in that form.

Sometimes we're so busy that we just want to get the science done! Those boxes of resources are marvellous and I know there could be some good science in them but what do you do if there are no more boxes? Or courses? Or (heaven forbid) me!!! Do I understand the science well enough to be able to teach a nature of science based unit (or science capabilities based)? Do I know how to question? Can I think of ways of dealing with student misconceptions (or my own!)? And just as importantly, are these ready made units actually reflecting student wonderings? Are they an authentic context that reflects my students, where they're at, the place I'm working in... My class was predominantly Maaori, so I had to adapt any unit to reflect this.

And here's the goal of this blog! Teaching the science capabilities seems difficult at first. I'm always delighted though when teachers get the essence of what this is about and get excited! I don't need to know a lot of content (although I need a bit even just for my own confidence), and I do need to know how to question well (and I have Paul's lovely question sheets to help me), and how to involve the children and get them wondering and investigating further. Sometimes a prepacked box, or printed lessons (and yes, even mine) won't know or understand your class! They'll need some adapting. In fact, you may not even want to follow my roadmap! Or the Learning Intentions... I know that Paul's lesson is focusing on Gather and Interpret Data but I actually want to develop their thinking around explanations so I'll shorten this bit and extend out their wonderings so we can get some investigating happening and then build up explanations. I'll also get some School Journal articles together so we can explore some literacy examples to scaffold writing explanations as well as some fake news articles to challenge their critiquing.

What does excite me with the PLD reflections is that some teachers do ask for planning support! I know I've been in this job for a few years now and I'm pretty much able to automatically slip into gear with thinking nature of science style and I also know it's taken a while to get here (and that I still have lots to learn and grow in!). I also remember being a teacher and the pressure of planning. I used to use the second week of the holidays to do my planning and I never got it finished! So my goal with the PLD is to support teachers to be able to adapt what's out there.

We have the Science Learning Hub (with NZC planned lessons, units, videos, posters, etc, etc), the scienceonline site with TKI (with capabilities lessons at all the different levels and for all the science capabilities), pond, Royal Society, and NZAPSE (science educators site) just for starters online! And these are all kiwi sites. There's also the Connecteds, School Journals, Making Better Sense, Building Science Concepts books in the cupboard at your school! There are many, many activities out there on the interweb as well. I use a number of American, British and Australian resources in my science teaching but never as printed! In fact even the NZ stuff, I will adapt for what I want to do, how I can support the teacher who may have given me some ideas as to what the class has been up to, and if I know the class well enough, to suit them.

By adapting the lessons, they'll be tailor made for my bunch! I might add more questioning, or even need to add the whole science capabilities idea as most international resources (and our older science printings) chase after content. I might drop bits altogether. I need to also be thinking about those authentic contexts, what I want the children to get out of the lessons and where to after that.

The big question is always if I had to teach science myself with no support, would it be a science capabilities based lesson or unit? If all the external PLD became extinct, what is your science understanding? What is important to you for the children to understand and develop? What do you want children in your class to leave with (and that's only a couple of months away!)? Adapting a resource might seem scary but it can be fun and actually help develop your thinking and understanding of science! It can be PLD for you!  So what do I want at the end of the unit? What evidence do I want to record about student understanding in science? What do I want them to have developed further? These are hard questions! Is it important they know that wasps have six legs and three body parts? Or Saturn has a hexagonal cloud structure over its north pole? Or that water is produced when you mix baking soda and vinegar together? Or that e=mc²? That last one might be a wee bit hard!

YouTube image of the man himself!

I might like children to know some of this stuff as we're going along. I get excited if a child comes up to me with a shell and can tell me all about it -and I get even more excited about the process... unless it's simply a lucky google hit! I want to hear the child's enthusiasm and passion! I want to ask questions and see how this child is thinking and answering. I want to know how they can be sure it's a such and such shell...

So what do I want at the end of the unit? I don't mind if it's magnets, friction, ants, the solar system, broadbeans or the theory of light! I want to know that the children are developing a concept of what science is about. I want them to be learning about evidence and proof and investigating and asking questions and being curious. I want them to 'own' the science, to know it's their science. I want them to grow up and ask questions, be sceptical, be confident to find answers, and to challenge thinking (their's and other people's)! So this is what I'll be checking as the lessons are progressing. My lessons pinched from somewhere may not include any of these ideas so I'm going to have to adapt, scribble everywhere, pull in other ideas etc. I may even ask a knowledgeable person about tikanga... I want to get the students planting and wondering about adding some authentic contexts for them, could you help at all? 

So get out there, be confident, listen to what the students are interested in and follow their lead! This was going to be a post all about how to adapt and I've sort of done that but I think there might need to be a part two!

Keep on sciencing
Paul

Gather and Interpret Data ideas

Kia Ora koutou!
I hope you are all enjoying your term break and thinking lots about the science you can do this term! A lot of teachers are playing with the "Gather and Interpret Data" science capability and besides heading to the TKI website where there are lots and lots of already preplanned lessons with assessment ideas all for different levels, I've posted a few ideas below. Some of these came out of the old Te Toi Tupu capability workshops that were planned by Ally Bull, so some credit has to go to her!
As those of you whose schools are doing science PLD with me will know, I'm a big fan of the incidental science (which I must get around to writing a post about) and the short but sweet opportunities to expose the students to some science that can pop up. I like the idea of a science introduction leading to a reading or writing lesson too -let's merge them altogether and create some authentic contexts. By no means am I chucking out the science units and series of lessons, just wanting to remind teachers that there are probably more opportunities than you think for science!

• Children observing objects... One activity that came from the capabilities workshops was a group of four taking turns to observe an object for a couple of minutes and then swapping until they had recorded some noticings on all four objects. They then shared their observations and besides crossing out inferences (and these are an interesting debate in themselves -how do you know that's lichen or mold or... so is that an observation or inference?!?), they discuss each word and if two or more have the same, then they cross them off. The one with the most unique observations wins! You'll notice I said "record" not "write" as some children may prefer to draw. As children are doing this, I tend to wander around and look for good examples of children observing shape, size, colour, measurement, using different senses and then get these children to feedback to their group and possibly the class as to why I've highlighted their noticing. We might also discuss thorny issues like is beige and light brown the same colour or he wrote 'twig' and that's an inference. The aim of the game is not to get rules focused but to develop good language. You could even start recording some of the more interesting words for a word bank! It's up to teachers how they do the activity and it could be a lovely starter for writing time. Children could do this in pairs or groups or have a writer from a more senior class recording the children's thoughts.
• Children observing objects or pictures or videos... Similar to the first but with children individually or in groups recording down all their noticings. Go through them to check for inferences and particular ideas (for example textures might be the focus) and the group with the most observations wins! You might like to do this with an object on the science table and a large sheet for all the children to record their ideas. 

With both of these activities, we want objective observations. Yes, the rock might be 'amazing', but is that a good observation? I also try to use a variety of objects and pictures, some the children may have no idea about -and these ones can be good to see how are the children observing. Do they go straight to inference: It's a spider's leg! Do they have lots of language at their disposal? Are they using a lot of 'like': It's like the top of an egg, all smooth and curved.

Peacock Spider, youtube image

Once they've observed, get them to do a bit of inferencing. One of my favourite videos to use is one with peacock spiders (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_yYC5r8xMI). I always turn the sound off -later I might play it with the sound on which might be music or narration and ask the children why did I turn off the music. In terms of the spider video, students will comment that the music makes them think the spider is dancing. When I show this to teachers, the first thing they say is It's a courtship dance which of course is an inference -there are no other spiders in the video and really we have no idea until we've perhaps watched some more. So I challenge the teachers to notice... it's legs have little hairs on like a bottle brush... I can see these colours... it's making quick darting moves... It's always the same two legs that stretch out and then move downwards... It has lots of eyes (which I might challenge them on: how do you know they're eyes? And sometimes I might show some creatures with what look like eyes but aren't just to remind them to notice not infer). After the observations we can infer: I think the peacock spider might be scared and so it's waving its arms around. Maybe it's trying to be bigger? From this I want the children's inferences to draw in prior knowledge or scientific knowledge: So what other animals or insects might do this? This way we're showing children that our inferences are the beginnings of our explanations. We're needing evidence and proof now that we have our thoughts sorted out. Let's watch some more of the videos to see if there's a large predator or a female spider it's trying to attract...

Nikon 2017 Photo Competition

If I'm using an object or picture, I'll try to finish with a What do you think it might be? Here's where inferences come into play but also I might finish with telling the children in a couple of minutes about the peacock spider or that this is the eye of a fly (the above photo)...If I'm feeling particularly nasty, I might not and leave it to the children to do some more figuring out if I know that they can accomplish this with google, books and websites.

And another idea:

• What is it? I might use an object (and it doesn't always have to be natural, it could be an interesting looking piece of machinery that will still grow some interesting vocab and descriptive language) or a picture to challenge them to go deeper. I'll always start with getting the children to observe and make connections to what they might already know and then perhaps a chance to look on the internet or in a book for more detail. At the end, whatever they decide must have reasoning... 

  

  Nikon 2017 Photo Competition

I think this might be something to do with plants -maybe a seed or something? I can see a dark green base and darker lines (obs) and I think it might be a leaf and those are its veins (inference). The two objects (not 'things'!) are sort of like circles with a darker circle at the top (obs) which I think might be a hole as it is darker and I think I can almost see the other side (inf with a reason too). There are like hairs (trying to make sense so using 'like hair' not 'hair) in lines coming down the objects and they're very straight. They are white and might be all similar lengths as they curve the same as the object. I think these objects might be seeds as I've seen seeds with fluffy bits on before. maybe they've floated to this leaf and are just sitting there ready to float off again?
As it is, they're actually caterpillar eggs but I hope you can see from my example, that the child (me!) has used colours, shapes, tentative language, inferences using some prior knowledge, reasoning, etc -lots to gather evidence on how the child is gathering and interpreting data.

The other reason I might tell the class the answer is that there are those of us out there who need the answer! And yes, I'm one of those! Recently a teacher showed me an amazing photo. It's not this one but like this...

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/wasp-hornet-removal-under-a-car.826370/

It was inside a shed though. I went through my observations first (fighting the It's a...!) and inferring as I went along. I was heading down a thinking that maybe it was a plant or something and then had to ask So what is it? It turned out to be a huge hornet's nest! Knowing this caused me then to come up with a whole pile of new questions: Was it hard? Was it rough or smooth? What was it made of? Wood?How many hornets? Was it just one big hive or lots (and how would you know?). Underneath the surface, was it like a beehive with hexagonal structures? Knowing what it was stimulated more curosity!

Actually today, I had my own What is it? I collect rocks and have got some real beauties. In fact yesterday Anne gave me some lovely rocks for a sort of late birthday pressie type thing. We ended up chatting lots and thinking back, we were inferring and then backing these up with our observations. Anne's much more science clever than me but it was an interesting discussion! Anyway at home, I've started putting some labels onto the rocks and one I had thought was schist. However for some reason, I did a second look and now am wondering if it's gneiss... And yes, someone out there probably knows for sure so do feel free to tell me!

my rock

Schist, https://flexiblelearning.auckland.ac.nz/rocks_minerals/rocks/schist.html (my fave rocks website)

Although the photos aren't fantastic, there are lots of similarities between my rock and schist, they're both very hard, quite glittery, different colours, mainly greys and white scattered through and it's quite sharp on the edges. However after reading about schist having quite defined layers, I realised that my rock doesn't! I went onto the website and read up a bit more on schist and gneiss. Both can be found in the South Island (which is where I found my rock), both are metamorphic which explains the glittery bits -they're crystals. From this, I've learnt a wee bit more about my rocks (and the annoying fact that I probably walked straight past bits of schist, thinking they were all the same!) and used my observations, inferences and the internet to come up with a possible explanation. However I also realise that for some rock identifications, I'm just not sure -especially carnelian, chalcedony, and chert which is all found in the Coromandel and all looks similar (to me anyway!) and that's all a bit above me at the moment!

Finally, why? Why do all this? I'm reading some Effective Indicator readings from ERO and something that comes up a lot is ensuring that students know why we're doing this, what's the purpose? I know that observations and talking out loud, recording the noticings will all impact their writing. I also know that this is what scientists do! By observing closely, two things might happen -one, our inferences might be more accurate or deeper and two, our curiosity might be piqued with lots of questions popping up! Imagine what would happen if we simply jumped straight to inferences. Besides possibly getting it wrong, we also stop observing because we now 'know'. I throw lots of questions at the children, particularly if they're jumping to inferences to get them to look again. Sometimes I might simply scaffold my own thinking: I don't know, I'm looking at the shape and the colour of the objects and I'm wondering if it might be more about camouflage. Also, I don't know whether seeds are green like that. I think from memory, they're usually brown or black. What if it's a chrysalis or something, you know, with the insect popping out the top... but it's so tiny! It would have to be a really small insect... like a mite or aphid...

So a few ideas for you to think about -might be good for the science table! Oh, and don't forget the newspapers! There's a great article in stuff today: https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/97797197/Team-New-Zealand-pounced-on-Oracle-wingsail-tech-to-help-win-the-Americas-Cup? which has some science ideas in it about energy and once again showing how important science is, especially to winning!

Oh, and where do I get my pictures from? Usually the internet, it might be a facebook photo or a stuff/nzherald article or image. And the objects I find or get given to me!

I hope you have a go!

Keep on sciencing
Paul