Incidentally... the art of science

Kia ora koutou!
I had a little giggle as I wrote that title -I had spent most of last week hassling about art and science and whether they should go together... I had a lovely week working with Y7 and 8 students (and some younger children too!) exploring copters and the good ol' soda water and raisins experiment. What struck me was the need for more opportunities for systematic investigation and what this might look like from the juniors through to intermediate age students. Today I'm supporting a school with a workshop intergrating literacy and science with a science fair theme and again I'm thinking and wondering about whether students are getting opportunities to investigate in a similar way to a science fair. I think if we were scaffolding this type of science then science fair may not be as onerous as it seems to be in classes!
But that's not what today's blog is about...

a cactus plant... I think... photo by me!

 We have these lovely devices in pockets and purses and besides radiating goodness knows what lethal doses of stuff that may or may not hurt us, they take photos! Schools that work with me often will know that I love taking photos -not so much of people, mostly fungus and the odd cloud (which are a lot harder to photograph due to the moving vehicle I'm driving!) but also other things that make me go "wow!"
I know that we can have science units planned for the dreaded afternoon spots but why not start taking photos to share during the morning news block or writing time... or even reading time. That top plant I spied as I left after visiting a friend. I loved the patterns and know that there are other plants that also have this pattern. It's called the Fibonacci sequence and turns up with pinecones and even the centre of daisies.

The side of a cliff in Ngamatapouri with these large boulders sticking out of the limestone (or papa rock as the locals call it). Over time the fall to the ground and split apart. 

The first science capability is all about observation and inference and photos are a wonderful way to get this going (videos too). I love the idea of children enjoying these photos and starting to share their own. If we want children to observe closely and ask questions, this can be a good way. We need to develop students' vocabulary and the best way to do this is with lots of discussion. Perhaps after the chat, some children for reading may like to explore a little further, investigating the limestone cliffs of New Zealand or the geology of their own place and then perhaps report back to the class.

Taken at Waiotahe Beach, Opotiki (amongst other photos including a little tornado!)

Photos that may not be quite so 'pretty' in terms of developing curiosity and wonder are also important. The final capability is "Engaged with Science" and includes students engaging with science in real life contexts. It involves students taking an interest in science issues and at times taking action. A good example of this happened last week. We were talking about picking up rubbish and why we should and it slowly moved towards thinking about reducing the amount of rubbish and the need for recycling and composting. We even chatted a little about plastic bags and what we could do about these -at one stage we discussed what would happen if we only had one or two plastic bags a month and it still ended up being quite a big number by the end of a year!
The above photo made me wonder about what would happen if the horses got too close to the godwit colony nesting on the beach and whether it's a good idea for horses to even be on that particular beach...

A rather strange plant at one of the schools I visited last week. I expected the flower (and yes, that is an inference!) to be quite soft and was surprised how rough and hard those little structures were. 

Sharing photos also communicates our interest, our curiosity, our awe and wonder at the world around us. Every topic is a possibly one -my daughter sent me a photo the other day of a 'huge spider'... it looked a bit like a huntsman and was rather large! It got me thinking and wondering how it ended up at a petrol station -not the healthiest place for a big arachnid! And it was a very cold night -I wondered if the spider would survive being out in the open on the concrete.

And of course there's also the collecting... seed pods, leaves, shells, interesting rocks... but we'll leave that for another time!

So get clicking! Liven up the morning talks!

Have fun
Paul.