The other week I was listening to a podcast. It's my newest "find" and those of you who know me will know that I can be rather obsessive with "finds" -you should see my lovely Lego collection started a few months ago... I'm still on the hunt for minifigures!
Anyway this is from the How Stuff Works: Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast and is more of a science one. I have quite a few I listen to on my travels around the countryside and one of them recommended this site. The only problem with all my podcasts is I need to start finding some schools further away so I have time to listen to them all as I travel! Here's the link: https://www.stufftoblowyourmind.com/podcasts/the-obvious-invisible-gorillas-of-the-mind.htm. I don't remember if it's perfect for the children to listen to but it is interesting! As a wee squirrel... I like the ideas of children having opportunities to be immersed in science perhaps through a podcast, video or article...
The podcast was about "Invisible Gorillas", that idea that we can 'see' but actually can zone things out of our vision. A good example is driving. A few times I can sort of focus in and not really recollect earlier parts of the drive. It's not that I've fallen asleep (hopefully!) but just that my brain decided it wasn't important!
There's a couple of videos as a part of this. There's also a very funny Monty Python sketch mentioned on the podcast that took me a long time to find it and the first part illustrates this perfectly with additional cast members in the background that you don't even notice! One Invisible Gorilla clip is this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo. There seem to be a few different versions out there. If you can, get the children to watch the video by themselves on their own device to limit 'Oh! Look at that gorilla!' moments. I tried to find one without telling the viewer they missed the gorilla but wasn't lucky. Ask the children who spotted the gorilla the first time. Research has shown it's usually about 50% -although there are other versions where it's even lower and that's after the viewer has already seen one video like this!
It's a good chance to talk about honesty in science -what if I don't want people to know I missed the gorilla? I might lie so I don't feel dumb. What might that do to the research? How could I find out who saw the gorilla in a way that didn't let them feel dumb. We're sort of playing a bit here in ethics. Asking the whole class at once in itself is an interesting experiment -we all want to be the same!
There's another video from a British road safety video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47LCLoidJh4. This has similar findings and interestingly, having watched one video previously doesn't seem to impact the second video's findings! What did children notice this time? As an aside you could use bit.ly to shorten the videos... I have: http://bit.ly/Paul_Gorilla and http://bit.ly/Paul_Bear.
Why would I do this? I really like the idea of opportunities for children to investigate ideas that scientists wonder, in this case, selective attention. Children could investigate a bit further -perhaps play the video to their whaanau and see what results they get -is it around the 50% mark? Are particular genders or ethnicities more susceptible to selective attention? Can we collect data and graph it? Or build up some inferences?
Children can also dip a bit deeper with the website: http://www.theinvisiblegorilla.com/gorilla_experiment.html. There are presentations on the websites that the children might like to watch to get some more thinking about what this is all about. But why do this? What's the point of the research? What do children think about this? Why do we have selective attention? What's the point of it? For us humans, we really don't want to or perhaps need to see everything! I'm typing this on my keyboard and if I stop, I can see the icons at the bottom of the screen or the blue 'on' light. But as I'm typing, I'm not aware of them at all! They must still be there! If I'm driving along and nothing is different as I drive through towns, my brain doesn't see the need to record the images or even notice! There are a few different articles out there including this one: https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-selective-attention-2795022 that might be worth reading for those particularly interested.
In terms of capabilities, there's lots happening here. The idea of the science capabilities is that they don't really all operate in one-off situations but together. As children carry out the investigations, do they all do it the same? Do some say "Can you see anything strange in this video?" which might lead the viewer? Do others giggle as the gorilla turns up on the screen? It gives us a chance to talk about how we could investigate scientifically and carefully. It also helps us to talk about our own questioning -how do we make sure we don't ask leading questions?
Anyway, it was an interesting podcast, and I thought it could be interesting for you too! I know this doesn't have a lot of capabilities mentioned but they're there!
Paul
Tuesday, 25 September 2018
Thursday, 20 September 2018
Wrapping up the term
Recently I had a day visiting a school in Huntly where we did some co-teaching (which usually means I have to really focus on not squirrelling to different ideas as well as general interference with the lesson!). For the workshop we used my handy dandy new capabilities posters (the second updated version that went out to all schools that asked) to review the science for the year. Teachers wrote down specific skills they did with the students.
I'm sharing because I think it's a really good way of looking back at what we've done, how it has fitted into the science capabilities as well as challenging teacher understanding of the capabilities -where do particular skills go? We did it on post-it notes with different colours for the different levels of the school and this was helpful to think about how are we teaching the capabilities across the school: is it more Gather and Interpret Data at the junior levels? Are there more Use Evidence and Critique Evidence at the senior level? Does Interpret Representations show up across the board?
It was great seeing all the different topics and skills students were developing -especially seeing "floating and sinking" happening in the senior rooms! Sometimes we forget to revisit these ideas as we tend to think of them as 'junior class topics' and they very certainly are not!
From this, I typed them all up on a google doc for the school to review. I think it's really important for the teachers to see what each team or syndicate is up to, what they're doing and how... It also gives us a chance to critique our understanding, add more and plan for next year -what's missing, what could we be doing more of?, what can we focus on next term or year? We don't tend to do a lot of critiquing of our teaching in science and I wonder if a bit more would be helpful for our own understanding. Using google docs means we can add some comments to the side, asking questions, etc... I looked at what had been written and thought for next time, as teachers become more tuned to the capabilities, I'd like to see differences with some tags. For example, many teams wrote about observations or diagrams, but what differences might we see across the levels?
We also looked at the front end of the curriculum but this time wrote the activities we did and this also was interesting. You can see the cards at the bottom of the photo. From this, we can start talking about what areas are we doing well in and which areas could we perhaps target with science. I think some of the areas eg equity or diversity in NZC Values may be more difficult but through discussion and brainstorming, integrating science with other curriculum areas could support development in these areas.
I believe it was a really worthwhile activity for the staff with some good opportunities for follow ups -so I thought I'd share! We also talked a bit about questioning -are the questions asked in the junior rooms the same as in the senior rooms? Sometime they might be eg What do you notice? but with the expectation of a deeper answer from higher up in the school. However, are we also asking questions with more 'scientific verbs' eg compare and contrast, match, interpret, extrapolate...?
Finally, my apologies for the blog mailing list mix up. Thanks to all who replied to be put back on this! If you'd like a copy of the capabilities posters or my NZC ones (which are really just the front bits of the curriculum), do ask!
Keep on sciencing!
Paul
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| Our work... and I don't know why it's on this angle either! |
It was great seeing all the different topics and skills students were developing -especially seeing "floating and sinking" happening in the senior rooms! Sometimes we forget to revisit these ideas as we tend to think of them as 'junior class topics' and they very certainly are not!
From this, I typed them all up on a google doc for the school to review. I think it's really important for the teachers to see what each team or syndicate is up to, what they're doing and how... It also gives us a chance to critique our understanding, add more and plan for next year -what's missing, what could we be doing more of?, what can we focus on next term or year? We don't tend to do a lot of critiquing of our teaching in science and I wonder if a bit more would be helpful for our own understanding. Using google docs means we can add some comments to the side, asking questions, etc... I looked at what had been written and thought for next time, as teachers become more tuned to the capabilities, I'd like to see differences with some tags. For example, many teams wrote about observations or diagrams, but what differences might we see across the levels?
We also looked at the front end of the curriculum but this time wrote the activities we did and this also was interesting. You can see the cards at the bottom of the photo. From this, we can start talking about what areas are we doing well in and which areas could we perhaps target with science. I think some of the areas eg equity or diversity in NZC Values may be more difficult but through discussion and brainstorming, integrating science with other curriculum areas could support development in these areas.
I believe it was a really worthwhile activity for the staff with some good opportunities for follow ups -so I thought I'd share! We also talked a bit about questioning -are the questions asked in the junior rooms the same as in the senior rooms? Sometime they might be eg What do you notice? but with the expectation of a deeper answer from higher up in the school. However, are we also asking questions with more 'scientific verbs' eg compare and contrast, match, interpret, extrapolate...?
Finally, my apologies for the blog mailing list mix up. Thanks to all who replied to be put back on this! If you'd like a copy of the capabilities posters or my NZC ones (which are really just the front bits of the curriculum), do ask!
Keep on sciencing!
Paul
Monday, 17 September 2018
Wash and repeat...
Just like the shampoo bottle, repeating is a great thing! If you are a reader of my blog, you'll know that I'm a firm advocate of doing a science lesson (at least the first bit) twice. If the children are making oobleck, although I will do all my questioning and prompting, it will be the first time the children have made it so there's loads going on in their heads! The second time, which could be the next day, I might challenge them with thinking like a scientist or how could we record our noticings like scientists?
It's interesting that even Year 7 and 8 students can benefit from repeat opportunities. Yes, you could change the experiment a little, for example, replacing the paper for photocopy card when making copters, but it's impressive the improvement in student thinking and communication with a second go.
I'd also revisit the ideas later in the year too. It may not be the same experiment but might have sufficient links that you can see whether students have developed that thinking and vocabulary. If I had made oobleck, I might make cornflour and conditioner 'dough' and remind children of what we had done previously.
This repeating is also good for me too! I get to try out my questions again, challenge with vocabulary, encourage further questioning and since I have a better idea of student response, I can refine my goals of capability development further.
I spent a lovely few days working with sole charge schools in Wairoa last week and saw this in action. In one school visit, we had the children looking at a tree log (which we originally thought was a stump!) with the aim of developing student questioning. The class had a bit of a chat first about how we should investigate as scientists -can we just rip the tree apart, does it matter about the flora and fauna we discover, etc... it was interesting the the first look captured some students' interest but not deeply -we sort of just looked! We then headed back up to the school where we discussed what we had seen and looked at questions we had written on post-it notes during the look. Immediately heading back down to the tree, I was really surprised at the difference of student behaviour with the second look. More questions were written, children got right into the log with a lot more close observation of what they were seeing. There was more interest and more engagement in all the children.
Our goal from this lesson was for children to investigate further on their own back in the classroom -what did we see and can we learn more about this 'stuff'. During the second visit the principal and I both realised we should have brought iPads down to photograph and in hindsight, I think it would have been good to have got the children into pairs -one can photograph and jot down notes and wonderings whilst the other investigates!
I met a principal that I had worked with the previous day (was a busy week) and he showed some student diagrams that we had the children make after an experiment. The children had carried out the experiment, we discussed it, and then the principal carried out the experiment in front of them and they drew diagrams that we critiqued later in the day. He had carried out the experiment again the next day and the children drew diagrams again after they had all critiqued their efforts from the day before. The difference was very visible. Detail had been put in and labels were more accurate and self-explanatory, as well as titles added.
In chatting with the literacy facilitator (we were doing a joint teacher-only day PLD session with the schools), there was a lot of conversation about the need for practice. When we're practising a PE skill such as shot put, we don't tend to do it once, critique the efforts and then move onto long jump! We keep going with the shot put and perhaps we need to think about this with science as well. The repeating of the same diagram definitely showed improvement. The Austin's Butterfly video (on youtube) is a really good example of this -good to play for your syndicate but also for the class!
So there we have it! Have a try. Often we teachers tend to think we need "new and exciting" for every lesson, but there's real value in repeating lessons and activities. Have a try!
As always, I'm happy to discuss this further -send me an email or comment on this blog. I do have a facebook page called "Science Happening NZ" where I post photos, videos and ideas to support science teaching.
It's also time to think about whether you'd like some science PLD for 2019. There's lots of different ways this can look in schools. I'm happy to chat further if you're curious.
Keep on sciencing!
Paul
It's interesting that even Year 7 and 8 students can benefit from repeat opportunities. Yes, you could change the experiment a little, for example, replacing the paper for photocopy card when making copters, but it's impressive the improvement in student thinking and communication with a second go.
I'd also revisit the ideas later in the year too. It may not be the same experiment but might have sufficient links that you can see whether students have developed that thinking and vocabulary. If I had made oobleck, I might make cornflour and conditioner 'dough' and remind children of what we had done previously.
This repeating is also good for me too! I get to try out my questions again, challenge with vocabulary, encourage further questioning and since I have a better idea of student response, I can refine my goals of capability development further.
 |
| A giant spider seen on the log... okay it wasn't "giant" but was really big -about 2 cms! |
Our goal from this lesson was for children to investigate further on their own back in the classroom -what did we see and can we learn more about this 'stuff'. During the second visit the principal and I both realised we should have brought iPads down to photograph and in hindsight, I think it would have been good to have got the children into pairs -one can photograph and jot down notes and wonderings whilst the other investigates!
 |
| I'm assuming these are all eggs with the ones on the left fresh -but not sure from what! Slugs? Snails? |
In chatting with the literacy facilitator (we were doing a joint teacher-only day PLD session with the schools), there was a lot of conversation about the need for practice. When we're practising a PE skill such as shot put, we don't tend to do it once, critique the efforts and then move onto long jump! We keep going with the shot put and perhaps we need to think about this with science as well. The repeating of the same diagram definitely showed improvement. The Austin's Butterfly video (on youtube) is a really good example of this -good to play for your syndicate but also for the class!
 |
| And I have even less of an idea on these... we decided that they were natural because there were different sizes and some of the rings seemed stuck together. Originally I thought there were man-made but not so sure! |
As always, I'm happy to discuss this further -send me an email or comment on this blog. I do have a facebook page called "Science Happening NZ" where I post photos, videos and ideas to support science teaching.
It's also time to think about whether you'd like some science PLD for 2019. There's lots of different ways this can look in schools. I'm happy to chat further if you're curious.
Keep on sciencing!
Paul
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