Thursday 22 November 2018

Play, Explore and Deliberate Acts of Teaching

This week I've been in Opotiki modelling and co-teaching and having a lovely time with great teachers and a bunch of children who get very excited for science (although being a bit mad helps too -me, not the teachers!). I'm thinking this will be one of the last blogposts for the year. Can I just say thanks to those of you who have emailed me, commented in the blogs or chatted with me when I have visited schools. It really does help to know there is an audience out there that wants to connect and discuss this stuff further!
Two things really shone out for me from the lessons that I thought I'd share with you. 
The first was a lesson we did from the Connected Fact or Fiction article on Pseudoscience. We started with a science board whole class reading activity and then the next day did the experiment exploring how much fat is in regular chips and non-fat ones. What was interesting was watching the children carrying out the experiment. We had talked beforehand about being methodical and careful with measuring and doing the investigation and on the whole they were. However, watching the children reminded us of the need to be giving them more opportunities to carry out experiments by themselves with less input from the teachers i.e. reading the experiment carefully. We also talked about the deliberate acts of teaching that is needed to support students in reading and carrying out procedures. They may need to be taught how to read carefully through the steps, not skipping bits as well as reading why they are doing the experiment and the expected outcomes. Children may not necessarily get better just by doing lots of experiments -they may need chances to talk about how to do the experiment as well as why we need to follow the steps. I know it might not seem like rocket science (no pun intended!) but in the busyness of the lesson we can forget!
The second moment came from working with intermediate age children and Lego. They were investigating whether they could affect a vehicles travel speed or distance by adding weight or aerodynamics, etc -it was their choice of variable. We discovered that we hadn't left much time for 'play'. I had leapt straight into the lesson but the children wanted the chance just to play, pull apart the cars and rebuild them as well as do the experiment. Most didn't start with recording but if I mentioned it, they immediately grabbed a book and recorded the data well. The teacher and I ended up talking about whether we should have had a chance to 'play' first with the ideas, perhaps a half hour lesson but still encouraging that scientific thinking with their efforts and then the next day, doing the lesson again with an emphasis on scientific thinking and behaviour -which, when I asked the children during the lesson, were all well aware of -they were just too busy to remember! This did happen a little with the first lesson too -we noticed they were very excited perhaps because we hadn't done much of this kind of science before. All were keen on the experiment and were aware of how to act -they were just enjoying the lesson and the experience too much! 
Again, that whole idea of needing to allow children the chance to play and explore is really essential. As is the need to be deliberate about how we teach science so that they grow that understanding of what science is. I had a fantastic week at the school and watching the way all the children responded in science was heartwarming. I love it when the PLD is working!

As always, keep an eye on my Facebook page for pictures and videos and the odd extra idea, search for "science happening NZ". The latest lesson was sent out this morning all about paper flowers and capillary action. 

Keep on sciencing!
Paul

Thursday 8 November 2018

A bit of a bouillabaisse but sort of about students being critical and thinking for themselves... I think!

And that might take the record for the longest title so far! This week's blog started with me talking with my colleague Anne about Is no science better than bad science? We were discussing some of the resources out there and how they could be used to promote better teaching and a higher understanding of science for students but just as easily be a 'formula' lesson that, at the end of it, children have sort of done science but may not be any the wiser in thinking about how science works and its particular style of thinking, action and communication.
I also had the chance to read a flaming competition after a facebook post writing about how the paperbags from Countdown reminded her of the 'old days'. One person was posting about how plastic bags were better and shared a link: http://www.allaboutbags.ca/papervplastic.html and this reminded me of the recent "Ban the straws" movement. I think it was on National Radio where two people were arguing this with one stating how important straws were from a medical care point of view and another asking whether this was the most important thing to focus on when reducing plastic use.
Whether these are right or not isn't the point of this blogpost. It's really asking Do we check science reported by the media or our friends? Do we accept that what someone says is 'right' straight away? I know that there have been times media have jumped on a bandwagon to report something only to find out a couple of days later that they got the wrong end of the stick. 
So with these examples, who's right? Do I just say plastic bags are bad because that's what my stuff app on my iPad says? Or the TV news? Who are the ones saying that it's bad? Do they have a particular view or bent that might be biased? How would I find out or know? One thing that I'm quite interested in is that whole 'fake science' thing. My son is adamant that the moon landings were faked despite the plethora of evidence that proves him wrong. I'm speaking tongue in cheek a little as he has the same amount of facts proving me wrong! So who is right? This isn't one of those we can agree to disagree because we either did land on the moon or we didn't!
A while ago I read an interesting article about a reporter who did a pseudo-science investigation into whether chocolate can help you lose weight and was surprised at the amount of media outlets that simply ran the story without delving deeper (https://io9.gizmodo.com/i-fooled-millions-into-thinking-chocolate-helps-weight-1707251800?IR=T). From memory only one interviewer asked about the methodology... I guess the rest were just wanting a good sound bite: Chocolate helps you lose weight (and who wouldn't!).
I remembered about some articles that showed how most science journals will only publish investigations that have positive results and how this is affecting the science that is happening -you have to make sure that you succeed to get published. I wonder how this might affect the quality of the science happening? You certainly wouldn't want to take risks. At the same time, I came across some articles about how people had managed to get papers published in science journals that were clearly fake. These journals required you to pay to be published and purported to be peer reviewed but again, how would you know? Maybe Starwars' the Force is real!
I sometimes use The Onion or Babylon Bee (which is Christian-based) to give articles to children that are very clearly fake. Feel free to email me if you'd like a copy. I use them more for Year 7 and 8 children but they have fooled teachers too. They look scientific and they have scientist's names on them so maybe they are true...
So wrapping this all up... How do we support our students to develop critical thinking skills? How do we support them to know how to be critical and what to look for when reading an article or investigating a bit further? With resources that arrive at school, how can I use them to grow this sceptism or critical thinking? How can I challenge what they find out after doing the various experiments?
As an aside, I wonder what questions they might have that weigh on them. I'm always surprised how deep children are in terms of 'the big issues' and if all they've heard is mum and dad or the tv news, how could they check or confirm these problems? Sceptism is certainly a part of the curriculum, and something I have in spades -and yes, you can feel sorry for people I chat with! The important bit is that I'll go off to check out claims and facts and I think we need to be helping our students do the same! If they are worried about Rotorua disappearing in an almighty eruption next year, how can we investigate this claim and check its veracity? 

Keep sciencing
Paul

Weblinks:
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/05/28/410313446/why-a-journalist-scammed-the-media-into-spreading-bad-chocolate-science
https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2018/02/fake-research-paper-based-on-star-trek-voyagers-worst-episode-was-published-by-a-scientific-journal/
https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2017/07/scientific-journals-publish-bogus-paper-about-midi-chlorians-from-star-wars/

Thursday 1 November 2018

ECE to Juniors...

I know I write a lot about middles and seniors with science but I have had an interesting week and wanted to write a wee bit about juniors for a change!
This week I worked with some junior teachers exploring the idea of play-based learning within the context of science. We used the Te Whāriki curriculum as a starter as well as the website which has a bit more about science on than the actual printed curriculum seems to. We also had a couple of readings about junior themed science to use as a parallel alongside the NZC and Te Whāriki. 
It was a good conversation because the science capabilities reflect that idea of children inquiring, wondering and seeking answers which can be sen within a play-based learning context. For assessments, we thought the capability indicators that I have written could be worthwhile, choosing a dozen or so and rewriting to reflect a more junior-based programme, and then sharing OTJs on students as they participated in different activities. 
What sort of popped up in the conversation a little was what do we expect children at Year 1 and 2 to be doing in science? Not just the activity but also them -how should the capabilities look? What should teachers be expecting congnitively or behaviour-wise? This bit has ended up stuck in my head and I think it's a really important one for schools to be discussing. Do we expect the 5 year olds to be exploring sustainability or becoming kaitiaki? What do the experts think? What kind of foundations should the juniors teachers be supporting the children to develop?
Sometimes I think we can go a bit deep. I've walked into junior classrooms and seen particle theory, tectonic plates, and acids and alkali being addressed. I've also had some very deep conversations with these wee ones where I've had to end up trying to explain some pretty deep concepts to a 5 year old who grasped the ideas quite ably! For me, the phrase 'emergent understanding' pinched off an NZC poster well explain science at this level. 
Children will be exposed to lots of different ideas in science using all four context strands. They are encouraged to gather and start to interpret what they are noticing, as well as beginning to communicate their ideas and understanding other people's communications (for example, the good ol' Monarch butterfly life cycle!). They are encouraged to ask questions, to notice change, to be careful observers, respect the environment, be fascinated by bugs and birds, get excited about reactions (like baking soda and vinegar models of volcanoes!) and start to develop a scientific lens.
I'm not sure they need a lot of knowledge developing -I might leave that for the next levels to grow that. But I do want to catch hold of that awe and curiosity that children come to school with and nurture it. I want them to know I'm interested in what they have to say and I want them to be interested in what I want to show them! I might talk about this being 'science' but I might even leave that to the next levels up as well.
Yesterday, I got home from a trip to Rotorua and my wife was keen to share her experience of working with some wee ones using my cellophane fish (which incidentally is next week's lesson I'm emailing out!). They were all preschoolers and I was really interested in how they behaved. As she spoke, I was thinking about whether you could start to build an 'expectations' rubric of preschoolers, 5 and 6 year olds, etc... What was interesting was, for the whole, all the children were fascinated with the wriggling fish on their hand, but more the effect on them or what they were feeling. They giggled that it was 'tiggling me' but there were no questions or wonderings happening at all. One four year old put the fish on the table where it didn't work so stuck it back on his hand. Although my wife didn't use these as a science lesson but a fun ending to the Rainbow Fish story, I was curious as to how it would have gone had I been there. Could children had even grasped the concepts of I notice, I think, I wonder? She mentioned they were very ego-centric so perhaps science activities would need to reflect that too... how do you feel with that insect on your hand?, What do you think that tastes like? rather than getting to deep into what do you notice happening in the glass?... 
I'm certainly not an expert at ECE level and am very open to a discussion here but I can't help wondering if "I notice" is enough at this level. Perhaps "I think" could be introduced as children work through year 1 and 2, as well as starting to encourage asking questions. "I wonder" may be more appropriate to develop as a more formal science inquiry at Year 2 or 3. I think these are really important questions to be asking ourselves particularly with planning our science...

  • What do we want children to develop from this science lesson sequence?
  • What do we want children to develop as a science lens?
  • Are there any particular knowledge topics we think are important for a 5 year old?]
  • How could the science capabilities look at this level?

Anyway, just a bit of a musing and something I'd like to continue to pursue! I'd love to hear your views as well!

Keep on sciencing
Paul