Taking Action and the Local Curriculum

That title almost sounds like a B-Movie title! I've been reading a bit of Rose Hipkins and her suggestions around capabilities that are across the NZC... a bit like the Key Competencies... but they're not... And yes, I get a little confused too!
The Ministry of Education is also ramping up its Local Curriculum PLD programme with a few PDFs in the last email sent through to us. Although IPL (the people I work with at the University of Waikato) are not part of the PLD being offered, we can of course still help schools with their thinking as well as exploring this as a part of the science PLD I can offer.
It's really got me thinking about a couple of aspects that I know are important in science but I spend a lot of time at the other end of the pool, supporting teachers in exploring the pedagogy of the nature of science and the science capabilities, so don't get to try out some of these deeper ideas. As I've thought more about this, I've started thinking Why aren't I playing with these ideas? Why have I decided that they really should be introduced later on rather than right at the beginning? So I decided to get going!
The first idea is Taking Action. Some science activities probably won't head down this track and I think that can be okay, however, we do need some science units that have opportunities for students to reflect on taking action, and perhaps even take action. It might not even be them that's taking action! I'm always intrigued that we have fossil beds in Aotearoa New Zealand that are kept secret. This includes fossil records of footsteps. We have very rare plants and animals that the location is not shared. These are ways people take action. Other ways are the current 'no plastic bags' movement that is growing across the country. Besides this, are there chances for students to, at the least, discuss ways they (or society) could take action? If I'm doing something around plants, I'll be doing some gathering and interpreting data as we observe different plants. I might do some planting (probably inside, out of the sun, at the moment!) and then gathering data of the plants growing, comparing to others' plant growth. I'll probably do some diagrams, cross-sections to focus on interpreting representations as well. But taking action? Maybe I could look at particular weeds issues -like gorse, which can be prevalent across the country. How are farmers and scientists taking action? What could we do? If I lived near native bush, I might get the students to explore the kauri die-back problem afflicting these mighty trees. How is society responding? How can we help? Could it happen locally?

Probable Plesiosaur vertebra: https://sites.google.com/site/hawkesbayfossils/home

The second idea is about our Local Curriculum. How can I connect my science unit to what's happening locally? I was chatting with one of my schools down Wairoa way and they were looking at 'doing dinosaurs'. Once upon a time, I used to put this in the Literacy box as I thought I can't stick the nature of science on a unit that's all about reading books! I've changed my tune these days and think dinosaurs is a great topic to show children all about inferences and using evidence. There's also lots of critiquing evidence to look at too -how do scientists handle it when their ideas seem to be wrong? Or they disagree with one another? Have our ideas changed over time? When the principal was talking about dinosaurs (and yes, I did interupt to ask what the big ideas were, what science capabilities were at the top!), I couldn't help thinking about the local curriculum: Dr Joan Wiffen was finding dinosaurs just down the road! Well maybe a little further inland... Connecting these children with these stories will excite them and engage them to dig deeper: What did Joan find? Are there still dinosaur bones there? Like a few other places, there are many shell fossils encased in sandstone and especially limestone in the Wairoa area -take the children somewhere to explore these riverbeds (which is where we usually find them). There's a local Hawkes Bay Paleontology Group that I might connect with to at least have an online chat with -How can there be Plesiosaur bones in the middle of the mountains miles from the sea?!?
With my plants unit, what's special about our own region? Are there any specialist people or companies around? Any rare plants? If I was in Rotorua, I might get the children inquiring about the Redwoods -I don't think we have any other forests of redwoods! If I was in the Opotiki region, I might get the children supporting beach sand-dune planting.

Me and a redwood... or should that be 'A redwood and I'?

And I haven't even started with thinking about the local community within the local curriculum! Are there special places to the local marae? I wonder if some of the trees may have names and narratives wrapped around them? Are there opportunities to explore tikanga Maaori at the same time? Are there local DoC offices that could share knowledge? Parents in the school?
So how am I taking action? I'm going to add a couple of new bits to my unit plans -Local Community and Taking Action. Sometimes there may not be anything to add here but with a bit more digging there might be! I was just thinking of an example that wouldn't have much to add here and thought about my ramps experiments but then wondered about 'Could there be local 'blackspots' where there are a lot of accidents? Could we use some science to wonder why?'!

Have fun and keep sciencing on! As always, I welcome your comments and questions -even if you disagree!
Paul

Science Rich Tasks, and Context Knowledge

Happy New Year to everyone! 
I was reading an old SET article that a colleague had sent out -SET 2, 2011, What is a rich task? by Chris Joyce of NZCER. She was talking about assessment and the goal of rich tasks within this. It's an interesting read, as is anything published by NZCER. They write in a simple style that's easy to understand as well as encouraging.
There were a couple of bits that struck me that I wanted to share. I talk a lot about the nature of science with a focus on the science capabilities. I also talk about not being concerned if students don't quite get the context focus as first, I'm developing the capabilities and second, I'll simply provide some more opportunities to support that student's knowledge development. 
Sometimes it seems that I'm actually saying "Don't worry about all that context stuff, it's irrelevant"! However, it is important! If we are going to develop rich science tasks that challenge students, there needs to be context strand development. Even though the New Zealand Curriculum clearly states that the nature of science is the overarching strand and is the compulsory one, you can see that there's an expectation of students developing context strand knowledge as the Level 1 and 2 objectives are not the same as the Level 3 and 4 ones.
Joyce is writing about two different assessment tasks. One is simply expecting a knowledge answer and therefore isn't a rich task whilst the second task, one with a water filled balloon inside an air filled balloon is a rich task because there isn't simply 'an answer'. Children have the chance to share their own views and ideas giving teachers the chance to assess far more than a simple knowledge answer!
I like how Joyce writes about the melding of knowledge with the nature of science: 

Chris Joyce, Set 2, 2011

We need that knowledge so we can see how the student applies it to a nature of science centred assessment. He's using the science capabilities in observing, inferring, building an explanation and testing it. By having the context knowledge as part of the task, I believe that this task can be a rich opportunity to learn from (for the student and the teacher!).
The second thing I wanted to share is also about the purpose of the science task that we choose to give to students. These past couple of years, I've spent time in schools diving into the front end of the NZC to pull out those Key Competencies, Values and Vision aspects that can be supported by science. In fact last year I had a conversation about this very idea -a science lesson can have a focus on something other than science! It could be a tool to measure how students are operating in a Key Competency. Time for another Joyce quote: 

And now I'm wondering if I should write Key Competencies without capital letters! That aside, take a look through the front end of the NZC with your team. Underline or highlight all the bits that could be seen through a science task. You'll be surprised. At the end of the year, I often challenge staff to put all their science units that they have done alongside the Vision, Values and KCs. Sometimes the problem is we can think they've done 'everything' (and yeah, I know you actually do, in a way!) but I'm implying more of a deliberate act of teaching. How do we deliberately develop student thinking in terms of participating and contributing? Although it might be easy to assess with an arb task, it's a lot more difficult to support students in developing this idea. 

I like the idea that these rich tasks can be a part of a larger unit as well as smaller lessons which may be targeting a particular Key Competency or a science capability. It might be an evaluative lesson to gather some OTJ information so you are better equipped in planning further lessons. 
The other thing I like about these rich tasks are that they are perfect particularly for Term One! From my own experience, Term One has a pile of interuptions: Waitangi Day, swimming lessons, and formal assessments as well as new students turning up through the first few weeks. Being armed with a pile of rich tasks may be an effective way of getting through the term.

Have a great week everyone -I know you're all busy planning your first week as well as the term and I hope it all goes smoothly. If you have ideas for this year's blogposts, do share. I'm thinking of moving to a weekly blog but shorter pieces -I'd be interested in what you think of this idea. Do remember my facebook page which is also called Science Happening NZ. Here, I tend to post links, photos and videos to share ideas. It's a good place to message me too.
So onto 2019!