I'm working with a school in the south of Taranaki where it is VERY cold! I do like being away from data and wi-fi and TV although I'm ready to head home for my creature comforts!!!
The school is doing a great job with involving scientists (the students are monitoring pH, clarity and river flow), DT experts (students are flying drones weekly to take photos of their local river) and the regional council. The mission is monitoring their local river that flows straight past their school. I'm really impressed with their efforts (and it is a lot of work for the school) and then the principal showed me these fantastic graphics their scientist had emailed them and I fell in love!
They're showing catchments of different rivers in the Taranaki region and just look spectacular. We were talking yesterday about how to use these images (I'm wondering if students could even work out what these images are showing!) and thought about older children modelling their river and valley with clay. The images also show the mountains, hills and obviously valleys -can children spot these?
Looking through these images, I have lots of questions! This one above which shows an interesting view of Taranaki -it does look like a flower! Does this also show lava flows? I also wonder how accurate the images are, especially the tiny branches -are they just a representation or accurate? Could children identify particular rivers? I'm working in a school along the green river lower right corner!
I know these images are a little blurry but I was really showing them more as an idea than 'use these!'. The focus here is the capability Interpreting Representations. If you click on the link, it'll take you to the TKI website where there's a lot of information and activities to support teachers learning about this capability. It's one I like as it links nicely into the Writing and Reading components of literacy so I can tick off a couple of boxes at once! It's an important skill to have, to read information shown in different ways as well as critique these representations.
From the TKI site, these are good focus questions to share with the children:
And here's my own thinking about what we could expect to see from students -I've also used Rose Hipkins' Coherent Pathways and the TKI site for ideas too. Remember, it's just my thinking, not a standardised assessment tool! I'm really not sure why it's blurry but it's sort of legible! The first column is Y1-3, second column Y4-6 and the last one is Y7-8.
Do have a play with students interpreting representations but also get them to make their own! What do they want to share? How well have they shared that information? Can others understand it?
Have a great rest of the week, keep on sciencing... and now in literacy time!
Paul
