Science teaching hidden in clear sight...

Just a wee note from my musing this week... and I'm sure that's a quote from some movie I've seen but for the life of me, I can't remember! Mind you, after having a senior student this week talk about the bird's mouth and my asking her for clarification (to which she said 'beak'), I've been thinking about what a bird's head would look like without a beak and whether it does look like a mouth!

http://www.surfbirds.com/community-blogs/birdsobservation/2016/04/09/for-each-food-a-birds-beak/

I was in a Digital Technologies workshop on Monday and was struck by a comment the facilitator said -that, as DT is meant to be integrated, even simply using the vocabulary is developing some of the thinking behind this new curriculum. It got me thinking about science and our, what seems to be, over-crowded curriculum... could we do the same in science?

If students are reading a book that has a science theme, could we ask some questions about what they 'notice', what they might be 'wondering'? Besides comprehension and fluency questions, could we ask questions about the scientists' observations to develop that capability, eg, how do you think the scientist got to that thinking? Can you see any inferences in what the scientist is talking about? What might they have observed that led them to that particular inference? 

Sometimes, I've even got students to be a bit more critical... should scientists say 'a few'? Should there be numbers and percentages, etc? We might read through the article and highlight scientific vocabulary, highlight inferences and observations or even parts that we want to ask more questions about and research further.

One of my favourite water cycle diagrams... there's a lot happening in this one -even for seniors, what do they think is happening and is this a good representation?

The capability, Interpreting Representations, can come into play as well -what do children notice about the diagram / chart / graph? What information might have been missed out (and why might that be)? Could this information be shown in other ways?

And of course there's always those opportunities to go for a wander around the school, engaging in the capabilities, growing student wonder and curiosity and simply enjoying the world around us. I used to love taking my class for a ramble around the school grounds (and sometimes a wee bit off!) and I noticed a real change in their attitude and behaviour, a respect grew, an interest in nature, as well as engaging with the families, coming back to tell me what their koro said about kawakawa trees or the tui nesting at the top... 

I do understand there's a lot that the curriculum shows we should be doing in classes... I wonder if there are some clever ways that we can ensure that this is happening?

Have a fantastic week everyone.