Science vs science education

Previously, I was writing about knowledge vs the nature of science... sounds like a terrible B movie title! I want to carry on with a bit of a recollection from the other week when I was working in a school. 
We were talking about how to fit science in when the curriculum is so crowded. I talked about simply ensuring there are opportunities for children to develop the capabilities. For example, the school's topic this term is food so the social sciences have stolen the limelight which is a great marriage between culture and identity. It also gets kids sharing their own family recipes, reflecting on the food and the culture it represents, and the biggest kick: eating! Yay!

Food from my culture: England! (BBC website (of course!))

Whilst kids are munching, could we slip in some science? Can children think about what they're tasting and then describe it objectively as well as subjectively? Can we identify ingredients and different tastes that we experience -and critique these, discuss these, write about these? The students are still doing social sciences, but we can use some of the science verbs (notice, observe, describe) as well as infer...
We also talked about reading time and this is what today is about. I ended up describing two different things that could happen in a lesson (and the above is an example). One is "science". Kids are exposed to 'science' as they watch a video or read a Connected article. They probably know some stuff about 'science' -from TVshows or books. They know some facts and interesting ideas that they'll happily share. Part of our work when we're taking science lessons is also exposing students to 'science' -the apple has five chambers in the core because it's a member of the rose family, the candle goes out when you put a jar over it because of the amount of carbon dioxide, not lack of oxygen, and usually heavier things sink faster in water.

 A great way to get children drawing horizontal and vertical cross sections...
I wonder if pears would look similar... (pinterest.com)

I also introduced this idea: "science education". In our discussion, this is the science capabilities or the nature of science. It's the bit where children are learning about science, how scientists work, how to investigate, interpret, build explanations, critique and communicate their findings.

A really great article... Although Level 2, it challenged Year 7 and 8 students...

We talked about that in a reading session, children could read a delightful story about the weather and connections to local stories in a Connected journal. I might discuss the language, look at the pictures, talk about the content of a diagram, how well children have understood the story and their fluency. The students are being exposed to 'science', as it is a science article about the weather. But could I do a bit of 'science education' too? I might get children interpreting the diagrams -what do we think of them, how well do they share the information, and why has the artist or author chosen to use this style of diagram. I might also do a bit of critiquing, a bit of science vocabulary, or even analyse the style of the article... is this really a science article? How can we tell?

So here's the rub... Continue to choose 'science' articles for students. We know they love them! Kids enjoy learning 'stuff' and being fascinated and science is a favourite for a lot of them. But add some 'science education' too. Be deliberate about students developing the science capabilities. It could be just a couple of questions or a part of the discussion!

Have a go!
Paul