Science: as easy as 1-2-3!

I have a couple of ideas about teaching science. One is that there needs to be those bigger units that enable children to have the chance to pick up some of those richer and deeper concepts, eg, sustainability, kaitiaki, pollution, etc. These are those opportunities for students to take action and develop the capabilities in a great context. The second idea is about those ‘whiz-bang’ experiments. They may not fit into a context (although often with a bit of digging, they can!) but may be about a particular context strand idea, eg density or sinking and floating or even building skills in a capability, eg developing how to ask questions, observe from different angles or critiquing someone’s explanation. With this second idea, I like to plan out a three to four lesson structure or progression. If you were chasing after a particular theme, you could use this idea all term. For example, I might be investigating ‘light’ or ‘magnets’, I could be using the cross-cutting concepts like ‘structure and function’ that map across different context strands. In these cases, each week might be a different experiment for students to be exposed to science concepts and use their science capabilities.

Just recently, I worked with a school to plan out Term Four’s science. Since this was about teacher PLD, we grabbed a few science experiments and mapped them out over three days… We wrote up a bit of an introduction and I thought this could be good to share with others!

These lessons might all be different lengths. The first lesson might only be 20-30 minutes long. You may decide to add a fourth lesson and really focus on students learning how to communicate in science, to share their ideas with others. The deeper you go, the more engaged children will be, and the longer the lesson will be! You may break a lesson up into two parts if there’s a logical break, for example, if I was working with copters, I might do all the practical bits in one block and then write it up and add diagrams in a second block. Usually I try to keep the lessons altogether though. The final big idea is that these lessons don’t have to happen after lunch! Use them for maths (measurement lessons), reading (children reading the experiment themselves) or writing (recounts, explanations, diagrams). For me, this is critical! If I was in a junior room I might do the science experiment on the Monday, write a recount the next day, an explanation the day after (with recaps of course!) and then finish with “I wonders” and children exploring the ideas themselves. Most children struggle with measurement and estimation –I’ve seen a lot of children pour me 3cm of water! It does mean we need resources for children to use (which is why we were using cms) but I think science makes a great context to practice measuring capacity!

One of my favourite shots from the Cassini probe. That little dot under the rings is Earth!

Lesson One: This is the lesson as an introduction. Give children the chance to play, to explore and to experience the activity. Don’t worry too much about the actual science bits. The lesson could be a bit shorter and only take some of the activity (for example, you might not worry about diagrams or writing for this lesson). Here’s where we can play with the topic, grow some language, and introduce science... You might begin to jot some terms the children are using, any misconceptions that are popping up or even behaviours that you would like to highlight for the next lesson. Children may even start coming up with questions and wonderings –get them down!

Lesson Two: This is the science lesson! How can we do the activity from yesterday as scientists? We might measure carefully, predict using evidence, explain using data from the experiment, observe closely, infer using prior knowledge, using science vocabulary, etc. I would tell children that we are doing the experiment from yesterday again but with our scientist thinking. Ask them how they might act today, how I will see them acting like scientists? Although many teachers don’t like the idea of doing the experiment again, I have and children are fine with this! Often the first lesson has got all the excitement out of the way and children can work far more scientifically with the second opportunity. After all, I still really enjoy the Avengers movie and have watched it… ummm… more than once!

This is the lesson where children can write down their observations, thinking, and wonderings. You might want to introduce the lesson with a big idea or question (which may have come out of the lesson beforehand -it would be great for students to see you being curious: Yesterday, I was really interested in what was going on in the cup. I know some of you went through the experiment quite quickly but slow it down today and see if you can notice what I’m talking about).

For senior students, I will sometimes add another dimension to this activity to prevent perceived boredom. I know that students won’t be but just in case! For example, you might make one slime the first day, and then two the next day. We might make a different shaped copter to compare to the first one from yesterday.

Sometimes I will spend longer on lesson one and this one is just a recap of the experiment but a much bigger focus on the wrap up -how we share what we found out and wonderings for the third lesson. This is the lesson that will set up the third one so I need to spend some time getting it right. I need enough information to prep for the next lesson!  

I might need to scaffold question asking… Sometimes I’ll put a table up on the board with variables and then children can pose some ideas that I want them to turn into questions (this is really important: science is about questions, not doing stuff!)... An example of this could be the soda water and raisins activity. I’ll put “container”, “liquid”, “objects” as headings (and you could do others, like temperature) and then children will add bowls, vases, tall glass, different liquids, stones, peanuts, cranberries, etc. At the senior level, we choose one variable to change, at juniors, we’re not so worried! These then need to be changed into questions to investigate which we need for the next lesson.

I’ve also used the lesson to develop the diagrams or observational drawings. In fact, sometimes I’ve done the experiment from yesterday first with the class watching and discussing what they notice. I’m reasonably good at questions (which I think is the key to engagement) so am posing questions, pondering aloud, etc. From this, I might get children straight into a wondering, recording some ideas or noticing the details in their experiment, perhaps drawing or writing… I’d still carry on with a questions wrap up for Lesson Three.

I've shared this before... after zooming in on the image, I noticed the Fibbonaci spiral...
you can also see the spiral on pinecones!

Lesson Three: Students investigate in this lesson. This is where we are really engaging students and developing their science thinking, for example, fair testing, measuring carefully, gathering data, interpreting or inferring data, communicating their findings with their classmates, etc. Hopefully, this will result in more questions being asked! This session could be a bit longer with children investigating their own ideas… or it could be shorter if questions asked find an answer quickly. In this case, do children have some more questions they could ask? Could they critique their questions to develop their questioning better?

This is also the lesson where students communicate their findings with the class. This could be through something written or drawn, or recorded on video... For me, this is also really important! How do children share what they have found out? How do they do this, being scientifically literate? Have they learnt something in their exploring? Are they reflecting and critiquing their work? How do they share? Is it with tentative language?

Here, my science capabilities indicators come into play. Grab a couple and assess/evaluate the students’ efforts. This third session, I believe is where the science is really happening. Students are gathering and interpreting data, asking questions, investigating, evaluating the data, writing explanations, thinking about where to next, as well as sharing with others.

Assessment: just briefly, what would I do to assess students? I firmly believe that we do need to be doing some sort of assessment… Where are the children before you start doing science and where do you want them to be at the end? This is particularly important if you’ve noticed a weakness and so are doing a little three-lesson sequence to help students develop further. If this is the case, how will you know if students have achieved your aims? And just as importantly, how will the children know? I suggest to teachers having a focus group each science session. The class know that this is the group that you will be spending more time with but that you will still roam! This is the group that you may make some OTJs with, jotting down some notes, etc. With the next lesson, you move onto a different group!

Anyway, I hope this gives you some ideas for science. I do like the whiz-bang experiments but worry that could be the whole science programme –we do need both! It’s nice to grab a week and just play in science!

Have a fantastic break everyone. 

From Flickr... I just really like squirrels!

Thanks for reading,

Keep sciencing on,

Paul.

PS Do remember to check my Facebook page. Search for “science happening NZ" and like the page to get notifications. Last week I posted images and videos for students and some science ideas for the classroom.

Some notes about warm ups and questions...

This week I had my last meeting with a school -the poor things have had me for almost four years! We were chatting about a couple of topics and I thought that maybe other teachers might like to see what was written. Now these weren't written by me, I've just tweaked them a wee bit... thanks Robyn and Susan!

Warm Up Activities

Warm up activities could be either the context or the thinking that will be in the lesson, for example, if the lesson is about change, the warm up could reflect this. The warm up should only be 5 to 10 minutes or so. Warm ups should involve all the talking- don’t stop the chat! I like to start warm ups with a question for the children to hang their thinking on... I wonder if M&Ms' coatings have a flavour, I wonder why all the blossoms are coming out now?

Can be an object, pictures, a rock, a shell, lichen on a sign, or a branch You could read to the students a science-themed reading like a Stuff article, a letter to the editor or article from the local newspaper, a video (play at least twice, possibly without sound) eg peacock spider, purple orb video, etc. After watching the video ask the students about what questions they asked, what they noticed and inferred...

You could use Microsoft Word - paste an image, create a table over the top and fill in the cells. Students choose a cell to be 'unfilled' and we discuss what we notice, infer and possibly predict. When students choose a cell, ask them to justify why they want that cell revealed. I have seen teachers using a very busy image and zooming right in. As the children talk about the picture, it zooms out step by step.

I use Microsoft Word although Publisher is much easier -my laptop hates the program though!

Sometimes I might use one of my activities but as an 'up front' activity. All children are a part of the discussion, but only one or two actually do the activity. Remember to have lots of opportunities for children to talk to their partner, or record an idea online, etc.

Another idea is to introduce the learning intention and challenge the students to come up with the success criteria. Some of their ideas may be wrong but leave them! Let the children critique them at the end of the lesson! For example, "What are we doing when we are acting like scientists?"

Wrap up should take as long as the warm up -and this is the hardest part... time always escapes on me!

Prompt for information rather than an answer for example, lists of species etc. Can you ask a question that doesn’t have a yes or no answer?

If you are doing a science inquiry, teachers (or the students) could read an article, watch a video, give children the opportunity to find out information before they pose questions for inquiry. Make the “finding out” your reading/writing time. Note-taking constitutes ‘writing’. You could do an experiment on the Monday and then use Tuesday and Wednesday to write a procedure, or an explanation, or even a recount.

  

Effective Questioning

Questioning dice: 5 ‘w’ and ‘h’. Other dice has could, should, would, might on. Get kids critiquing questions: put up a few good ones and and a few not so good ones. What makes them good or not? Collect good examples (and poor ones!) from texts used in reading time. Analyse questions to see if they are good... What kind of answers are we wanting?

What student voice is there? Why do they want to know? What relevance does this inquiry question have for you? Model curiosity.

The purpose of questions is to get more questions, not to find an answer. Sometimes you might get an answer but that should lead to further questions.These are not specifically science questions -good questioning is needed in every area!

Try to encourage students to ask a question they don’t already know the answer to.

Well there we are... I'd be curious as to whether this is helpful to others... and my thanks to the school who hosted me for the meeting.

The Neverending Story...

Once scientists thought migrating birds flew to the moon for winter. Others thought birds buried themselves in the sand and then a different bird hatched out (to explain different species at different times of the year). Some scientists thought there were canals on Mars.

newspapers.com

And even this humble science facilitator has got it wrong... sometimes even spectacularly wrong! But isn't that what science is about? I've noticed this and this happen when I do this, so I think the cause might be this... There might be something completely different going on but just looks like the cause and effect are related! Children think that sugar disappears in water -well you can't see it anymore so it must have! I tend to not correct them but simply challenge them to keep investigating... Has the sugar really disappeared? Does the water taste the same? Can we just keep adding more sugar? 

Because that's science! It's about developing some ideas, investigating further, perhaps modifying/changing/creating new ideas, communicating them with others and then modifying/changing/creating ideas and slowly building to an explanation. This all happened to me the other day when I challenged a teacher to draw a diagram after a lesson which they struggled to do (the diagram, not the lesson -it was a great session!), so I had a go and struggled too!  
And this got me thinking about models... I often do a diagram at the end of the lesson and try hard to make sure that I have a chance to have a child talk to their diagram. This way, I can ask questions, share thoughts, critique the diagram and think about where to next time. But are there other ways children could show their thinking?
For me, I was watching teachers do the experiment with the plastic bottle with a balloon over the neck put in hot water. The balloon usually 'inflates' or 'expands' and the explanation is that the air inside the bottle expands. When I tried to draw this, as mentioned above, I found it really hard -does air really expand? Is it individual molecules getting bigger or smaller... and more importantly, does this mean the Antman movie is legit?!?

Antman little (Marvel Antman movie)

and Antman big! (Marvel Antman and the Wasp movie) Yeah, I do like both movies!

So I spent the day sorting this in my head. I can't show movement well in diagrams (and that's interesting in itself: how can students show movement in a diagram? Do you draw the end product or what's happening along the way?). Maybe a model would be better. I chatted with the science leader and suggested those little $2 packets of beads that expand in water -maybe they could be the air particles getting bigger (I was still stuck on that idea)? He didn't think so, so it was back to the drawing board.
In the final session, one of the boys googled the experiment and then explained what happened. So now we have diagrams (which didn't really work for me) and a written explanation (which worked far better for me) -but it confused the child reading it... he knew he had found 'the' answer but... The teacher had taped out a large bottle on the carpet so I grabbed a few children to be my air molecules and had them stand still. The teacher and I talked about this being a state of matter: solid. As you heat matter, the molecules start moving and as they get hotter, they move faster, and become liquid and then even faster to become gas. I had the children now moving around and then 'heated' the bottle so the children moved faster and lo and behold, they needed more space as well as it all getting a bit rough. And this is what the student had read out -the balloon expanded because the hot air molecules are zipping around more and more and getting a bit rougher and this roughness causes the balloon to expand. Am I still okay with children saying  the air in the bottle expands making the balloon inflate? Yes of course! Particle theory is for Level 4 kids! I might not worry so much about diagrams and models as this is heady stuff...
So this is where I am now! Is it 100% right? I don't know but I can read a bit more, investigate a bit more, and perhaps come up with an explanation that 1) I understand (!) and 2) demonstrates my thinking to others and 3) is a bit further on...

Besides wanting to share how my science thinking had moved along -and being more keen than ever to do this with students (so not going, "Hey kids, here's how that happened," but more, "So what do you think is happening?") and not being focused so much on right and wrong answers, I want to work in different ways with students to show their thinking. Can I do it in dance (as I did with the students here)? Could I show it by making a model? The model may need to be moving, so I might video this.

Look! It's lego and it's molecules! Granted, best for older children (found a great Y9 resource) but good to get thinking going. As I look, I'm wondering about the bricks' sizes -are Hydrogen and Oxygen molecules different sizes? Is it okay to show water molecules this way but discuss further? From https://edgerton.mit.edu/sites/default/files/media/LEGOChemteachersguide_9-7-12.pdf. 

And finally, really importantly, can children discuss these ideas with one another. Let's not assume this is 'the answer', or even the 'right answer'. Does the model/dance/diagram/video clearly state their understanding? Does it show what you saw happening with the experiment? Do you agree? Why or why not? It might be that you disagree with the model or the explanation and both of these are important to critique. One is under interpreting representations (exploring models/diagrams/videos and thinking about how well they do the job -what information is shared or missing, why did the author use this method...) and the other is under using evidence (explanation building, and challenging investigative procedures). 
Rather than being stuck on students doing a diagram, give the children some options... and it's okay if their thinking isn't quite right! Again, that's what science is about... Okay you showed the four children dancing around the bottle, but how does that make the balloon expand and why does the balloon get bigger with more or hotter water? Could you show this with your theory? 

So get your dance shoes on!
Keep dancing sciencing on.

From Mantia Sisters' Dance Academy video... Now I want to do interpretive dance with Rutherford's discoveries!