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.