What's it all about again?

I've had a rather busy week travelling through Wairoa and I have a plan for a post that's going to take some time to set up so thought I'd Just do a quick one today with some musings I've been talking about through my visits this week.

Could these be dinosaur footprints at Coronation Reserve, Mahia... 

One thing that I'm really keen on is that science is everywhere! It's why I set up the Facebook page "science happening nz" to show articles, photos, and activities. But the problem is I'm not thinking about Tuesdays and Thursdays after lunch in Terms Two and Three! I'm thinking reading time, writing time, sharing in the morning at roll time, and after lunch when the kids all get back in! I'm also thinking a bit about maths time but generally that's not the subject at the top of my head (maybe I should start thinking a bit more about it). 
We need ideas to engage students and enthuse them. We need local contexts and stuff that's interesting!

Mahia beaches -incredible rock formations

If I can collect a dozen rocks off a beach and have a class focused and excited for 45 minutes, so can you! Use a photo as a warm up for writing to get kids brainstorming vocabulary, or offering predictions and inferences. Take a whole class reading session with a local newspaper's article that's science-based. What do you think about the article generally? What about reading it 'as a scientist'? What vocabulary was difficult? Were there any inferences? What about opinions? Does anyone have a question that we could ask to clarify our thinking? Who could we ask? Grab a picture and get the students thinking about the differences between an observation and an inference -who can come up with the most observations (or which group), write a descriptive paragraph from a science point of view and then from a writer's point of view -they might be quite different!
And here's my last point. Although we're doing science at a literacy time, and we are developing and learning literacy skills for example, can we be developing science skills too. I like my capability indicators and encourage teachers to think about deliberately developing 1 or 2. I know that quite a few may be in evidence but our 'deliberate acts of teaching' need to be focused on an indicator -checking where students are with it and then thinking about where to next. It's vital we do this if we are wanting to develop student ability in science!
Although I post often on Facebook, I have no idea whether they are being used at all but the page is turning into a big resource that I hope will be useful!
So do have a look: https://www.facebook.com/sciencehappeningnz/. Have a try and get back to me how it's all going! 

These might just be my faves at the moment... goosneck barnacles! They look extra-terrestial!

Keep on sciencing!
Paul

Science Fairs

Yes, I am sorry for using such swear words at the beginning of a post! However, I received an email from 'Science Sparks' which got me thinking about science fairs.
I know that there's a lot of bad press on science fairs -that it's an activity that a lot children switch off from, that parents spend hours and hours on them... I meant children not parents..., and that only a few actually enjoy these... and that's not even counting the resurrection of previous siblings' efforts with a few tweaks! However, I have worked with a few schools where our focus has been not so much attaining excellence in the local science fair association but simply to support children exploring how science itself works.
That last bit is out of the science essence statement in the New Zealand Curriculum. We aren't meant to be teaching 'stuff' so much as about science, how it works, how it is communicated, how scientists investigate, and what counts as evidence, etc. If we're serious about inquiry and student agency, the idea of science fairs could be really helpful -and that's not even counting the maths and literacy links as well: reading, writing up procedures, journal writing, and explanation writing. 

Science fairs on their own are a bit unfair on the general populace: pick a topic, go investigate and write up... all on your own! Homework at the best of times is not usually at the top of the list of 'what I like to do when I get home' and science fairs are no exception. And I haven't even got into the confusion for some students who've never really done one right in the first place!
So why not use Term Two as an opportunity for children to inquire in small groups, perhaps on class-set questions, investigate in a scaffolded environment and then present their ideas to the class, perhaps via video, google docs, or a poster. I certainly wouldn't go the whole way with publishing a la science fairs for the first efforts. Because my goal is always the development of the capabilities, that's my learning intention for the students -we're learning how to gather and interpret data and then use evidence to explain. We might need to be interpreting representations too. Later down the track, especially with the older students, we could critique the evidence of each others' projects. 

If the first half of the term was set up like this, with students learning how science works, making mistakes with investigative procedures and correcting, repeat testing, making sure results are reliable and valid as well as communicating as scientists, perhaps students would be inspired to carry out investigations on their own or in pairs (I'd have students in groups of 3 or 4 for the first half of the term). I might jot down questions and encourage students to do so as we investigate in the first part of the term and stick these questions on a wonder wall as it could encourage children with their own science fairs. 
From this, you might find quite a group that would like to go on to science fairs. It would be great if it was the whole school with juniors doing larger group investigations that may be whole class based whilst Y5-8 students are working more individually or in pairs. I think they could be more confident because of their prior work at the beginning of the term. 

I think I would begin the first week with all investigating the same question, perhaps set by the teacher (and yes, I know that isn't real inquiry or student agency but we need to start somewhere!) and then have a selection of questions for them to investigate for the following weeks. Doing this means we have results that we can compare... it would make a great reading task: read through group x's report on their experiment... what do you think of their procedure? Do you think their results are valid? Are they similar to yours? If not, why do you think that is? Write up to 3 questions that you'd like to pose to this group challenging their evidence.

So where do I find these delightful experiments? Well, the place that started my thinking is here: https://www.science-sparks.com/science-fair-project-ideas/. Find a few of my experiments and pose a question that would cause the children to carry out the first experiment and then pursue further answers. If you were part of my term four mailing list, there's a pile there that children could use. I might start with a simply one week investigation and then perhaps a two or three weeks investigation with some options before embarking on something bigger for science fair judging. 

In the Waikato, science fairs seem to be for Year 7 and 8 students only but that doesn't prevent schools having their own science fairs set up with the best four or five from each classroom in the hall. I guess smaller schools could have them all set up in one room whilst larger schools might have the classrooms all set up for the day because, and this is the important bit, others need to see the investigations. At the least, children from that classroom, but why not other students too? Perhaps it could be a parent evening. 

Last bit... the judging... more and more, I've noticed that science fair organisations are using the nature of science or capabilities to judge and this is fantastic! By the time we reach Level 4 of the curriculum, we should be beginning to see the importance of the content or knowledge but we can still score based on the capabilities: How well did they gather data? How well did they infer from the data -was it reliable and valid? In communicating with the reader, do they write tentatively and in that science-style genre? You may want a visitor to judge (and yes, I've been called in!) but be certain to share the school's criteria. 

Science Fair in the Waikato is in early August making Term Two perfect for this kind of science. Wrap your literacy programme around this too, critiquing pieces of writing and websites (tree octopus anyone?) as well as learning how to write journal or diary entries (lots of examples online) and experiments.

And that's next term planned for! I do hope some of you have a go, even if it's not to enter 'officially'. I think investigations for students can be really engaged ensuring that you as the teacher ask good questions to get the investigation going and continuing on. 

Keep on sciencing
Paul

Part Three: Return of the Facilitator

Okay, not as catchy as Return of the Jedi but probably just as good -it was an awful movie after all, although it was better than the prequels and the next bunch... I better stop before this becomes a post about Star Wars!
I wanted to use this last post to tie in a few further ideas not specifically about the capability Gather and Interpret Data but that can be developed as the lessons progress.

Footprints -a great thing to photograph and get children talking about. In the background are moa nests. 

The Front Half...
I love our New Zealand Curriculum. The front half is packed full of thinking that can be a part of what we are doing in science... All of the Vision components (p. 8) and Values (p. 10) can be reflected in activities based around students observing closely. If you move some of the activities outside, you can bring in an ecological aspect -where are all the bees or native birds?, as well as thinking innovatively or creatively. Schools are keen to develop the Key Competencies as well and children drawing and labelling diagrams (using language, symbols and text), learning how to infer (thinking) and back to ecological matters (participating and contributing) can all pop up. One matter is that sometimes we can tick off these ideas and believe Yup, I'm doing that, whereas I want to encourage you to be thinking about how you are deliberately developing, for example, the relating to others Key Competency. It's not just going to happen for some students but by using an observation activity in a group and being deliberate about the focus, things can happen! Okay guys, we're going to be looking at these minifigures as a group. I am going to give out roles to each of you. Who can tell me how we could act in a group. What should I as the teacher be looking for if you think you are being a valuable member of the group?
Just as an aside, the science capabilities are often seen as being similar to the Key Competencies.

I've no idea what I was doing either... I think I'm modelling "I'm thinking"!

The Students!
Which leads me nicely to the next idea: the kids! Let them bring in objects! Enable them to decide what a good observation looks like or to set out some criteria. If we want our students to improve their inference skills, then they need to know what a good inference might look like.
Get them to choose objects to observe or experiments to do. If you are doing experiments, then let them choose the 'where to next'. This can be difficult, especially if you are a bit of an OCD planner (yes, my hand is up!). Instead of planning all the activities, plan the initial ones and focus on what you are developing. Remember it's not about the content but the science capabilities! If your focus is observing closely from all angles or asking questions that can be investigated, what does it matter what the experiment is. After I have carried out the soda water and raisins experiment, I have no idea where children are going to go next! I always bring along some stuff just in case and usually I get it right or will scaffold what we could inquire about (for example, liquids, containers and objects) but I want it to be about their pursuing, not mine! I love it, that after six years in the job, I'm still surprised at what students notice or predict or want to try out with this experiment!

Tikanga
This year I am doing my dissertation on culturally responsive practice and am reading a lot of really interesting articles about the topic. What I want to say here is basically ask the question: How can I engage my Māori students? I'm thinking about topics, the way I teach, honouring te reo, and tikanga. It might mean not chucking out the soda water and raisins after the experiment, but watering the plants or adding to the compost. I might get the children to try and use as much te reo as I can when describing, for example shape and colour. If I was out observing the tui feeding off the flax flowers, I might search out some Māori stories about the tui for reading time. One great idea is using our local whānau. Take a walk out in your local bush and invite a kaumatua to share about what he notices and knows. There's lots that can be observed!
I do want to put here that I am not the expert here at all. I am keen to learn and understand further so that science can also have that cultural responsive aspect needed, promoting biculturalism and enabling and engaging our Māori students. I'm on a learning journey and happy to share my thoughts as long as you all recognise I'm a student too -I want to know how others do this as well!

Should we be worried about this amount of wood being washed ashore?
Is it good for the creatures that normally live here?

Local Curriculum
Last one! The Ministry of Education is very keen on schools developing their own curriculum. When I head into a new school, one of the questions I ask is How is the science here different to what I would find at another school? Regardless of rural vs town school, or the size of the school, it needs to have its own character. Are you close to a river? Then science should have some aspect wrapped up around the river, perhaps working with the local environmental council, the local marae, the local community, etc. And it should be different to a school that's on the coast. I'm not talking all of the science but at least some of it. I've been connecting with an EnviroSchools coordinator in Hawkes Bay who is doing fantastic work! They shared with me some of the things that the school is doing that blew me away -it's no going to be hard to find science contexts for these schools although getting the pedagogy and capabilities to sit alongside will take some work (that's why I'm here!). There are resource people everywhere willing to help!

Some student work that I'll be sharing next blog... I think... unless something else comes up in the meantime!

Integration
One of the issues of science in schools is that many students talk about how they don't like science because it's full of writing. At the same time, reading and writing time (and maths too sometimes) can sometimes seem very disconnected to the topics. Many schools are starting to move towards integrating our topics and although I do have some hesitations about this, I think science can be an effective tool. I have again and again seen students who could be considered struggling in writing, scribing notes and jotting down ideas in science time. I've seen children not really understanding how to measure their lego car's progress and not making the connection back to how they were measuring in maths only a few hours ago. By utilising maths and writing skills with science, children seem to be more engaged and willing. I'm not talking about unnecessary writing, i.e. copy out the experiment that's printed on the board, but writing that they need to do! I want to share back my findings with the others so I better make sure my measurements are accurate... or that my observations and inferences are clear... I don't ever tend to ask students to write screeds but I do get them sharing their thinking with me (and often it can get quite long!). If I'm looking at Measurement in maths time, do some observations of objects with children estimating the dimensions and weight! The other side is reading time. If we want to see children creating great diagrams, then there needs to be examples. Pick articles that have diagrams the children can examine as well as the text to explore and discuss this genre of writing.

And that's it! Next time, I'm heading back to assessment and looking at diagrams that a school kindly allowed me to use -there'll even be a slides show! If you're still with me, thanks for reading these and I hope they have been really useful to you. They will slow down a little -I just really wanted to keep this series together.

I went through  phase of being fascinated by the way the sea water drains around rocks -it always reminds me of comets and meteorites. I wonder if it's a similar effect?

As always, feel free to contact me or ask a question. Watch out for my Facebook posts but most of all, keep on sciencing!

Gather and Interpret Data Part Two!!!

This is the second part of my 'trilogy' on the first capability and using it, particularly in Term One. I really appreciate the comments and support to this little series and I believe there's a lot in this capability that makes it the perfect capability for the first term when we have lots of interruptions, swimming every day, parent interviews, new students etc. It's a great term for those one-off lessons!

Although I've spoken about it before, as teachers, we do need to continue to be thinking about how the capability is being exhibited by students and our 'where to next' steps. We need to be thinking about How do I continue to develop the students' competencies in gathering and interpreting data? How do the students know what this capability looks like, when they know they're 'doing it'? What should I be expecting for children at this level? The best way to do this is through discussion! Get some student work together and share with your team or syndicate. Is this what we would expect at this year level? Where could we go after, looking at what students are doing. Are there some elements that some children are doing that we would like them all to do?

I wanted to share some more ideas around the science thinking and then perhaps next week look at tikanga Maaori, and integrating with literacy and mathematics, etc.

The classic gobstoppers experiment -not mine but it is fun... Well this one is mine but...

"Where do I find resources and activities?" seems to be a constant cry! Unfortunately there are few places that support capabilities development, even in New Zealand, but there are plenty of places for activities. When I first started this work, a constant stop was Steve Spangler's site. Yes, he is about the money, but he does have some great activities: https://www.stevespanglerscience.com/. One thing I do like is that there are videos (try just playing the video alone and get the children to write up the experiment before they do it!) and I do like the explanations. I am all about the process and developing capabilities but I also like to know what's going on as it might guide me as I talk to children. I certainly don't play the I bet you can't guess how this works or Guess what's in my head... I'll give you three clues... but I do like to draw students' attention to aspects of the experiment that may help them in thinking deeper. Sometimes I like the children to read the 'how it happened' at the end and then see if they agree -can we prove that this is what happened?

There are plenty of other websites out there but really the first stop should be the TKI site that started it all: http://scienceonline.tki.org.nz/. There are lots of activities here with support on what teachers should be looking for, integrated lessons with science and literacy, as well as explanations about each capability and the nature of science. It's a great site that can be a little difficult to navigate but well worth the trouble!
Once you've googled and found your websites or a book (the Nanogirl's Kitchen Science Cookbook is a good one for this too), you need to add the capabilities. It's frustrating to me that the nature of science or the capabilities are still not appearing in a lot of science resources for teachers but... oh well! Oh, and you could put into this the Building Science Concepts books that may be gathering dust on the science resources shelves! So once you have the activity, you simply lay the capabilities (or one) over the top... Our goal isn't to 'do gobstoppers' or even 'students will learn about dissolving' but what do you want the children to develop in terms of the science capabilities. This is the big picture. Yes, children will talk about dissolving and colours moving in the gobstoppers experiment but that's not my number one objective! I would like children to be observing closely, or using all their senses, or learning to use tentative language, or observing change. I might simply want children to stay focused with a longer experiment! I could get students measuring the area of the different colour dyes, calculating the flow, predicting what might happen next, or generate effective questions for what they would like to investigate from this experiment (eg using different liquids, different lollies, or different containers). You could use my science capability indicators to help with this:

It may seem difficult but it's simply changing the focus from Children will learn about 'stuff' (content knowledge) to Children will learn about how scientists observe closely (as an example).

Some more activities to do... Last post, I shared a video of a whistling walrus and besides wanting to share how we can use videos, I also think there's a second important reason for using this video. We can be really good at encouraging children to look closely, as well as use their touch sense, but not the other three! It can be really hard to describe what we smell or hear but critical that we do. I'm more happy with juniors doing this than seniors, although I do think everyone will do it until they are more confident and have a wider vocabulary, but let them make links to other tastes or smells... It tastes like orange and lemon mixed together... It tastes really sweet like... For me, these tend more towards inferences as children are using prior experiences so I ask more questions: Why do you think that? What made you notice that? With older children, I go a bit deeper: That's actually an inference! Your brain has made sense of what it was noticing and decided that it tastes like a lemon. What do you think it directly noticed to think that? I'm hoping they'll talk about the tartness, or how sour it is, what they smelt as they tasted...
Film canisters are reasonably extinct so I use the half size multi-vitamin drinks instead (I shouldn't be sharing this as now you'll know why I'm so energetic when I'm teaching!). Put some cotton wool inside and add some different scents: vanilla essence, mustard, vinegar, etc... Can children find the other canister that has the same scent? Could they group or rank the smells? Can they describe the smell in such a way that others could read their description (whether it's a list or paragraph)? Could they work out how far a smell 'travels'? Could they map this?
I like to use taste too, and have seen some great activities using colour-free juice packets. Can children work out which is which? Sometimes I put food colouring in to really get them confused -blackberry juice coloured orange, orange juice coloured purple, etc. Students can get quite certain that the colour means it must be that flavour. Get the children to taste objects with their nose blocked... does it change the flavour? One time we were doing gobstoppers and someone talked about how it was the flavour coming off, not just the colour. Because of this idea, we tasted gobstoppers with our eyes closed to see what flavours we thought they were and whether there was any difference between colours, and then tasted gobstoppers with no colour on to see whether there was any flavour left... By the way, I never get all the children to taste if I'm doing this on the mat as a warm up... In science, scientists never test the whole population but a selection. I might start with just boys tasting, hoping for the girls to pipe up and say that they may taste differently! And yes, I often reply that I've never tasted boys or girls so can't really say! Oh, and then there's different cultures -I know they taste differently -Japanese cuisine or Dutch salty licorice proves it!
The key idea is the being specific in our observations, moving from it sounds like... to being able to describe clearly, succinctly and accurately. We want to develop inferences (it's half of the capability after all: gather and interpret data) so I want to keep asking the children so if that's what you're smelling, what do you think it is? As I wrote that, I thought about putting two scents in a container -could the children separate them out? Could they replicate the smell? Fun!

I really, really like exuvia (or cicda shells to you commoners!)

To wrap up, I wanted to encourage you to get the children outside! At first, they won't notice much at all, but as you talk, as you get excited, as you share your observations, they'll catch the bug... Oh, look at that bird! Can you hear that sound? I wonder which bird makes that call? Do you notice the leaves turning gold? Are they all turning gold? How high do the cicada shells go? I wonder why they're all clumped on this stick... I'd also get them taking photos of what they see and then using thee photos to practice observational drawing and diagrams (they are different!). They might video an insect or bird doing 'something'... can we work it out? Why are the ants in a line? Today they're going mad! What about videoing bumblebees gathering nectar? Yes, all these are online on YouTube, but I want children engaging and they engage best when they're doing it! Can they set up google slides with what they've notice and embedding pictures, videos and sound recordings. There are free audio programs and apps so children could record sounds and then pull the sounds apart, slow them down etc...

Our first pear! And it just looks really weird -no stalk (the tree's the stalk!).
More photos on my Facebook page...

And finally, just go for a walk. The Education Gazette over the last few months has been discussing well-being and it has been proven scientifically (yes, really) that every day walks are vitally important to our well-being. Spending an hour a week through the week is enough! I like to call them rambles (I am English after all -I suppose you can all tell from my accent when you're reading this!) and they should be a part of every week. They can initiate discussions, grow the class closer together, enable a more positive feeling, and encourage writers and researchers, the list is endless!

Have a go, have fun, and enjoy this term's science! If you're interested in a copy of my gobstoppers experiment, just email me: paul.ashman@waikato.ac.nz. Keep an eye on my Facebook page too for more bits! And watch out for part three, the stunning conclusion next week!

Keep on sciencing.

Gather and Interpret Data at the chalk face...

Hi everyone...
I had my first visit this week with a lovely little school north of Napier and got to spend Tuesday night watching the super moon rise over the port. Now I already knew that Napier was nice but way to pull out all the stops! 
Whilst I was there we started talking about the science capabilities with a particular focus on formative assessment. Because a visit is never enough time, I wanted to share some ideas on students developing this capability and some activities teachers could use. Rather than simply email it, I thought others might like this too! If you have further ideas, websites or resources that could help, please do share.

First stop has to be www.scienceonline.tki.org.nz. Here is where the science capabilities first arrived. Here you'll find definitions for each capability as well as levelled lessons for them. This is a gold mine for starting! There are lessons planned with just a science focus (the ones with the drop down menus) and with a literacy focus (the ones with the PDF to download). having a closer look will help teachers to understand the differences between gathering the data and inferring.

Term One is always a fiddly term with school camps, swimming, sports events, parent meetings, etc. so a perfect time to pick up some smaller 2-3 lesson units that are completed within a week. My lessons emailed last term are a good example of these and there are plenty on the internet. But they don't have a capabilities focus, they will have a content or knowledge one -the trick is using the lessons but changing the learning intentions to children observing closely and then inferring from these observations...

A lot of the ideas I'm thinking about lend themselves well to reading and writing as well as measurement in maths. Children can be writing a paragraph on an object with readers using the information to work out which object it might be, for example a group of rocks marked A, B, C and so on. Often when we have been busy observing, getting thrown by me asking questions and looking for possible answers, students are keen to research or investigate and here's the reading! Do we know how to critique what we read? Should we accept whatever Google puts up first?

With objects (and I guess photos could too), I like to encourage the children to estimate size and weight. At first they struggle with this as it's something we don't tend to do a lot of -but with science observations, we need to be! Remember though the differences between the levels of the NZC... young children may simply be talking about bigger than and smaller than, with older children using mm and cm, etc. 

Yes I know... I love fungus! But be careful as some are poisonous!

Objects can be anything! This week, I used half a dozen rocks off the beach and children were engaged for the whole half hour. I use shells, leaves, bark, rocks, feathers, seed pods, anything! Get children to describe aloud, see how many senses they can use, estimate and measure, compare, etc. I might get students to see how many describing words they can come up with and then go back through and put a smilie by the observations and a star by the inferences... Sometimes I walk around and star words too then challenge them to think about why I might have thought it was an inference. Get two groups together and tell them they can only describe the similarities between their two rocks, or only the differences. You could even use a Venn diagram with an object in each circle... older children might compare three or more -rock, feather and a leave could be interesting!

Students can draw observations or diagrams (the two are different), write paragraphs, lists of words, pose questions, research -the world's your oyster -really! Younger children could be focusing on shape, size and colour to start with.

Other options include media... I love using photos and prompting children to only describe features of what they can see -colours, shapes, etc. If they describe a feeling, I always run up to the screen, feel it, and say nope! They need to realise that's an inference as it's not directly measurable. Instead, I could say The fur is darker at the bottom. I think that means the fur could be wet as my hair gets darker when it's wet and the bear is running through a river. Remember, you need to be able to directly measure and observe! Using CGI images is great too! When finished, get children to write about the creature -could it be real? What would its diet be? What about its habitat? Images at extreme magnifications are good too -I like to use a fly eye for this!

Another thing I do with images is to use Word and then put a table over the top with all the cells filled in black. Students need to think carefully about which cell they want 'unfilled' and why.

He just looks so happy! And now I'm wondering if it's a she!

I always make sure there's a chance at the end to talk about the inferences and what the animal or object is.

The last sort of images I use are cartoons as these are wonderful for older children to unpack the inferences from the observations...

My most favourite Gary Larson cartoon!

I see two pilots... Really? Oh, I see two men... Well how do you know they're men? Okay, I can see the shoulders and heads of two men, One is wearing headphones and glasses. They both have uniforms -Really? Sigh... Blue shirts with yellow flashes on. I think that might be a uniform. One person is bald and I think that means it's a man... I have put a cartoon up and got teams to write down all their observations. As a team reads out their list and reads out one that might be an inference and another team challenges them, they have to stop if it is an inference and that team reads out...

Competitions are lots of fun with any images -all the groups make a list of words and see who comes up with the most. Put an object on the science table and people can just add to it whenever.

Videos are great too -I usually pick ones that are no more than a couple of minutes long. I might play it the first time with the sound off and then again with the sound on. And I let children talk at the same time -just like you teachers do! Nature videos are the best and the one I use the most is the one below. 

Sometimes I will ask the children why I might have muted it -this one has music which could make you think the spider is dancing instead of... I'll pause the video so we can describe the spider first and then watch the video. And then time for inferences... Inferences are always based on our prior knowledge or scientific knowledge -not just made up stuff! It has to have a 'because' as well... I think it might be hunting and trying to catch a prey by waving its arms so that they prey is distracted and comes over because it's curious. Some animals do this... Can you think of one? No, not right now. Okay, have a look and come back to us... I think it might be looking for a mate by dancing and showing it's body. It looks a bit like the peacock with his feathers... 

Other videos have great sounds -I have a couple that would be hard to guess unless you watched it -play only the sound... What do you notice? Describe the sound carefully -and in a measurable way not an inference! I notice that the sound has air puffing with the sound. It goes high then low at the end. I can hear a different sound in the middle only for a quick millisecond -it sounds like a woman. Then play the video too and discuss... as always, is it actually real?!?

 

This is getting a bit long! I might do some more next week and finish up for today otherwise I'll lose you all! Where can you find all these? I use Facebook a lot, go surfing once in a very rare while, save images and clips from news apps on my iPad... And you can head to my Facebook page (search science happening), and save to your computer what ever you like! I think these make great activities for after lunch as scientists learning how to observe as well as for writing starters...

Have fun. Tell me how you go and stay tuned for next week's ideas!

Keep sciencing

Assessment Part Deux

I hope you have all had a good week in this unrelenting sun... For me, school visits are about to get underway with two new schools this term in the beautiful Hawkes Bay –I’m very much looking forward to getting back down there and into schools! I’ve had the opportunity this month to support teachers from Saudi Arabia who are spending a year here learning about our education system. It’s been a very interesting week with lots of conversations, as well as trying hard not to use colloquialisms and speaking slower and clear!

I wanted to continue talking about assessment this week. As I was writing up the good ol’ Soda Water and Raisins experiment (I like to update them each year with new ideas and experiences), it reminded me of a conversation I had with teachers back when we were running around the countryside delivering free teacher only days around the science capabilities. It went something like this…

Ancient people's "gathering data" http://rockartblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/halleys-comet-pictured-in-chaco-canyon.html

If I teach a unit on the Solar System and want to assess the students, I might choose a few Learning Intentions: I can name all 8 planets (if you’re a Pluto hater!), I can describe 4 different objects in our Solar System (like comets, asteroids, etc.), and I know what these words mean: orbit, rotation, moon and planet. All of these are things I would like children to understand and some of them (particularly the language) may be helpful in other areas of science eg orbit or rotation.

At the beginning of the unit, I might do a pre-test activity (although maybe not a ‘test’ as such, more just for me to know what to put in to the unit) and at the end of the unit, give them a post-test. And now I know Paul knows all nine planets and can argue that Pluto should be classified as a planet. He can write about meteorites, the Kuiper Belt, comets and asteroids. He can also define all of the vocabulary listed in his own words. He also did some chalk art of the planet Jupiter and wrote a report on the planet. I’ve got some lovely information for his report and parent interviews.

Next term, I’m doing Kitchen Science. So all that lovely assessment is sort of a waste of time! I’m perhaps exaggerating a little but if assessment is all about supporting next moves, then evaluating student knowledge of the solar system is a bit moot. Whether I think Pluto is a planet or not (I feel like I should set up a protest movement!), or knowing that comets are made up of ice, may not be much use in dissolving sugar and baking soda reactions which might be my next LIs.

Galileo's sketches of Saturn -he wasn't aware that these were rings

This time I’m going to think bigger! I want to have a ‘Big Idea’ that isn’t context-based but capabilities-based. For Solar Systems, I might want the children to be thinking about how scientists gather data about space, so my big idea is “We are learning how there are different ways to gather information (or data)”. For the younger children, this might be learning about the space probes (for example, Voyager or the late Mars rover, Opportunity), as well as looking at the pictures they beamed back and contrasting with Earth (and in particular, their local places). With older children, I might add some Digital Technology and talk about binary language, as well as different types of data the probes collected –not just photos. We might analyse this data and compare it to NZ or the Earth. We could talk about why this data was collected and how it has helped us understand the Solar System better. We might also talk about the different opinions scientists have about the data collected –this is quite important as data doesn’t always mean one thing. With older children, I might also do a little history –how did Galileo and Copernicus gather data? What data did they gather and how did they make sense of it? Did everyone agree with them? Finally, I might get children themselves to do some gathering of data! Can they draw the moon each night? Could they also plot its path through the night sky? Could older children find a planet and watch it each night through the term –does it ‘move’? The Greek word for planet ‘asters planetai’ means ‘wandering star’ –why? Could they draw sketches of the moon and compare with one another to critique their observations?

Galileo's observations of Jupiter and the four largest moons

So at the end of the unit, I’ve assessed the children… well hopefully, rather than at the end, I’ve been doing it right through the unit (but that’s another story!) and I’ve found out:

• ·        Paul can list ways scientists gather data –they can measure temperature, sound and take photos
• ·        Paul observes closely, listing different features of the planet Jupiter, including colour and shape
• ·        Paul is beginning to infer, for example he has noticed the rings of Saturn are made up of small rocks and wonders if they are a moon. He has corroborated this with some articles online.
• ·        Paul can gather data ‘like a scientist’ by reading the temperature outside and then compare and generalise, for example, “The temperature is getting colder through the term. I wonder if it’s because it will soon be winter. It’s still much warmer than Mars though.”

With this assessment (or evaluation), I know that I want to continue to work on Paul’s inference skills. Since he’s starting to read more online, I think I’ll start developing some critiquing skills too. As he is starting to gather number data, I might give him more opportunities to do this with our next unit eg measuring capacity and temperature.

So now the next unit has some really good focus points. I’m still going to do Kitchen Science and I have some ideas of what capabilities I need to develop. I’m also going to start looking at Using Evidence which I had a little bit in the last unit (what scientists do with the data) and I want to move further with children gathering data, inferring from this and then building explanations using evidence from their experiments.

As I’ve written this, two things have been bouncing around my head… vocabulary and definitions. Yes, we do want children to get the idea that words are important eg orbit, rotation, moon but the bigger idea is that scientists use specific words when they share ideas. We use the word ‘rotate’ rather than ‘spin’ if we’re talking about day and night. I’m okay if children don’t get all the terminology, but I do want them to understand that language is important in science. If a child still thinks that it’s a meteor that hits the ground rather than a meteorite, that’s okay! They may get further chances to be exposed to this language, build their own interest, or never need the word again!

The second thing bouncing around is definitions. If I’m doing Kitchen Science (and I hope by now you know I’d rather not say it like that but think about the Big Ideas!), how important is it for children to understand dissolving? Yes, it is really important but here’s the thing. Like content knowledge (from the first example), if I’m after a particular answer, I might end up just teaching a pile of words and not the understanding behind them. I’ve been in classes where children can all rabbit the definition of dissolving but when I have challenged them, they’ve got confused. If I’m doing a series of lessons about dissolving, I do want them to get the idea but I’m okay if they don’t. I imagine that the student will come across dissolving a few more times in their lives at school! I might give them some more experiments and have a few more chats with them until they can have that ‘aha’ moment.

Mellan's engravings of the moon. The website talks of these being the finest up until then (1630's) but were an artist's interpretation, not an astronomers... I wonder what that means... http://galileo.rice.edu/sci/observations/moon.html

So assessment is important, particularly for my next science unit. If we continue to assess each science unit independently of the next, how do we know children have improved? If we assess content knowledge, how will this link to the next unit so I know how to support the student with the next steps? But if we plan Big Ideas and developing the capabilities at the top of the unit, we can then have data that will support our students improving in science. If this is interesting to you, I have written some posts on planning –have a look and get back to me if I can help further.

Oh, and one more point... do remember that NZCER has an assessment tool for science: Science Thinking with Evidence. It's a standardised test and good to see where your students are with the capabilities. I also like to use it to show teachers the kinds of questions we need to be asking, as well as different types of activities for the different levels. 

And that’s it for today! Keep sciencing on and, as always, feel free to comment or post. I really valued the emails last time, thanks so much.

Paul

The Assessment Game...

Last week at our IPL hui, we were talking about the core of our organisation -what are we about, what's our vision... Unfortunately I can tend to zone out a bit when it gets a bit talky and I'm not the one doing the talky (!), but this time someone said something that struck me.
The facilitator talked about how 'we're doing this for students'. It struck me because my general answer to the question "So what do you do?" is to reply "I support teachers in teaching science". In my head, I know the ultimate goal is to see student achievement improve and I do have these conversations with teachers and leaders and yes, we do see improvement but do we all think like this?
Imagine if we told the children we're doing science to improve achievement?! And here, I want to segway before I get a pile of responses talking about assessment-driven science programmes, you can't assess the capabilities because they're like the Key Competencies and they're not levelled and... I'm trying to think 'big picture' here. This is still a work in progress in my head but it's one that I want to keep challenging too.
The Science Thinking with Evidence assessment tool does give us some data on how children are doing with the capabilities. I know that there are other skills wrapped up in the assessment too, for example, literacy, but it's a start! I'm also thinking about the skills within the science capabilities. Gather and Interpret Data has a number of skills happening. Granted, they're not levelled, but children are

• observing
• measuring
• gathering information
• summarising
• inferring
• thinking
• discussing

As I plan my science through the year, how do I ensure that the children are going to continue to improve? Even if I use the levelled nature of science achievement objectives, I'm not much better off -apparently Year 1 to Year 4 is the same! As I have been doing with teachers, here's a great chance for that local curriculum: what do we expect children could be doing by the end of each year? By having some expectations and heading towards them, there will be more of an impetus on seeing the students develop and improve further. It will mean that teachers understand the capabilities or achievement objectives better but this is a good thing! Regardless of whether the National Standards were effective, it did mean we all understood literacy and mathematics better. 

I might not have a levelled assessment within a particular year level but simply acknowledge when children are exhibiting a particular indicator or skill in class (or at home). I'd also want some deep stuff in here too -not just observations and evidence but, as my last blogpost was about, the taking action bits, the discussions and higher level thinking. Which leads to a second segway -not all children are good at exhibiting in the way the teacher decides! Example #1: me! I did not like reading and certainly didn't like writing long screeds of answers! I also was rather shy (and believe it or not, I still am!) so didn't contribute to class discussions at all and this led to lovely school reports like Paul is a quiet, polite student who allows others the opportunity to share (Form Three!). I also used to get in trouble for bad handwriting but we'll leave that alone!

Yeah, this is all a big challenge... thinking about what we see as important for each year level (or at the end of Year 2, 4, 6 and 8), thinking about how we can assess or evaluate student progress and what indicators might look like, and thinking about how best to give opportunities for all students to progress. Without doing this, I tend to worry that science is pretty much the same across some of the year levels at least. 

I'm curious about what teachers think about this. Are you asking the same questions? Are you already doing this (and would like to share!)? Is it too much in an already crowded curriculum? And in a much quieter voice: Should this not even be a question but something we should be doing anyway?

So what kind of facilitator would I be to just leave things up in the air? As I'm looking through the variety of assessment examples I have, it has also occurred to me that the school may choose to have a series of values with the capabilities underneath, for example, Caring for the environment. I've also found some bits that I was working on (and then deleted half of it because I didn't want to put levels to the capabilities at that time) where I had the nature of science down the side and then examples of the capabilities in each. 

Although I like the idea of four or five big ideas the schools uses for science, I'll stick to the capabilities for now. You could do something similar with the nature of science achievement objectives instead. So here's a quick example based around some aspects of the first capability: Gather and Interpret Data. Of course there needs to be more here -gathering statistical data, interpretations and inferences, etc but I hope you can see this as an example.

Gather and Interpret Data

	Y1-2	Y3-4	Y5-6	Y7-8
Observing an object	·       Making simple observations focused around colour, shape, size ·       Using observation and touch when describing and beginning to use other senses ·       Beginning to describe observations by comparing to other objects ·       Can draw a representation of the object (but may be out of scale, wrong colours)	·       Using location words, 3-D words to describe shape,  beginning to measure using comparative words and then units of measurement ·       Using all senses confidently ·       Being careful with language when describing their observations ·       Continuing to connect their observations to other objects they have observed ·       Uses a device to support observations –camera, magnifying glass ·       Can draw a view of the object highlighting some features and colour	·       Using complex language when describing eg shades of colour, specific locations of features, measuring carefully using whole units of measurement and tenths ·       Able to describe the object clearly without the need to use other objects to make sense of description ·       Uses devices to make better sense of observations ·       Drawings show details of features and colour as well as labels ·       Beginning to understand the importance of ‘good observations’	·       Measuring using tenths ·       Labelling of object in observational drawings uses appropriate style of language ·       May use resources such as the internet, books, or people to make sense of features of their observation ·       Understands the importance of ‘observation’ in science and can explain why
Critiquing observations	·       Can challenge simple observations eg brown not yellow…	·       Beginning to critique in a courteous way ·       Challenges incorrect observations using simple vocabulary	·       Respectfully challenge others’ and own observations	·       Understands the need for critiquing, it’s importance in science
Scientists	·       Identify ‘as scientists’ when observing	·       Beginning to understand that scientists observe closely, just as they do	·       Identifying ways that scientists ‘gather’ data, observations, measurements…	·       Developing ways to gather data using technology ·       Exploring how scientists share their observations

So where are you with this thinking? Do you agree or disagree? Feel free to share!

Keep on sciencing

Paul