If you start the play and then minimise before the chn look, you do have a few seconds before the noises start!
Sunday, 28 May 2017
Doggie time!
Just a really funny one... I saw this on facebook but thought, wouldn't it be interesting to just play the sound to see if children can figure out whats making the noise? And it's pretty entertaining!
If you start the play and then minimise before the chn look, you do have a few seconds before the noises start!
If you start the play and then minimise before the chn look, you do have a few seconds before the noises start!
Some more ideas for getting science from out there to in the the classroom
Besides being the longest title for one of my blog posts (!), this is a key issue for classrooms and those 'crowded curriculum' happenings. If the major focus for that term is Social Sciences, or Health or even the kapa haka practice, how can we keep science on the boil?
I'm a big fan on integrating maths, reading and writing with science. I'm always looking for opportunities where I can subvert the activity and put science at the front (I'm a science guerilla!), thinking about ways to develop that science thinking in the students.
The Figure-It-Outs do have some resources that are directly science based -for example the "Energy" book but there are other possibilities too... As children carry out some activities from "Under the Sea", could you add some science ideas? The capabilities are a start -for example the "Hot or Cold activity (p. 22) has children adding cold and hot water together and measuring capacity and temperatures. Could you add some food colouring to the hot water so children can observe diffusion in action? Could children predict what might happen and why? Could they have the chance to investigate a little further themselves? What would happen if we added the hot to the cold rather than the other way around? What would happen if we stirred the water or left it alone? By the way, here's the link to the resource: https://nzmaths.co.nz/figure-it-out.
In terms of Reading, there are plenty of good Journal and Connected articles on science. Try to add a few questions in there around the idea of children exploring how the natural physical world and science itself works (Science essence statement)... how do scientists observe in the article? Are there some predictions, inferences and explanations the students can unpack? Are there some diagrams that children can learn about the function of? Could they critique the article or illustrations? Could they investigate a little further or make connections to their own lives? What are children learning about the work of scientists from this article?
Besides the good ol' Journals and Ready to Reads (found a really good one about shags the other day!), we also have the internet. I tend to prefer to copy the article into a google doc rather than let the children explore, for example, stuff.co.nz, themselves as there can be some rather 'interesting' articles on topics that you might prefer the students to read at home with their parents rather than in the classroom! The nzherald site is another good place but there are also some excellent websites out there already set up for children to use that are science-based. Geographic for kids is one: https://www.natgeokids.com/nz/ but there are plenty of others -rather than me do all the sharing, how about sharing your favourites in the comments section?
I tend to 'squirrel' very well and will bounce off articles or facebook posts to read a bit more... I tend to like astronomy so read lots about space exploration -Mahia rockets, NASA probes around Saturn and Jupiter, etc. I also have my favourite animals so like to read about the octopus (and this aritcle is really neat: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/01/what-the-octopus-knows/508745/). I also see the relevance of getting our children involved in sustainability and being responsible so like to read articles around this area like: http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/south-pacific/92663471/Remote-uninhabited-South-Pacific-island-becomes-a-plastic-wasteland? And I even read wikipedia! I tend to be a bit sceptical so I might end up reading around a bit to check the authenticity of claims... I do try to stay within New Zealand primarily but can digress to BBC, etc if it's a good article!
Of course if we want children to write well in science, we need to share with them some good examples of diagrams, explanations, procedures, observations, etc. I really like the idea of science heading into creative worlds too (if you'll excuse the pun). I've read some excellent sci-fi novels with really well-researched science information in (and I know because I checked!) -why can't students do the same?
Instead of a report on the planet Jupiter, why don't the children write a story about the first explorers to the planet... you'd need to know about the moons, the rings and lots of information too! Oh, and some ideas around space vehicles too (which is about scientists!) -how do they explore and live in space? Can we land on Jupiter? On the moons? We could even do some art -of all the planets, Jupiter's clouds are just the best and always remind me of a painting! Could we write a poem about the journey of my weetbix mouthful or the life of a caterpillar?!?
And I almost forgot about a lovely free resource that most schools receive weekly: the local rag! When I have been visiting lovely schools in Opotiki, I'm always having a scan through their newspaper to see what science is in there. Sometimes I'd like to lift the article straight out to discuss with the children -what's this about? What's fact and what's opinion and how do we know? Is it a good 'science article' and what's the criteria for it being 'good'? Where could we go next? Who could we ask for further information? Does this affect us (for example a river's pollution level)? Could it in the future? What science do I need to know as the reader to be able to understand this article? Using local contexts can be a great way of engaging students further in science. It might just be a photo (and local community websites and news websites is a one way of finding pictures) that you'll use for a quick language activity...
As a teacher there were days I despaired of finding writing topics and reading materials that would engage some of my children (and normally my boys and those particularly struggling) and help grow some enthusiasm for school work! I think that science has an opportunity to help engage the students in exciting and new ways and through authentic contexts. I love the idea of a writing session totally taken up with science experiments because we're learning about how to draw diagrams and charts or writing an explanation the next day or setting up the children to investigate further so they'll need to write up some experiments to try out... I know class-life is never quite as simple as let's do science and see everyone engaged and loving it... but I'd like to think it might help!
Keep on science-ing!
Paul
I'm a big fan on integrating maths, reading and writing with science. I'm always looking for opportunities where I can subvert the activity and put science at the front (I'm a science guerilla!), thinking about ways to develop that science thinking in the students.
The Figure-It-Outs do have some resources that are directly science based -for example the "Energy" book but there are other possibilities too... As children carry out some activities from "Under the Sea", could you add some science ideas? The capabilities are a start -for example the "Hot or Cold activity (p. 22) has children adding cold and hot water together and measuring capacity and temperatures. Could you add some food colouring to the hot water so children can observe diffusion in action? Could children predict what might happen and why? Could they have the chance to investigate a little further themselves? What would happen if we added the hot to the cold rather than the other way around? What would happen if we stirred the water or left it alone? By the way, here's the link to the resource: https://nzmaths.co.nz/figure-it-out.
In terms of Reading, there are plenty of good Journal and Connected articles on science. Try to add a few questions in there around the idea of children exploring how the natural physical world and science itself works (Science essence statement)... how do scientists observe in the article? Are there some predictions, inferences and explanations the students can unpack? Are there some diagrams that children can learn about the function of? Could they critique the article or illustrations? Could they investigate a little further or make connections to their own lives? What are children learning about the work of scientists from this article?
Besides the good ol' Journals and Ready to Reads (found a really good one about shags the other day!), we also have the internet. I tend to prefer to copy the article into a google doc rather than let the children explore, for example, stuff.co.nz, themselves as there can be some rather 'interesting' articles on topics that you might prefer the students to read at home with their parents rather than in the classroom! The nzherald site is another good place but there are also some excellent websites out there already set up for children to use that are science-based. Geographic for kids is one: https://www.natgeokids.com/nz/ but there are plenty of others -rather than me do all the sharing, how about sharing your favourites in the comments section?
I tend to 'squirrel' very well and will bounce off articles or facebook posts to read a bit more... I tend to like astronomy so read lots about space exploration -Mahia rockets, NASA probes around Saturn and Jupiter, etc. I also have my favourite animals so like to read about the octopus (and this aritcle is really neat: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/01/what-the-octopus-knows/508745/). I also see the relevance of getting our children involved in sustainability and being responsible so like to read articles around this area like: http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/south-pacific/92663471/Remote-uninhabited-South-Pacific-island-becomes-a-plastic-wasteland? And I even read wikipedia! I tend to be a bit sceptical so I might end up reading around a bit to check the authenticity of claims... I do try to stay within New Zealand primarily but can digress to BBC, etc if it's a good article!
Of course if we want children to write well in science, we need to share with them some good examples of diagrams, explanations, procedures, observations, etc. I really like the idea of science heading into creative worlds too (if you'll excuse the pun). I've read some excellent sci-fi novels with really well-researched science information in (and I know because I checked!) -why can't students do the same?
 |
| http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/05/26/nasas-juno-probe-spots-earth-sized-cyclones-jupiter/ |
Instead of a report on the planet Jupiter, why don't the children write a story about the first explorers to the planet... you'd need to know about the moons, the rings and lots of information too! Oh, and some ideas around space vehicles too (which is about scientists!) -how do they explore and live in space? Can we land on Jupiter? On the moons? We could even do some art -of all the planets, Jupiter's clouds are just the best and always remind me of a painting! Could we write a poem about the journey of my weetbix mouthful or the life of a caterpillar?!?
 |
| Temenis laothoe, Nymphalidae, https://www.flickr.com/photos/artour_a/6030452731 |
And I almost forgot about a lovely free resource that most schools receive weekly: the local rag! When I have been visiting lovely schools in Opotiki, I'm always having a scan through their newspaper to see what science is in there. Sometimes I'd like to lift the article straight out to discuss with the children -what's this about? What's fact and what's opinion and how do we know? Is it a good 'science article' and what's the criteria for it being 'good'? Where could we go next? Who could we ask for further information? Does this affect us (for example a river's pollution level)? Could it in the future? What science do I need to know as the reader to be able to understand this article? Using local contexts can be a great way of engaging students further in science. It might just be a photo (and local community websites and news websites is a one way of finding pictures) that you'll use for a quick language activity...
As a teacher there were days I despaired of finding writing topics and reading materials that would engage some of my children (and normally my boys and those particularly struggling) and help grow some enthusiasm for school work! I think that science has an opportunity to help engage the students in exciting and new ways and through authentic contexts. I love the idea of a writing session totally taken up with science experiments because we're learning about how to draw diagrams and charts or writing an explanation the next day or setting up the children to investigate further so they'll need to write up some experiments to try out... I know class-life is never quite as simple as let's do science and see everyone engaged and loving it... but I'd like to think it might help!
Keep on science-ing!
Paul
Thursday, 11 May 2017
Ladybirds, boats and shoelaces
Just a quick wee note! Thank you to those who have commented -it is nice to know there's the odd person out there who reads these things!
I noticed over the last few days a plethora of ladybirds (collective noun is actually loveliness) which is very nice as ladybirds are one of my favourite insects -I was often the one rescuing them out of the school swimming pool. Anyway these ones are a lot larger than the smaller ones I normally see so took a couple of photos (and yes they are a little hard to see but I took them on my phone and I have no idea how to brighten and crop them!):
This one really intrigued me as I haven't seen one before. The below photo showed one of many of that species that have turned up around the house this week... A quick scout on the interweb showed up that NZ has many, many varieties of ladybirds (or ladybugs if you're not English or even ladybeetles) that I have never seen! Here's one link that just astonished me: http://naturewatch.org.nz/taxa/48486-Coccinellidae/browse_photos. This website's an interesting one in that it is a site where people can log in and add their own observations and photos -one person has identified over 15,000 and made almost 9,000 observations!
I also was wondering about why the ladybirds were coming inside -I assumed it was warmth although they weren't clustering together but just singly in random places... I wondered if anyone else has had a recent influx of this species...
This kind of science is the science I think is ideally suited to our classrooms. It's based on observations and noticings. I took photos which I think children could be doing too, perhaps emailing them to a school or class email address so they can show others. This could lead into a spontaneous reading, writing, information finding, diagram drawing, life cycle sharing, vocabulary building morning! I know we are all busy with our planning but I think it's really valuable to take hold of these spontaneous moments and run with them! We have the day all planned out but I can't help wondering whether children would be more engaged when they see us teachers running with their ideas! Of course, it might be that someone decides they'd like to look up weta as they saw one yesterday on the grass -again, great! Really, we're just building awe, wonder, curiosity and I'm not chasing after anything in particular but really simply enabling the inquisitiveness (inquisitivity?!?!) in the children to begin that questioning.
As the morning progresses, I might draw out some science thinking, critiquing, building an explanation as to why there might have been so many ladybirds in the house and then sharing this with others. I might get them to look at some different websites, throw questions at them -for example, I didn't realise that the ladybirds can be considered a pest and the introduced ones are pushing out our native bugs. I'm always surprised at how many native insects we have here -yet I mainly ever see the introduced species!
Running with the moment... this might also include reading an article together. Stuff and Herald can have some interesting science themed articles. They also have a few articles that I wouldn't think are so appropriate so would rather copy and past the article to a google doc (I'm a bit of a prude!). Over the last few days, I've read one on why shoelaces untie themselves (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11837794) -scientists investigated this further and have found possible reasons for the loosening and I really like sharing articles where scientists ask the same questions as we do! I also read this one about ocean liners: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/news/article.cfm?c_id=7&objectid=11852957 and why they stay afloat...
I would hope that as we read these, children might ask more questions or challenge what they read and seek out further classification.
And finally, next week is Science Week. I did mean to say something earlier but simply forgot! The theme this year is road safety and the NZAPSE website has some interesting ideas on it, especially around using maths to support the science investigations: http://nzapse.nzase.org.nz/primary-science-week-2017/. Even if you don't want to do this particular theme, why not use the TKI site and do some science activities through the week. You could always email me as I have a few compendiums of quick activities you can model or let the children do that I have used through the years. Some are great, they're not mine, but they are fun! Why not grab the syndicate together and do an afternoon with each teacher doing the same activity? Or each teacher organise one activity, gather all the resources for that activity and then rotate the kits through the syndicate?
Anyway, that's all for now
I noticed over the last few days a plethora of ladybirds (collective noun is actually loveliness) which is very nice as ladybirds are one of my favourite insects -I was often the one rescuing them out of the school swimming pool. Anyway these ones are a lot larger than the smaller ones I normally see so took a couple of photos (and yes they are a little hard to see but I took them on my phone and I have no idea how to brighten and crop them!):
I also was wondering about why the ladybirds were coming inside -I assumed it was warmth although they weren't clustering together but just singly in random places... I wondered if anyone else has had a recent influx of this species...
This kind of science is the science I think is ideally suited to our classrooms. It's based on observations and noticings. I took photos which I think children could be doing too, perhaps emailing them to a school or class email address so they can show others. This could lead into a spontaneous reading, writing, information finding, diagram drawing, life cycle sharing, vocabulary building morning! I know we are all busy with our planning but I think it's really valuable to take hold of these spontaneous moments and run with them! We have the day all planned out but I can't help wondering whether children would be more engaged when they see us teachers running with their ideas! Of course, it might be that someone decides they'd like to look up weta as they saw one yesterday on the grass -again, great! Really, we're just building awe, wonder, curiosity and I'm not chasing after anything in particular but really simply enabling the inquisitiveness (inquisitivity?!?!) in the children to begin that questioning.
As the morning progresses, I might draw out some science thinking, critiquing, building an explanation as to why there might have been so many ladybirds in the house and then sharing this with others. I might get them to look at some different websites, throw questions at them -for example, I didn't realise that the ladybirds can be considered a pest and the introduced ones are pushing out our native bugs. I'm always surprised at how many native insects we have here -yet I mainly ever see the introduced species!
Running with the moment... this might also include reading an article together. Stuff and Herald can have some interesting science themed articles. They also have a few articles that I wouldn't think are so appropriate so would rather copy and past the article to a google doc (I'm a bit of a prude!). Over the last few days, I've read one on why shoelaces untie themselves (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11837794) -scientists investigated this further and have found possible reasons for the loosening and I really like sharing articles where scientists ask the same questions as we do! I also read this one about ocean liners: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/news/article.cfm?c_id=7&objectid=11852957 and why they stay afloat...
 |
| From Herald website |
I would hope that as we read these, children might ask more questions or challenge what they read and seek out further classification.
And finally, next week is Science Week. I did mean to say something earlier but simply forgot! The theme this year is road safety and the NZAPSE website has some interesting ideas on it, especially around using maths to support the science investigations: http://nzapse.nzase.org.nz/primary-science-week-2017/. Even if you don't want to do this particular theme, why not use the TKI site and do some science activities through the week. You could always email me as I have a few compendiums of quick activities you can model or let the children do that I have used through the years. Some are great, they're not mine, but they are fun! Why not grab the syndicate together and do an afternoon with each teacher doing the same activity? Or each teacher organise one activity, gather all the resources for that activity and then rotate the kits through the syndicate?
Anyway, that's all for now
Monday, 1 May 2017
Planning science...
Kia Ora koutou
A large part of my work is supporting schools in exploring the Nature of Science and putting it into practice in the classroom. I think there's lots of space for episodes of science, or experiences -it could be during news time from an object someone's brought in or an article from the news, or during reading -exploring school journals, connecteds and the internet and the science within as well as during writing time, maths time, PE time... you get the picture!
However there is a place for those longer more focused units as well. For example you might want to explore geology in a bit more detail or chemical reactions, or a local science issue, etc where a 1 or 2 lesson spot won't give students the time to get really deep into the subject.
Questions to ask include thinking about how the unit is going to progress -are you going to have every lesson and activity pre-planned or will there be space for students to investigate further, looking for answers to questions you didn't think of! Some students may even wander off in a totally different direction so how do you cater for that?!
For now, I thought I would write about what I think is important in planning a topic!
My first place would be to do a bit of browsing. I'm going to use an example where a school teacher asked for some help in planning a unit around rocks. This is not a definitive list of what to do or how to do it, just some ideas. My colleague Anne was coincidentally looking at planning rock units too and had totally different ideas -and some of these were much better than my ideas!
I'd start with doing a bit of browsing. Have a bit of a read up on the topic, in this case rocks. I started by looking at children's websites as I thought I'd have a better chance to understand rocks. i chose New Zealand sites primarily and then as I learnt a bit more, went overseas. i also started to grow questions and wonderings that I would look up. I found that by the third or fourth website, I was starting to already know what they were talking about so got more confident. You might want to look at the Building Science Concepts resource that have very good introductions.
Once you feel that you have a bit of background, it's time to plan! I've pasted an email conversation that I had with this teacher below...
A large part of my work is supporting schools in exploring the Nature of Science and putting it into practice in the classroom. I think there's lots of space for episodes of science, or experiences -it could be during news time from an object someone's brought in or an article from the news, or during reading -exploring school journals, connecteds and the internet and the science within as well as during writing time, maths time, PE time... you get the picture!
However there is a place for those longer more focused units as well. For example you might want to explore geology in a bit more detail or chemical reactions, or a local science issue, etc where a 1 or 2 lesson spot won't give students the time to get really deep into the subject.
Questions to ask include thinking about how the unit is going to progress -are you going to have every lesson and activity pre-planned or will there be space for students to investigate further, looking for answers to questions you didn't think of! Some students may even wander off in a totally different direction so how do you cater for that?!
For now, I thought I would write about what I think is important in planning a topic!
My first place would be to do a bit of browsing. I'm going to use an example where a school teacher asked for some help in planning a unit around rocks. This is not a definitive list of what to do or how to do it, just some ideas. My colleague Anne was coincidentally looking at planning rock units too and had totally different ideas -and some of these were much better than my ideas!
I'd start with doing a bit of browsing. Have a bit of a read up on the topic, in this case rocks. I started by looking at children's websites as I thought I'd have a better chance to understand rocks. i chose New Zealand sites primarily and then as I learnt a bit more, went overseas. i also started to grow questions and wonderings that I would look up. I found that by the third or fourth website, I was starting to already know what they were talking about so got more confident. You might want to look at the Building Science Concepts resource that have very good introductions.
Once you feel that you have a bit of background, it's time to plan! I've pasted an email conversation that I had with this teacher below...
1) Start
with the essence statement: children explore how the natural physical
world works… with my limited understanding of geology, I know that there
is a rock cycle, and that rocks are part of our environment, that they are part
of our land That would be interesting to explore further! I know that it
is important to know about geology –especially with landslides, growing gardens
(although that’s more to do with soil Is soil rocks? Is sand?). Are the
rocks in your area/town different to other places? How come? What’s our whakapapa (in
terms of geology)?
2) Children
explore how science works… how do scientists explore rocks? What terms do they
use? How do they classify rocks? I stuck a few bits in your shared folder
that helps with these… How could we find out (probably internet!); can we
go exploring a few different places to look at rocks (or have someone bring in
some rocks from a few different places around Opotiki)… How could we classify
them? (And yes, I would let children break rocks to look inside if they’re
breakable –the rocks, not the children!). What names do scientists have for
rocks? How can we learn to identify our rocks? What names do rock scientists have? What kinds of science involves rocks -initially I was thinking just about geologists but then there would be paleontologists, those involved in drilling and oil exploration... Could they have a visit from someone? Or watch a video? Or doa skype chat?
3) And now
the science capabilities or the Nature of Science… Take a look at your class level of NoS and
how you could have these at the top of your unit –what are we developing in our
children? Remember this is the overarching strand, our science focus. What will be deliberately teaching? What will we assess formatively? You might prefer the science
capabilities (italicised below) on TKI as we look at the NoS strands
·
Investigating in science: how do children gather and
interpret data, how do the use evidence to build explanations… “I
notice that this rock is very rough, it’s actually quite sharp. It’s yellow and
light brown with white bits on the surface. I think the white bits might be
right through the rock so we broke it in half and found that they are. We
looked at the white bits through a magnifying glass and they look like tiny
bits of shells. The rock also is made up of lots of very tiny bits of rocks
like sand. I think this will be a sort of sedimentary rock and when we googled
it, a website said that this rock is called limestone. I looked it up on
another site and they agreed it is limestone which is made up of little bits of
rock. We checked where it came from –Wairoa and yes, Wairoa is a place made up
of limestone.” There might be some issues around rocks in your community -water in aquifers, unstable cliffs, quarries, etc
·
Communicating in science: using correct vocabulary, learning how
to describe the rocks correctly, knowing the names of some common rocks, drawing rock cycles (part of the Making Interpretations capability)…
4) So for
further support –Science Learning Hub, Pond, te Awa (NZ encyclopaedia and very
good too), google for lessons from overseas and then put our context over the
top... remember our goal is developing the Nature of Science within the students so that they can become critical, informed and responsible members of society in which science plays a significant role (essence statement, p. 17 NZC). I think there is a place for children to learn the names of rocks, for example, but I want to try and think about NoS rather than content. If students don't get the concept, I'm okay about that as they are exploring! If I did want them to learn what limestone and sandstone are and their differences, I might think about ensuring that children would know why we should know the difference...
5) Māori
context: are there te reo names for the rocks? I looked here and was amazed at
how many words the Māori have for soil (http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/table/5241/maori-words-for-soil)
–bit like the Inuit and how many words they have for snow! What were rocks used
for –hangi, weapons, carving… what if you lived somewhere where there weren’t good
rocks? How did local hapu get hold of pounamu? Did they trade obsidian (matā)
with others? This is a bit a weak idea here -I'm still getting my head around what a M
and then some other ideas...
6) Maths
context (one of our achievement challenges): can children estimate size and
weight? Can they learn to?
7) Literacy
context: reading about the rocks, learning the style of language and using it
in our own writing, writing explanations and descriptions…
As I said at the beginning, this was just a brief conversation to start the ball rolling. I'd be curious about your ideas too! As I said, Anne had a quite different approach altogether -maybe she'll tell you in the comments! For me, the big thing is thinking about why are we doing this unit and what we want to do... I'm trying hard to plan and teach science in a different way to how I would teach Social Sciences or Art or Reading. There may be some similarities but they are different learning areas with their own philosophies, ways of thinking and behaving -and our children should know that too!
And... out of the unit, you may end up with children wanting to collect rocks, explore earth sciences in more detail, go to university and become famous like Hamish Campbell!
 |
| https://www.gns.cri.nz/Home/News-and-Events/Media-Releases/Fossil-fish-scale |
Sunday, 9 April 2017
Science at home is the same as in the laboratory...
I was travelling around the countryside (for work of course!) when this interview came on the radio. I've become a bit of a National Radio convert which I assume everyone does as they get older -now that would be an interesting research project! Anyway Kathryn Ryan was talking to Dr Helen Czerski about everyday objects and actions that reflect deeper science -theories as well as illustrations. I think she might have been on TV that week too.
Here's the link to the interview -it's only 23 minutes long and well worth a listen (if just for a really good science reason for doing the Dancing Raisins experiment!): http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/201839077/can't-pop-this-bubble-scientist's-passion-for-physics.
The reason I like the conversation is that Dr Czerski is discussing ideas and questions she has about the world around her, for example why tea sometimes slops when she walks, bubbles in her coffee, etc. More than this, she's investigating further! I sometimes wonder if students even have these types of questions -I wonder why there are drops on the outside of the fizzy drink bottle? I wonder why there are more mynah birds these days?... If we're developing that awe and curiosity in students, sharing with them that scientists wonder these kinds of questions may encourage them to start growing wonderings.
Of course, linking them to more complex science is possibly beyond us primary teachers but I do like the thought that we could share this thinking with our Y7-10 children. In looking at the 'why', again, we may need to use google -so why does tapping stop the coke can 'exploding' when I open it? But before googling, could children do some investigating? Could they explore the question, grow some inferences, build some explanations from their investigations and then check the internet to see what others say, critiquing carefully -roomtwo.com may not have as much validity as a university site!
I read something recently (and cannot remember the paper but will put it in here if I do!) that talked about children carrying out the same work as scientists is important. I do think this means heading down to the estuary and working alongside the DoC staff, observing and counting animals but could it also mean what Dr Czerski does? Could they investigate why a popcorn pops? At least they could put some ideas together before heading online to further clarify their thinking. Naturally, we could just send the students online in the first place but if we are to be explicit about our teaching the Nature of Science (a Randy Bell comment), an opportunity to grow our questioning, plan and investigate further, attempt to explain our own findings and then check the internet means children could be working within the science lens -measuring, predicting, hypothesizing, critiquing, guessing, deciding, explaining, communicating, debating, etc can all be happening in far greater detail than a quick 'check the web'. In conversations I've had with teachers over the last few weeks, the need for content knowledge has come up lots -particularly how much we need to teach science 'effectively'. Having a wee squiz before the lessons to get some idea of what is going on may help you feel far more confident and capable as well as enable you to question students more effectively. Because I'm a pretty good questioner with a bit of general science, I'm happy to be thrown in the deep end and discover alongside the students but you may feel happier having some pre-knowledge!
So, have a listen to the webcast, perhaps have a try at one of the doctor's ideas and start growing a wonder wall in the class where children can stick post it notes with their wonderings.
 |
| Radio New Zealand |
The reason I like the conversation is that Dr Czerski is discussing ideas and questions she has about the world around her, for example why tea sometimes slops when she walks, bubbles in her coffee, etc. More than this, she's investigating further! I sometimes wonder if students even have these types of questions -I wonder why there are drops on the outside of the fizzy drink bottle? I wonder why there are more mynah birds these days?... If we're developing that awe and curiosity in students, sharing with them that scientists wonder these kinds of questions may encourage them to start growing wonderings.
Of course, linking them to more complex science is possibly beyond us primary teachers but I do like the thought that we could share this thinking with our Y7-10 children. In looking at the 'why', again, we may need to use google -so why does tapping stop the coke can 'exploding' when I open it? But before googling, could children do some investigating? Could they explore the question, grow some inferences, build some explanations from their investigations and then check the internet to see what others say, critiquing carefully -roomtwo.com may not have as much validity as a university site!
I read something recently (and cannot remember the paper but will put it in here if I do!) that talked about children carrying out the same work as scientists is important. I do think this means heading down to the estuary and working alongside the DoC staff, observing and counting animals but could it also mean what Dr Czerski does? Could they investigate why a popcorn pops? At least they could put some ideas together before heading online to further clarify their thinking. Naturally, we could just send the students online in the first place but if we are to be explicit about our teaching the Nature of Science (a Randy Bell comment), an opportunity to grow our questioning, plan and investigate further, attempt to explain our own findings and then check the internet means children could be working within the science lens -measuring, predicting, hypothesizing, critiquing, guessing, deciding, explaining, communicating, debating, etc can all be happening in far greater detail than a quick 'check the web'. In conversations I've had with teachers over the last few weeks, the need for content knowledge has come up lots -particularly how much we need to teach science 'effectively'. Having a wee squiz before the lessons to get some idea of what is going on may help you feel far more confident and capable as well as enable you to question students more effectively. Because I'm a pretty good questioner with a bit of general science, I'm happy to be thrown in the deep end and discover alongside the students but you may feel happier having some pre-knowledge!
So, have a listen to the webcast, perhaps have a try at one of the doctor's ideas and start growing a wonder wall in the class where children can stick post it notes with their wonderings.
Sunday, 26 March 2017
The Nature of Science, the capabilities and the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything
With apologies to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, I've been pondering the deeper meaning of the Nature of Science. I've been helped with a few readings around the capabilities and lifelong learning and just thinking, as always, How do I ensure children are understanding about science when I'm teaching it? My worry is that the science I teach will look just like Social Studies or Art or P.E... Each of these Learning Areas should have variations to the questions, answers, discussions and our role (both as student and teacher). We may observe in Art and Science but should they be the same?
In Art, I may be thinking about the warmth of colours, the intent behind the art, and other possibly more subjective ideas than I might in science. There could be some 'science' observations... I see three oranges and an apple but we're hoping for interpretation, expression and other arty things! Strangely enough, when I googled that phrase, I found a band actually called that!
Anyway, before I squirrel off, how do we ensure that these 'lenses' are understood by the children? I've had the odd student go 'wow' or 'yuck' during a lesson and I've always said that we can respond with these thoughts, but are they a scientific observation? Do we all agree with your noticings? I would rather not eat pumpkin as I think it's yuck, however you may love it! We can both agree when describing the size, shape, colour, or how our senses notice the pumpkin -and that's a more scientific observation! The TKI site (http://scienceonline.tki.org.nz/Science-capabilities-for-citizenship/Introducing-five-science-capabilities) says about observations, or gathering data: "Science knowledge is based on data derived from direct, or indirect, observations of the natural physical world and often includes measuring something."
During workshops, we sometimes talk about students bringing to school a cultural lens or a religious lens... They might be using more than one lens at a time. Our aim is that, when we're talking about science, children recognise there's a style of language or behaviour or method. We're not saying this lens is more important but just different!
Perhaps if we have this kind of intent, our children may get a clearer picture of what we're trying to do in science education. I also can't help thinking that through this particular strand, the other three Nature of Science strands sort of fall into line: "Because I know that scientists are very careful with their investigations, I'll make sure I record the data accurately...(Investigating in Science)" or "I know scientists communicate their findings with one another, I better make sure I have the right name for that seashell...(Communicating in Science)"
So how do we do this? There are places where science is happening, who are very happy to share their scientists, their findings, and some even like tours. The Science Learning Hub are changing a little the way they do things and part of this involves them being available to help classrooms connect with scientists. They also have videos on their website as well: https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/ for students to watch. These scientists may not know the Nature of Science from our curriculum per se, but we can reflect back with our classes What did you see? How do we know that she was a scientist? How did she do things that showed us how we could / should be working in science? One important thing is student knowledge -and how do we grow and develop student knowledge through their own efforts (I sort of think this question could be bigger than the the Ultimate Question at the beginning of the blog!)? I love the sentence on p. 28 of the NZC that shows us: (Science) involves generating and testing ideas, gathering evidence -including by making observations, carrying out investigations and modelling, and communicating and debating with others -in order to develop scientific knowledge, understanding and explanations. This doesn't just mean "knowledge" as in the Latin name for a kauri snail being Paryphanta Busbyi but also knowing about science, about being responsible, about critiquing, about investigating and questioning, etc... Incidentally whilst I was looking up the Latin name, I came across this wikipedia page which I think is perfect for students to critique -is this really a 'scientific' piece of writing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paryphanta. A fascinating explanation!
So, with the Nature of Science being the 'overarching strand' and the only compulsory one, how do we ensure we're not just gathering data or describing an orange which we might do in any other area, but we're doing science!
Oh, and just a funny cartoon to finish with. I love Gary Larson's work and came across it when I was looking for an art cartoon for this post. Doesn't really fit the blog but I like it! (So does that make it a scientific observation then?!?)
Keep sciencing on!
Paul
In Art, I may be thinking about the warmth of colours, the intent behind the art, and other possibly more subjective ideas than I might in science. There could be some 'science' observations... I see three oranges and an apple but we're hoping for interpretation, expression and other arty things! Strangely enough, when I googled that phrase, I found a band actually called that!
Anyway, before I squirrel off, how do we ensure that these 'lenses' are understood by the children? I've had the odd student go 'wow' or 'yuck' during a lesson and I've always said that we can respond with these thoughts, but are they a scientific observation? Do we all agree with your noticings? I would rather not eat pumpkin as I think it's yuck, however you may love it! We can both agree when describing the size, shape, colour, or how our senses notice the pumpkin -and that's a more scientific observation! The TKI site (http://scienceonline.tki.org.nz/Science-capabilities-for-citizenship/Introducing-five-science-capabilities) says about observations, or gathering data: "Science knowledge is based on data derived from direct, or indirect, observations of the natural physical world and often includes measuring something."
During workshops, we sometimes talk about students bringing to school a cultural lens or a religious lens... They might be using more than one lens at a time. Our aim is that, when we're talking about science, children recognise there's a style of language or behaviour or method. We're not saying this lens is more important but just different!
 |
| New Zealand Curriculum "Understanding about Science" Aim |
So how do we do this? There are places where science is happening, who are very happy to share their scientists, their findings, and some even like tours. The Science Learning Hub are changing a little the way they do things and part of this involves them being available to help classrooms connect with scientists. They also have videos on their website as well: https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/ for students to watch. These scientists may not know the Nature of Science from our curriculum per se, but we can reflect back with our classes What did you see? How do we know that she was a scientist? How did she do things that showed us how we could / should be working in science? One important thing is student knowledge -and how do we grow and develop student knowledge through their own efforts (I sort of think this question could be bigger than the the Ultimate Question at the beginning of the blog!)? I love the sentence on p. 28 of the NZC that shows us: (Science) involves generating and testing ideas, gathering evidence -including by making observations, carrying out investigations and modelling, and communicating and debating with others -in order to develop scientific knowledge, understanding and explanations. This doesn't just mean "knowledge" as in the Latin name for a kauri snail being Paryphanta Busbyi but also knowing about science, about being responsible, about critiquing, about investigating and questioning, etc... Incidentally whilst I was looking up the Latin name, I came across this wikipedia page which I think is perfect for students to critique -is this really a 'scientific' piece of writing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paryphanta. A fascinating explanation!
So, with the Nature of Science being the 'overarching strand' and the only compulsory one, how do we ensure we're not just gathering data or describing an orange which we might do in any other area, but we're doing science!
Oh, and just a funny cartoon to finish with. I love Gary Larson's work and came across it when I was looking for an art cartoon for this post. Doesn't really fit the blog but I like it! (So does that make it a scientific observation then?!?)
Keep sciencing on!
Paul
Thursday, 9 March 2017
Kia Ora
Yesterday, caught this article in the New Zealand Herald from their Sideswipe section (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11814582) and I thought 'what a great way to show what critiquing is all about'! I might be a bit squeamish and wouldn't show the second photo as it has more than just spoons in it (!).
However it could be interesting to show the initial photo and perhaps an introduction with the claim that KFC is getting smaller... What questions to the children have? Are any of the questions ones that critique or challenge? And how do those questions look different? Who could we ask (without actually asking!) for further information -the article has a few ideas on this but there are no answers which is a shame!
Could we decide just from the photo? Could we look at a variety of teaspoons and other sized spoons to see what we think?
One aspect of this quick activity is the opportunity to communicate. The NZC for Science has a lot to say about communication (pages 28 and 29), both about scientists communicating with one another and the general public, as well as us communicating with one another. How do we discuss? How do we argue? Can I just say "You're a complete idiot! You can well see that this is a dessert spoon!" or do I need to think and communicate 'as a scientist'... and what does that look like? Can I be emotional? Do I need evidence? Do I need to be objective or subjective? How do scientists communicate (and I'm thinking how should they communicate rather than how they do communicate!)?
From my thinking there are a few things happening here -I would like the children to start challenging what they read, see or hear within a science context, and I would like to see children beginning to critique and knowing how to critique. If you read the last post, we are keen to see science citizenship happening in Aotearoa New Zealand, and for me, this includes thinking about how do we regular citizens interact with the world of science. Although this article is about KFC and chicken size, the tools and thinking will nicely come into play with any of our science activities... as well as being tools that we as adults can use.
And to finish for no reason at all... From the next day's Sideswipe, sharks... with human teeth! I wonder if this would change what they would eat, how they would catch food... My favourite one is bottom right!
Have a fantastic day!
Paul
Yesterday, caught this article in the New Zealand Herald from their Sideswipe section (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11814582) and I thought 'what a great way to show what critiquing is all about'! I might be a bit squeamish and wouldn't show the second photo as it has more than just spoons in it (!).
However it could be interesting to show the initial photo and perhaps an introduction with the claim that KFC is getting smaller... What questions to the children have? Are any of the questions ones that critique or challenge? And how do those questions look different? Who could we ask (without actually asking!) for further information -the article has a few ideas on this but there are no answers which is a shame!
Could we decide just from the photo? Could we look at a variety of teaspoons and other sized spoons to see what we think?
One aspect of this quick activity is the opportunity to communicate. The NZC for Science has a lot to say about communication (pages 28 and 29), both about scientists communicating with one another and the general public, as well as us communicating with one another. How do we discuss? How do we argue? Can I just say "You're a complete idiot! You can well see that this is a dessert spoon!" or do I need to think and communicate 'as a scientist'... and what does that look like? Can I be emotional? Do I need evidence? Do I need to be objective or subjective? How do scientists communicate (and I'm thinking how should they communicate rather than how they do communicate!)?
From my thinking there are a few things happening here -I would like the children to start challenging what they read, see or hear within a science context, and I would like to see children beginning to critique and knowing how to critique. If you read the last post, we are keen to see science citizenship happening in Aotearoa New Zealand, and for me, this includes thinking about how do we regular citizens interact with the world of science. Although this article is about KFC and chicken size, the tools and thinking will nicely come into play with any of our science activities... as well as being tools that we as adults can use.
And to finish for no reason at all... From the next day's Sideswipe, sharks... with human teeth! I wonder if this would change what they would eat, how they would catch food... My favourite one is bottom right!
Paul
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