Class discussions

I have had a lovely couple of days working in Huntly with the Year 1 to 4 children which are always a lot of fun to work with. Teachers had planned out a lesson and I was meant to be co-teaching alongside them... although I always feel a better descriptor would be interferer or interrupter!
As a part of the lessons, there were opportunities for class discussions and watching these in action really got me thinking about the whole idea of 'on the mat' time (or 'sitting at desks' if they're seniors!).
It's not something I have spent time musing, it really is a 'right now' type of thing but I think it's a valid topic for schools and syndicates to be discussing further. I'd like to ask the question of 'why are you using a class discussion right now?' along with 'how will you know that you have achieved the objective?'. For example, if you are have decided to see whether children understand what you did yesterday with them, how will you know that they all understand? 
The class discussions that I was a part of sometimes had the same children answering, small groups disengaged -who would be brought back in to the discussion "And what do you think Paul?" followed by a "Please listen carefully so you do have a view"! My time in front of the classrooms I'm certain were no different. There were certain children I'd ask because I thought they would know the right answers for everyone to listen to so they knew as well, certain children I didn't ask because I didn't want a 7 1/2 minute response or a gripping account of how their cat went missing the other night (and I know you all have those kids too!). But if the point is knowing what the children understand, and the medium is "class discussion", was this best?
Sometimes class discussions can be a bit of 'teacher tennis' with the teacher firing the ball out, children answering back and then the teacher firing out to a different child. What if the discussion could carry on without the teacher so other children instead responded? Often students aren't really listening to the person before them -they're desperate to have their view even if it's already been shared three times! 
This isn't a topic that I'm an expert in but I wanted to share my thoughts and observations, not as criticisms but more of 'so how can we improve these?'. And I'm thinking of me visiting classrooms too! One teacher shared how she almost forced the discussion by asking a question and then simply stopping... those seconds of waiting for a response would have been very long! Slowly children did get the idea that this was their discussion not hers!
The science talk moves (on the TERC website) are brilliant to support this kind of thinking with well thought out prompts to promote conversation. 
If it's always the same group of children playing the class discussion game, how could you better involve them? If you want them all listening carefully, how do we do this? As I said, I'm no expert but this week's discussions came up with some ideas...

• changing the culture of what class discussions are
• lots more work in pairs or threes or even groups rather than 'teacher tennis'; children 
• children recording ideas shared in a discussion -the teacher might prompt this or scaffold it... Ooooh, that's really interesting... make a note of what Paora has just said about a ski car working best on the sand. We might investigate that tomorrow. 
• wrapping up the discussion by getting children to write down what they learnt from the discussion or an interesting point or a question that they've had resulting from the conversations
• using the talk moves... or even better, the children using the talk moves! 

I guess that you would need to model and scaffold the children through at first but I'm imagining better discussions! A question that popped into my head as I was writing these ideas: how are children accountable to listen during the discussions? Is being silent enough to 'appear' to be engaged?

I think this would be a great topic for staff meetings -what do teachers think? And how can we improve the point of them?

Anyway that's all! I'd love to hear your ideas about how to enrich class discussions. Why not stick some of these questions in your planner to think about your next discussion (or one you've just had). You could even video one! I get a lot of teachers doing this with my modelled lessons. Now I want to go back to see how the discussions were for all the children! 

thanks for reading

Paul

Juniors and Seniors -what do you know?

Kia ora koutou
This is just a quick post (mind you, I do say that a bit!) from a thought that popped into my head this week.
On the wall I have two NZC posters which have been up for quite some time. I decided to look closer and something about them struck me. One is for levels 1 and 2 of the curriculum and the other for levels 3 and 4. I have a funny feeling I downloaded them from the Ministry of Education website. Really the posters are focusing on the two different levels of the Key Competencies but they also had a different title on each with the juniors one titled "Emergent Understandings" and the seniors one "Developing Understandings". 

http://jodyreganmath.blogspot.com

It was a bit of a light bulb moment for me. Sometimes when I'm in junior rooms, I can see teachers working hard to develop quite intense and complex ideas for the children to get their head around. I'm always amazed when the children are able to share back what they've learnt but the minute I start asking questions it all starts to fall apart a bit. I'm not against going in-depth into science topics and certainly as the children learn more, they get hungry for more. One teacher I worked with told me once that her class had studied bubbles for the whole term. It wasn't a unit that the teacher had planned out every activity and direction before the class started but one where the teacher had some capabilities foci and the children led the whole inquiry themselves. This is exactly what science should be about! 
Anyway back on track... In the junior classes we're dealing with "emergent understandings" -just the beginning bits. We don't have to worry about whether or not children understand magnetic fields, tectonic plates, photosynthesis or the molecular structure of matter (all real life examples) we're just introducing these ideas to the children! We'll use some scientific vocabulary but the big focus is those ideas for Gather and Interpret Data concepts, and growing awe and wonder and curiosity AND an idea of what science is about (phew!).
If the seniors, and I mean Y5-8, are "developing understanding" this might make the programme at this end a little different. There's still space for new ideas, but to me (and here's the light bulb moment), if the children are developing understanding, there has to be some understanding that they have been exposed to in the junior room. And here's the big questions... do we know what the children learnt during the junior years? Do we know what ideas were shared, what units were taught so we can develop these ideas and understandings further? 
For some reason there does seem to be "junior" themed units: shadows, butterflies, float and sinking, etc but I reckon these are all great with the seniors too. With such beautiful weather outside, take the kids out quick and get them to point out their shadows. Now ask them to stand with their shadows on the other side of themselves -a lot will try to do this which shows where their understanding is: the emergent level: the sun's light source is creating a shadow of me. As a teacher I might try to develop it further with the seniors with "translucent" and "transparent" and what shadows actually are and...and... I might even dig out the Building Science Concepts shadows book for levels 1 and 2 and see what's in there!  
As I said earlier, there is room for new topics for the seniors but I love the idea of this 'learning pathway' happening through the school. As I wrote this sentence, the thought occurred to me could any 'new' topic the seniors want to do be at least introduced at a junior level? It's up to the junior teachers to find out what senior teachers might be wanting to do units on and vice versa!

faithlivedout.wordpress.com

And that was my light bulb moment!

Data, oh Data, wherefore art thou?

No I'm not going all Shakespearean on you... or (if you're a bit nerdy like I'm rumoured to be) Star Trek The Next Generation... I'm talking about the data we use for that first capability Gather and Interpret Data and then needing it for further analysis with the Use Evidence capability (and elsewhere too!).

Often in science we either think of the first capability as simply observations using our senses or we might gather some very simple data like how far a car will roll down a ramp. Particularly for our older children, grabbing hold of good data to formulate rich and robust explanations is really important. Although we can gather that data ourselves, there's plenty of places we can find some examples to use...

www.nzmaths.co.nz

The nzmaths website has the Figure it Out series and there are three that are specifically science-based (although I think there are others you can use too). Some of these have data for their own activities (which are good in themselves) but why not grab out that data and do some of your own activities with it? 

Jo Mathews, one of our University of Waikato maths facilitators, is great with the whole statistical literacy idea in science. She once brought in some data and said nothing about it... from memory, it was just a pile of numbers! She challenged us to figure out what the data were saying, what it were measuring. I really liked this idea and it could be an easy one to do yourself. Grab the weather data from the last week and take off all the measurement units. Can students start making sense of this data? If you shared the unit measurements, what does the data now say?

Matamata Piako District Council website

 Another place to go is your local council or environmental council website. The one above is from my council and is easily accessed. The fourth capability also comes into play, Interpret Representations. What do we need to know to be able to read this? Why is the information presented like this? Is it easy to read? Why or why not? What information might be missing? Remember that the author is deciding which data to show and how -might there be more going on here? I'm curious that my local council doesn't elaborate on results or action points or even share what all the terms means and if I should be worried or not!
Besides graphs, tables are useful too: 

Also Matamata Piako District Council data

Again, challenge our children -what do we think of the data? What is it showing? And not showing! 

If I'm doing a topic study on the oceans, get children to analyse data, think about it and then use it for explanations. And an extra step -could children critique theirs and each others data? Scientists do this all the time! There are some who think climate change is real and others who are challenging the gathering of the data and the interpretation of it.

So there's some ideas for data! I hope it helps! If you would like further conversations about statistical literacy or science or the capabilities, get in touch!

Paul.


FUN FACT... "data" is actually a plural word! The correct grammar is to say "The data are showing us..." and after three years of knowing this, it still sounds weird!

Planning a science unit...

I hope the beginning of the term has gone well for you all. I have had a busy time with schools and planning for the term's science -which is always fun! From the discussions I had with the teachers, I thought it might support others who may also be planning.

I have developed a wee resource with laminate cards that we use to prompt our thinking with units that are for the whole term or longer. I wouldn't go to this length with smaller units (or lesson progressions) although often my lessons for teachers are that thorough simply because I want to support them in their thinking about the science capabilities.

My cards are used really to prompt our thinking rather than have all the answers. The first card is The Big Idea -what's the really big idea that underpins the whole unit. It's the thought that encapsulates science, reading, maths, social sciences, whatever! It's global and probably not an assessment WALT -for example, children appreciate the world around them or children take action.

Next is the NZC Principles, Vision, Values and Key Competencies. I know that these sort of happen all the time, but are there elements that can be deliberately focused on? With my work over the past couple of weeks, teachers have picked out critical and creative thinking themes and sustainability ideas. We also need to look at our own local school curriculum -the values or virtues, etc that the school uses. As with the NZC bits, are there any that we can particularly focus on? I like the idea of starting with these as they need to underpin the unit and the term's teaching.

Because this is a science unit (albeit integrated with other curriculum areas), we'll start with the Context Strands. I've been thinking lots about the idea of shifting from single context strands (i.e. Term Three is "Material World") to topics that can incorporate more than one strand. I might have a focus on one,  for example "Planet Earth and Beyond" and the Moon and Sun, but I might be able to develop some ideas in the "Physical World" with light and shadows. Remember, we don't assess student content knowledge, these context strands are the vehicle we use to develop student science capabilities or the nature of science. We still need the contexts to be rich and robust with lots of deep thinking and action happening though.

Now it's the stuff I particularly like! Science capabilities or the nature of science if you prefer. Remember that they are sort of interchangeable -you don't need to use both. The science capabilities can be found on the TKI site (try googling "science capabilities TKI") and again you'll probably be using more than one. I try to get teachers to focus on the capability that might be more suited to that year level so Gather and Interpret Data (G&ID) for the juniors, Use Evidence (UE) for the middles, and Critique Evidence (CE) for the seniors. I know that you need to use G&ID to develop UE thinking and you need both for the CE capability so all will be happening. It's just that as the teacher, I'm focusing on one particular capability, that's what I'm going to be assessing and using for my learning intentions. Of course, we will be looking at Interpreting Representations and possibly Engaged with Science too and they go across the levels.

Onto other curriculum areas... What else can you do with this topic? I like the idea of reading and writing (and oral language too I guess!) all wrapped up in the topic rather than simply independent stories that don't fit what we're studying as well as maths integrated. In a conversation I had last week, we talked about how to integrate reading and science, without losing the reading elements and gaining the idea that students can continue to develop their thinking about how the natural physical world and science itself work. It might be as simple as unpacking tables or diagrams, or did the scientist infer or observe and how do we know from the text...
We can also do some art or technology, etc too. One of the big things with integrating is that we still call science science. It's not topic. We might be doing a big unit on "The Lake" but when we do science-themed activities, we make sure that children realise that. Children are heading to high school without realising that they have had science lessons -they may remember topics but not make the connection. Of course we also want students to know what science is but that's what this whole blog is about!

I also had some extra cards -Tikanga Maaori, Digital Technologies, Citizen Science, Environmental Science, etc to stimulate thinking and further activities.

The final step is resources -where do we find them? They are pretty much everywhere but some ideal places to go is the Science Learning Hub, TKI might have some ideas,  Royal Society but also DoC, Landcare as well. DoC's lessons are great but besides that, here are lots of NZ resources for us to use. We don't need to download a ready-made unit -and most seem to come from the States but can create one as the unit progresses and student inquiry develops. I might have a couple of starters but then I want children to run the unit! If I do use some NZ lesson plans,  I'll need to adapt them for my class and if they're from overseas, I'm pretty certain they won't have a nature of science or capabilities focus.

Well, if you've got this far, well done! I'm happy to send out a pdf with the cards on to help with planning -just email me: paul.ashman@waikato.ac.nz.

Have fun, and enjoy your science for this term!
Paul

Can just 'play' be enough?

I hope that you have all had a lovely week refreshing and recharging and thinking about some things other than school!
I have just come back from a week of science conferencing in Christchurch listening to educators, teachers and those of us interested in the world of science education. It was a fantastic week and I am particularly heartened to see the move towards the nature of science and the science capabilities at a secondary school level. I think it's important that there's a strong continuity from our Y7/8 science programmes to secondary and having a focus on the nature of science is one way we can be supporting this.

Canterbury Museum model of Scott Base (one of my Bucket List places!)... the machine in the top right hand corner seems a little bit out of place!

Whilst I was there, I had the chance to visit the Canterbury Museum which was next door. Lots to see and do and I had to go back to see stuff I had missed the first time! Anne Barker came with me on one of the visits and we walked around the science interactive centre with about a hundred very noisy children! The focus was on light and space and there were quite a few different activities for students to participate in. Anne and I were leading a workshop the next day on 'play-based learning in science' so we were interested to see if children were thinking scientifically as they were playing independently.
My own feeling is that, even though we're wanting children to play/explore/discover on their own, it does need some teacher input in terms of questioning to support children to be curious, to want to investigate further. Without this teacher input, I think that students may become bored, not understand the activity and simply move on to the next quick buzz! I don't so much mean that teachers should be asking the hard science questions (that could be for lesson two instead) but simply enabling that sense of wonder and thinking to support the next session's more scientific focus.
It was interesting watching the students as they moved from exhibit to exhibit -many were simply pushing buttons, spinning dials and then running onto the next one. There didn't seem any effort to investigate the purpose of the exhibit or any wondering as to what they were seeing. At one stage, Anne did ask some questions and the child suddenly became more interested as she challenged their thinking as to what was happening.



I know there are those students who are well able to learn in these environments but I think that the majority of the students need those questions and wonderings from us, the teachers to enable a deeper questioning, awe and wonder. There are a few places like the Canterbury Museum around -the Telecom roadshow, MoTaT in Auckland and the Exscite in Hamilton. There's also lots of activities that children can simply 'do' from the internet that produces a 'wow' and that's the end! I was talking to a teacher last term who wanted to do a particular activity because the kids would love it. Of course, that's fine but is there a chance that we could grow the activity further?

At the Antarctic Centre... and yes of course all those penguins are real!

Something this year that I have been focusing on is the idea of a lesson having a part one "play" with teacher support and students simply exploring and then a second lesson with more of a scientific bent -how do we observe, gather data, form ideas behaving like scientists?. This could then be extended further with children investigating some questions and ideas and then sharing back with the class later. Visiting the Museum and watching the children at play really emphasised to me the need for those rich questions, modelling good thinking (as Anne did with the child) and growing that wonder.

I found this on Facebook and thought that there were some interesting ideas here that could be discussed further at a team meeting. It's more geared towards the younger children (I think it might even be ECE) but good for a discussion!

Keep on sciencing and do comment below!
Paul

Ideas for a weather unit...

Kia ora koutou!
First a quick look at some photos with all the ice that we've been having with frosty mornings. I've always been a bit fascinated with ice...

In Wellington -I love the very clear crystal structures that seem to be growing...

In Te Aroha, taking the dog for a walk... and yes, he got quite impatient!

 It's the crystals that I'm really interested in. When I was in Opotiki this week, I washed down the windscreen and ended up with these:

I ended up wondering if the the long 'bits' grew because I had poured water over so the ice melt or whether they were always there but were harder pieces of ice that had formed earlier in the morning. Now I'm wondering if ice forms on the windscreen at night or what time in the morning! Science can be about seeing patterns and as I was looking at these ice crystals, I wondered if the rock crystals grew the same, obviously with different 'ingredients' and conditions. Crystals in the ground seem to grow where there is heat -which doesn't seem to work as well if you want to see ice crystals!

Anyway, that was my musings this week... A teacher had chatted to me about doing a weather / water cycle unit so I jotted some notes but then thought that other teachers might like to have a look too! As always, I start with my big ideas normally about the science capabilities focus but also a natural physical world link too. Then I've shared some ideas about the capabilities being used, some activities, links to the interweb and integration as well! If it's useful or you have ideas to share too, please do leave a comment! I'm happy to send this as a Word doc -just email me!

Thanks for reading, have a lovely weekend!
Paul

Some weather / water cycle ideas 

I’m writing this more as a ‘blog post’ than a formal unit although we could use my proper science template if you liked!

Big Idea:

In science, we gather data and think about what this data or information shows us to make sense of the world around us. We can share our thinking and understanding through diagrams and words.

In the natural physical world, there can be cycles to describe how it rains or how animals live.

Science Capabilities:

Gather and Interpret Data: children gathering weather monitoring data (rainfall, wind direction and speed, temperature, cloud types or cover) and record the general weather as well. Can we make sense of this data? If the wind comes in a particular direction, does that mean it will rain soon? Do certain types of clouds mean it’s more likely to rain?

Use Evidence: With the data we collect (and weather forecast maps), can we predict what the weather will be like today or tomorrow? Can we explain the data? For example, it was very cold today with the temperature being 8 degrees. This is because we had a southerly which blows all the cold air from the snow to us!

Interpret Representations: Children beginning to understand weather symbols –watching the weather on television, looking at weather maps on the internet or phones as well as using the symbols on their own weather forecasts. In science, we try to use the same symbols (a little o for degrees for example) or a half sun with a cloud to show ‘a little sunny’. Children will also begin to understand ‘cycles’ –that scientists use cycles to show processes that go on and on, for example, life cycles, rock cycles and water cycles. Do children also understand that a cycle may not show all information, for example a water cycle misses out a lot of information (children could critique water cycle diagrams as well as draw them with more details eg transpiration, rainfall in all areas  and not just the mountains that most diagrams show).

Context Strands:

Planet Earth and Beyond

Some Lesson Ideas:

·         There is a Building Science Concepts book that could be of use (BSC #15).

·         In exploring the water cycle, the important thing is to remember that it’s okay for children not to understand all the content ideas being shared (eg evaporation, transpiration). Our goals are to develop their understanding about how science itself works (the science capabilities) and how the natural physical world works. These ideas are in the NZC in the science essence statement, p. 17.

o   How come puddles ‘disappear’? How could we test our ideas and thinking about what happens? Does it disappear? Does it go somewhere? Children could put bowls over small puddles (rain-made or self-made!) and observe what happens. Using lots of tentative language children could also critique –what else might have happened? Perhaps the water drained into the ground… Do puddles disappear quicker during the hotter parts of the day? What about at night or during a frosty morning? Can we measure the rate of evaporation?

o   The water cycle… where does rain go? Some of the water evaporates, some of it drains into the sea. We could draw diagrams showing this. I have seen someone demonstrating the water cycle with a very cold spoon placed over a boiling kettle to show clouds (the steam) and rain, etc. but I don’t think this is a good idea as children may start thinking that clouds and steam are exactly the same. In fact, I have heard of children believing there are great steam clouds over a boiling sea from having watched kettles boiling. How much of the water cycle could students explore to develop their own understanding –rather than the good ol’ Colour in this picture of the water cycle and now you all know about it?

o   Trees release water too? I’ve seen photos where clouds have been generated from transpiration –I’m wondering if the Ureweras would do this too… can forests make their own clouds? Children could fasten small bags around the end of branches making sure that the bags are air tight and water-tight. It could be interesting to do this around some native trees and introduced trees, as well as evergreen and deciduous (which of course in winter would just be branches!). After leaving it a few days, remove the bags and examine what we find à what does this mean? This releasing of water from leaves is called transpiration.

o   What’s the weather today? …and tomorrow?

§  Cloud types –children identifying the different main types of clouds by going outside and having a look. You could share the names and images of different clouds first and then children observe the sky or children draw different clouds (or take photos) and then  see if they can identify them. What do different clouds mean in terms of the weather? Eg nimbus meaning rain, cirrus usually mean fair weather.

§  Children recording rainfall, wind direction, cloud cover, and weather and use this data  to make sense of the weather –seeing patterns in their data (eg wind direction can forecast the weather, temperature, etc.). Children can also start monitoring weather forecasts and symbols –are there standard symbols or understanding of symbols?

·         Children may like to start to predict what the weather might be from reading the weather maps (eg metservice, the local paper’s forecasts) and perhaps even their own measurements.

·         Some children may be able to learn about measurement eg knots for wind-rate, mm for rainfall.

·         Local weather experts –every town has their own sayings about the future weather –when the mountain is covered it means… Can we check whether their ideas are right by getting our experts to predict the weather (and using ‘because’ statements… it’s going to be sunny today because you can see White Island) and then checking these ideas against the actual weather as well as scientifically explaining the sayings. Children could also explore ‘weather sayings’, for example, “When the clouds look like horsetails, rain or snow will come in 3 days”.

·         We could also look at generic weather reports too.

o   So how do scientists know what the weather is going to be?

§  The nature of science strand Understanding about Science is an attempt to connect students with how scientists work. This enables children to gain a better understanding of how science works which will then support their own development of scientific thinking. Children could read articles about weather reporting and explore the ways scientists gather data.

Integration

Lots of maths and English happening here!

·         Maths:

o   Measuring: children measuring rainfall in mls, wind-rate in knots, temperature in degrees. Could children start to estimate these measurements before checking? Although more a Level 4 maths idea, students may be able to begin understanding ‘averages’ as the weather records are full of ‘average rainfall’ or ‘average sunlight hours’.

o   Statistics: children displaying their data on bar graphs and, as importantly, interpreting these results. Statistical literacy, (reading graphs, interpreting graphs, finding patterns, etc.) lines up nicely with the capability of Interpreting. Representations. Can students see patterns? Is there more rain in certain months? Is the temperature different through the seasons? Does the temperature change depending on wind direction?

o   Compass directions: children will need to know where north is!

·         Writing and Reading:

o   Understanding the genre of weather reports and the language used as well as attempting to emulate it.

o   Tentative language in interpreting data gathered: I think this might mean… This could be because…

o   Reading websites, journal articles, Connecteds about the weather.

Links to help…

·         Building Science Concepts #15,

·         Science Learning Hub website

o   Water Cycle: https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/search?term=water%20cycle There are some good diagrams students could use (rather than the old boring one that’s wrong!)

o   Weather: https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/search?term=weather including cloud types and space weather!

·         Metservice (http://www.metservice.com/national/home) have different radars and lots of summary information about the weather that children could use; their Facebook page has behind the scenes videos too.

Assessment

The science curriculum is very clearly Level 3 and 4 combined (except for a couple of changes at Level 4). However, we do expect a deeper understanding at Level 4 and perhaps a wider vocabulary although this may depend on whether students have had opportunities to explore this topic in younger years. For me, the Maths and Literacy Progressions help me to think about what I expect from the different levels and this may support teachers to expect more in science time in terms in student maths and writing abilities, for example in student communication through science reports, or skills, for example measuring.

The science capabilities will be the main focus with the topics being rich contexts to develop student learning. Capability indicators (below) could be used with teachers looking at what might be expected at different levels within the classroom.

	Gather and Interpret Data	Use Evidence	Critique Evidence	Interpret Representations	Engage with Science
Possible Indicators	c   Takes time, observing from different angles c   Uses all appropriate senses when observing c   Notices components of what is observed even if unsure of names c   Notices attributes c   Observations are measurable c   Notices changes c   Notices patterns and relationships c   Uses precise, unambiguous language when describing their observations c   Uses context specific words c   Observational drawings focus on communicating salient features c   Observational drawings include only what is observed c   Drawings include labels c   Drawings give a sense of scale or proportion c   Can differentiate between an observation and an inference c   Uses observations to support their ideas c   Uses words such as ‘maybe’ or a tentative tone when proposing new ideas c   Makes links to prior experiences to make sense of observations c   Uses “correct” science ideas to make sense of observations c   Asks questions based on their observations c   Develops questions that can be investigated c   Designs investigations in response to questions	c   Attempts to work out how or why things happen c   Uses words such as ‘maybe’ or a tentative tone when proposing new ideas c   Uses observations to support their ideas c   When posing explanations, uses cause and effect words such as ‘because’, ‘as’ and ‘since’ c   Includes scientific vocabulary c   Considers all available data and uses what is relevant c   Uses patterns in data to support their ideas c   Is willing to consider other possible explanations c   Build on others’ ideas c   Identifies which data supports a particular claim c   Is willing to suspend judgement if they think there is insufficient evidence c   Takes into consideration all available data c   Aware that more data enables them to be surer of their conclusions c   Develops questions that can be investigated c   Designs investigations in response to questions c   Considers and evaluates a range of possible approaches when designing an investigation	c   Justifies the design of their investigation c   Identifies the features of robust investigations c   Identifies ways of strengthening investigations c   Gives and receives feedback and changes ideas if appropriate c   Considers and evaluates a range of possible approaches when designing an investigation c   Asks questions for clarification c   Identifies which data supports a particular claim c   Seeks disconfirming evidence c   Identifies additional questions they would want answered to be surer to their claims c   Is willing to suspend judgement if they think there is insufficient evidence c   Developing a sceptical disposition towards evidence	c   Notices patterns in charts and graphs c   Identifies what information a particular model or representation (including diagrams) give and what it leaves out c   Identifies in what ways different models or representations are the same or different c   Identifies the author’s purpose for choosing a particular representation or model c   Identifies the strengths and weaknesses of a particular model or representation c   Charts, graphs and diagrams include labels c   Uses scientific conventions when labelling observational drawings, charts and graphs c   Constructs charts and graphs to show patterns c   Explanatory diagrams identify relevant features and show relationships between them c   Constructs 3D models to represent their observations and explanations	c   Sorts relevant and irrelevant information c   Uses information to inform suggestions for action c   Identifies questions that can and cannot be answered by science c   Asks curious questions c   Willing to explore a range of possibilities c   Engages with science stories or issues with the media c   Initiates their own investigation