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

Taking Action and the Local Curriculum

That title almost sounds like a B-Movie title! I've been reading a bit of Rose Hipkins and her suggestions around capabilities that are across the NZC... a bit like the Key Competencies... but they're not... And yes, I get a little confused too!
The Ministry of Education is also ramping up its Local Curriculum PLD programme with a few PDFs in the last email sent through to us. Although IPL (the people I work with at the University of Waikato) are not part of the PLD being offered, we can of course still help schools with their thinking as well as exploring this as a part of the science PLD I can offer.
It's really got me thinking about a couple of aspects that I know are important in science but I spend a lot of time at the other end of the pool, supporting teachers in exploring the pedagogy of the nature of science and the science capabilities, so don't get to try out some of these deeper ideas. As I've thought more about this, I've started thinking Why aren't I playing with these ideas? Why have I decided that they really should be introduced later on rather than right at the beginning? So I decided to get going!
The first idea is Taking Action. Some science activities probably won't head down this track and I think that can be okay, however, we do need some science units that have opportunities for students to reflect on taking action, and perhaps even take action. It might not even be them that's taking action! I'm always intrigued that we have fossil beds in Aotearoa New Zealand that are kept secret. This includes fossil records of footsteps. We have very rare plants and animals that the location is not shared. These are ways people take action. Other ways are the current 'no plastic bags' movement that is growing across the country. Besides this, are there chances for students to, at the least, discuss ways they (or society) could take action? If I'm doing something around plants, I'll be doing some gathering and interpreting data as we observe different plants. I might do some planting (probably inside, out of the sun, at the moment!) and then gathering data of the plants growing, comparing to others' plant growth. I'll probably do some diagrams, cross-sections to focus on interpreting representations as well. But taking action? Maybe I could look at particular weeds issues -like gorse, which can be prevalent across the country. How are farmers and scientists taking action? What could we do? If I lived near native bush, I might get the students to explore the kauri die-back problem afflicting these mighty trees. How is society responding? How can we help? Could it happen locally?

Probable Plesiosaur vertebra: https://sites.google.com/site/hawkesbayfossils/home

The second idea is about our Local Curriculum. How can I connect my science unit to what's happening locally? I was chatting with one of my schools down Wairoa way and they were looking at 'doing dinosaurs'. Once upon a time, I used to put this in the Literacy box as I thought I can't stick the nature of science on a unit that's all about reading books! I've changed my tune these days and think dinosaurs is a great topic to show children all about inferences and using evidence. There's also lots of critiquing evidence to look at too -how do scientists handle it when their ideas seem to be wrong? Or they disagree with one another? Have our ideas changed over time? When the principal was talking about dinosaurs (and yes, I did interupt to ask what the big ideas were, what science capabilities were at the top!), I couldn't help thinking about the local curriculum: Dr Joan Wiffen was finding dinosaurs just down the road! Well maybe a little further inland... Connecting these children with these stories will excite them and engage them to dig deeper: What did Joan find? Are there still dinosaur bones there? Like a few other places, there are many shell fossils encased in sandstone and especially limestone in the Wairoa area -take the children somewhere to explore these riverbeds (which is where we usually find them). There's a local Hawkes Bay Paleontology Group that I might connect with to at least have an online chat with -How can there be Plesiosaur bones in the middle of the mountains miles from the sea?!?
With my plants unit, what's special about our own region? Are there any specialist people or companies around? Any rare plants? If I was in Rotorua, I might get the children inquiring about the Redwoods -I don't think we have any other forests of redwoods! If I was in the Opotiki region, I might get the children supporting beach sand-dune planting.

Me and a redwood... or should that be 'A redwood and I'?

And I haven't even started with thinking about the local community within the local curriculum! Are there special places to the local marae? I wonder if some of the trees may have names and narratives wrapped around them? Are there opportunities to explore tikanga Maaori at the same time? Are there local DoC offices that could share knowledge? Parents in the school?
So how am I taking action? I'm going to add a couple of new bits to my unit plans -Local Community and Taking Action. Sometimes there may not be anything to add here but with a bit more digging there might be! I was just thinking of an example that wouldn't have much to add here and thought about my ramps experiments but then wondered about 'Could there be local 'blackspots' where there are a lot of accidents? Could we use some science to wonder why?'!

Have fun and keep sciencing on! As always, I welcome your comments and questions -even if you disagree!
Paul

Science Rich Tasks, and Context Knowledge

Happy New Year to everyone! 
I was reading an old SET article that a colleague had sent out -SET 2, 2011, What is a rich task? by Chris Joyce of NZCER. She was talking about assessment and the goal of rich tasks within this. It's an interesting read, as is anything published by NZCER. They write in a simple style that's easy to understand as well as encouraging.
There were a couple of bits that struck me that I wanted to share. I talk a lot about the nature of science with a focus on the science capabilities. I also talk about not being concerned if students don't quite get the context focus as first, I'm developing the capabilities and second, I'll simply provide some more opportunities to support that student's knowledge development. 
Sometimes it seems that I'm actually saying "Don't worry about all that context stuff, it's irrelevant"! However, it is important! If we are going to develop rich science tasks that challenge students, there needs to be context strand development. Even though the New Zealand Curriculum clearly states that the nature of science is the overarching strand and is the compulsory one, you can see that there's an expectation of students developing context strand knowledge as the Level 1 and 2 objectives are not the same as the Level 3 and 4 ones.
Joyce is writing about two different assessment tasks. One is simply expecting a knowledge answer and therefore isn't a rich task whilst the second task, one with a water filled balloon inside an air filled balloon is a rich task because there isn't simply 'an answer'. Children have the chance to share their own views and ideas giving teachers the chance to assess far more than a simple knowledge answer!
I like how Joyce writes about the melding of knowledge with the nature of science: 

Chris Joyce, Set 2, 2011

We need that knowledge so we can see how the student applies it to a nature of science centred assessment. He's using the science capabilities in observing, inferring, building an explanation and testing it. By having the context knowledge as part of the task, I believe that this task can be a rich opportunity to learn from (for the student and the teacher!).
The second thing I wanted to share is also about the purpose of the science task that we choose to give to students. These past couple of years, I've spent time in schools diving into the front end of the NZC to pull out those Key Competencies, Values and Vision aspects that can be supported by science. In fact last year I had a conversation about this very idea -a science lesson can have a focus on something other than science! It could be a tool to measure how students are operating in a Key Competency. Time for another Joyce quote: 

And now I'm wondering if I should write Key Competencies without capital letters! That aside, take a look through the front end of the NZC with your team. Underline or highlight all the bits that could be seen through a science task. You'll be surprised. At the end of the year, I often challenge staff to put all their science units that they have done alongside the Vision, Values and KCs. Sometimes the problem is we can think they've done 'everything' (and yeah, I know you actually do, in a way!) but I'm implying more of a deliberate act of teaching. How do we deliberately develop student thinking in terms of participating and contributing? Although it might be easy to assess with an arb task, it's a lot more difficult to support students in developing this idea. 

I like the idea that these rich tasks can be a part of a larger unit as well as smaller lessons which may be targeting a particular Key Competency or a science capability. It might be an evaluative lesson to gather some OTJ information so you are better equipped in planning further lessons. 
The other thing I like about these rich tasks are that they are perfect particularly for Term One! From my own experience, Term One has a pile of interuptions: Waitangi Day, swimming lessons, and formal assessments as well as new students turning up through the first few weeks. Being armed with a pile of rich tasks may be an effective way of getting through the term.

Have a great week everyone -I know you're all busy planning your first week as well as the term and I hope it all goes smoothly. If you have ideas for this year's blogposts, do share. I'm thinking of moving to a weekly blog but shorter pieces -I'd be interested in what you think of this idea. Do remember my facebook page which is also called Science Happening NZ. Here, I tend to post links, photos and videos to share ideas. It's a good place to message me too.
So onto 2019!

Headlines today: 4 out of 5 kids behind in science in science

This was the headline this morning when I read the news on my iPad NZ Herald app from the NMSSA (National Monitoring Study of Student Assessment) report. I wanted to share my thinking about the report.

The NMSSA reports are what NEMP used to be. People head around the countryside testing students in various curriculum areas and then these results are assessed at Otago University.

The article quoted Chris Duggan, House of Science, as stating that primary teachers lack confidence in teaching science and there is a 'huge lack of resources'. It was great to see that the study clearly disagreed with this. Teachers are confident, believe they have the resources they need, and are teaching science regularly. I was disappointed to see her also saying that science advisors are 'long, long gone' -we're not! The job description has changed a little ('facilitators' rather than 'advisors') and all across the country there are skilled, enthusiastic and able facilitators working with every type of school! Although in the 'old days', you simply rang up an advisor and one came out to support your teaching, there are still those opportunities today. Yes, it's a little more lengthy, but every school can apply every term for as many hours and as long as a period as needed for PLD customised to their needs.

The article stated that there are no assessments in science. NZCER have been doing a great job, first with the science engagement tool, and then with creating a Year 4-6 online assessment Science Thinking with Evidence (STwE). The Years 7-10 STwE continues to be useful to intermediates and secondary schools. Using the STwE, schools I have been working with have seen achievement being far higher than the '20%' NMSSA are suggesting are behind curriculum levels at a Year 8 level. NZCER also have the Assessment Resource Banks with a range of activities to support teachers in assessing science.

So what might be happening? Students are keen on science and reasonably confident. Teachers enjoy teaching science and believe that they are focusing on the nature of science strands as well as being confident in the context strands.

I know that the House of Science are doing a great job at getting science kits into schools and ensuring that everything in the kit is ready to go... rather than the good ol' electricity kit on the shelf with flat batteries and blown bulbs! The Sir Paul Callaghan Science Academy is working with teachers developing capability, as well as providing science resources. The Royal Society's Science Teaching Leadership Programme is also available supporting teachers in developing an understanding of how science works and then supporting teachers back in the classroom. Doesn't sound like there's a lack at all! Oh, and there are people like Anne Barker and myself working with schools too!

I left the Science Learning Hub until last on purpose... because I really like the changes they've made to become more effective in supporting teachers. You see, I'm not sure kits, unit plans and lesson ideas on their own are going to help teachers. It's about shifting pedagogies. The folk at the SLH not only share great resources, but they also host webinars and can give one on one advice. I think this is one of the big keys -we must be about the how we teach science, as well as the why, before focusing on the what!

So it's not going to work with just resource kits or people heading off for courses. It also won't work with just getting in great facilitators (!). And this is the second key -the doing science. The article talks about the crowded curriculum as well as the focus we've had on literacy and numeracy. So how do we ensure science is happening? Can we integrate it with reading and writing? Can maths lessons incorporate some science? This year, I've noticed a clear difference between the schools that are deliberately doing science and the schools that haven't had the time. The STwE results clearly show a better improvement to schools who set aside the time for science. Even though I might be working in both sorts of schools, the PLD and resources are simply not enough. We need to be clear about the need for science, the purpose of science and setting aside the time to do science. I'm happy that even the schools  I'm working with who don't manage to do a lot of science still see improvements in student achievement -it's just not as marked as schools that set aside time for science.

Finally, teachers need to know what science looks like at different levels. With a curriculum that has Levels 1 and 2 the same and Levels 3 and 4 the same or similar, as well as a set of science capabilities with no levelled expectations, it can be difficult to know what science might look like at different levels. The Assessment Resource Bank (arbs) and STwE can help with this. I tend to use the Progressions for literacy and mathematics as a starter, as well as getting teachers to look at the STwE questions to get some idea of what science might look like at different levels. Talking to the Year 9 science teachers can help too -what are their expectations? What would they like children to come 'ready and able' with?

I must admit being surprised at the results, particularly the Year 8 data but it does reflect international monitoring as well. I hope that it isn't quite that bad and certainly my work with schools doesn't show averages quite that low. I do think we need to be setting aside specific time to teach science, using resources (unit plans, kits, and people!) as well as understanding why we teach science, to continue to improve the achievement. Integration is part of the answer but not the only one. The most important one is already there: you teachers!

So, have a great break!
Thank you for reading these posts (if you're still here of course!) and I so appreciate your support, encouragement and enthusiasm as well as comments! Here's to a great 2019!!!

Paul