Lighting the way for science inquiry - A reflection on the #TeachMeetNZ experience

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From an unexpected tweet, I had the opportunity to present for #TeachMeetNZ/Science Learning Hub - International Year of Light session. Quite exciting considering the calibre of educators on-board already, including Andrea Soanes from the Science Learning Hub and the #SciChatNZ heavyweights themselves.

Getting up to speed with the technology was intimidating. Being in China, I had lost touch with various IT developments, but I was fortunate to have the expert and fellow #TeachMeetNZ veteran, Matt Ives, to scaffold me from China's end through the process. As well as the #TeachMeet superstar Sonya Van Schaijik to support me online.

Through the practice sessions the team got to know each other and it was great to build camaraderie and have a few laughs. Definite 'mind-explosions' happened as a result of all the AMAZING presentations, reflections and conversations being shared. I recommend checking out each educators presentation. Relevant, authentic, meaningful, on-the-ground teaching, which will bring inspiration to your practice.

The topic focus was around the International Year of Light, which narrowed my presentation down to a previous unit I taught through the International Baccalaureate transdisciplinary theme - How the world works. The Central Idea: Light has many sources, properties and uses. At the time of the unit being taught, I was curious around students perceptions of a scientist and whether they saw themselves as scientists. As well as gaining an understanding of the IB Curriculum while transitioning from the NZ Curriculum. 

The #TeachMeetNZ experience consolidated my thoughts and gave me the opportunity to identify

PYP - How the world works Grade 2 planner

aspects of the unit I needed to investigate further for my own professional development. Fortunately, the Grade 2 How the world works unit was to be taught the following year. This lead the Grade 2 team to have a lengthy meeting where ideas were challenged and change occurred. One key change was the central idea and we incorporated an aspect which meant we could focus on science skills.

Pre-assessment. 'What is a scientist?'

Central Idea: Using scientific knowledge helps us to investigate the sources, properties and uses of light.

This helped us to target science specific skills from the Science Scope and Sequence document from the Primary Years Programme of the IB Curriculum, which would be similar to the Science Capabilities of the NZ Curriculum. It allowed us to add an additional line of inquiry which helped us to explicitly teach the 'skills of a scientist' and focused our teaching enormously.

Science skills poster

I approached the unit using the same pre-assessments as the year before, asking students to draw and write what they thought a scientist was, followed by the Science Learning Hubs - Light and Sight assessment. Both assessments showed a large amount of student misconceptions.

Through a series of investigations inquirying into the sources, properties and uses of light the students and I came up with a poster of the skills and knowledge scientists require and drove home the fact the students were being scientists.

Science investigations and Science Fair photos

The summative assessment went well, which involved a mini science fair where students had to come up with their own science investigation and before this took place we (students and I) were able to create our own science communication success criteria.

Sci comms success criteria

Interestingly, when it came to the post unit reflections, I asked the students to draw and write what they thought a scientist was. Majority still reverted back to previous drawings, with some students adding male physicists to their drawings of chemists (or potion-makers), so some change did occurred. And, students did record the skills required of a scientist from our class poster, showing an awareness of what we had learned to an extent.
I considered this to be a successful unit and as teachers we worked incredibly hard to address the lines of inquiry, but the stereotypes of what a scientist is are so deeply embedded into society its near impossible to shift thinking in a 6 week unit.

Post-assessment 'what is a scientist?'

To shift students thinking towards seeing themselves as scientists there needs to be a whole school approach where instruction around skills is explicitly taught on a regular basis. In an environment designed around building innovation, creativity and experience.
As well as using the tuakana-teina relationship where we break the silo-ed approach to learning and have our middle school and secondary school students mentor and scaffold younger students with the teacher facilitating. This way students are able to see tangible next steps in their education from students only a few years older than themselves.
In addition, I advocate for the vital importance of the diversity of role-models in the science profession and show-case their thinking and talents in an educational context to support our children and wider community to develop their scientific literacy and awareness of what a scientist is.

The #TeachMeetNZ experience was a fantastic opportunity to challenge my thinking and better my practice. I appreciate being able to engage with wonderful educators and be awed by their thinking and practice also. If anybody is presented with the opportunity to be part of a #TeachMeet session, don't hesitate in giving it a go. It's a lot of fun!

Let the raisins dance!

I received a text from the students of Room 7 this morning, thanking me for teaching them while their teacher, Mrs Mador, was away. The text put a smile on my face and I responded by thanking them for the shared science experience and what they taught me.

It reminded me of the Māori concept 'ako' and how important it is to thank students for the personal growth they give teachers through the knowledge, experience and understanding they bring into the classroom everyday and share.

This week I was asked to relieve in New Entrant and Year 1 classes. I haven't had much experience teaching this age group and was interested to see what science concepts the students had. 

I decided to teach the lesson Dancing Raisins, which shows air bubbles can cause objects to float.

I began by simplifying my learning intentions and explained to the students we were "learning to be a scientist by using our five senses." 

I had to clarify what a scientist was, as the students were learning about how to manage themselves in a school environment and were focused on giving me answers about friendship, which is an extremely important skill to have even as a scientist. I ended up explaining a scientist was a person who makes discoveries and today we were going to find out how raisins danced. Naturally, this got the students excited and I could see they were picturing the ways a raisin could dance in their minds.

Introducing the lesson took some talking on my part, and to keep the students' attention I used energiser science songs like Hi-5's Five Senses. 

I got the students to head up their pages with the titles Input and Output. In hindsight I would do this myself and write the learning intentions and necessary information on the input page (see first post for info about input and output pages). The students were developing their ability to form letters and this slowed them down and wasn't a focus for the science lesson.

I gave each student a small science cup, a large science cup and a plate.  I asked them to draw their science equipment to develop their observation skills. 

All material can be found in the party section of any supermarket.

In each small science cup I placed a few raisins for the students to investigate using their five senses.

Lots of talking took place and fantastic scientific language was used. I recorded their language on the interactive board. Once we were happy with our information I moved onto the lemonade. I got the students to be quiet while I opened the lemonade bottles, making sure they heard the sound of the carbon dioxide escaping when the cap's seal was broken. This sound brought great delight and I posed the question 'why do you think lemonade makes that sound when I open the bottle?' Nobody could answer, so I suggested we keep the question in mind while we continued to be scientists.

After pouring the lemonade into the small science cups, students got to investigate the lemonade using their five sense and drew what they saw. Again, students came up with great scientific language to explain what they were experiencing.

I began to set up the experiment and during this time students spontaneously began to share their predictions about what they thought would happen when the raisins were dropped in the lemonade. I quickly recorded their thoughts on the interactive board.

"It's going to explode."

"They will go to sleep."

"It will sink."

"They will dance and pop out."

Students dropped the raisins into the cups and watched what happened. It was lovely to share in

their wide-eyed wonder and enthusiasm for what they were seeing.

After ten minutes of observing and group discussion I brought the students down to the mat to have a class discussion about what they experienced. I repeated the bottle opening with the New Entrants and talked about how the sound is air trying to escape from the lemonade, and asked questions relating this to the dancing raisins experiment. A few of the students could see the relationship with the air bubbles and lead the discussion.

I took this discussion further with the Year 1 class and, together, we researched other 'scientists' work on the interactive board. We looked on Youtube and found a Dancing Raisins experiment. After watching the clip the Year 1s were able to explain how the raisins danced in more detail.

It was a great opportunity to relieve at this level and observe the developmental thinking taking place. The students may be limited by their various communication skills, but they show an ability to grasp scientific concepts and, definitely, renewed my vigor for teaching through their joy and happiness for learning.

Popping poppers make for a party of science

Last year, I had the opportunity to gain professional development in primary science through Te Toi Tupu science facilitators. The focus was developing teacher's understanding around the Nature of Science and the facilitators showed us a variety of science lessons to develop teacher confidence and enthusiasm. Since then, I have started my own teacher inquiry to better understand what it means to develop citizens (students) who are scientifically literate for the 21st Century. 

One lesson the science facilitators showed us was with party poppers. The focus was to investigate how a party popper worked.

Party Poppers

I have taught this lesson to a number of classes and each time get something different from the lesson based on individual student's curiosity.

I begin the lesson by sharing the learning intentions. The class and I have a discussion around what it means to be a scientist. It's interesting to find out students perceptions of a scientist and it is a great feeling to see students' eyes light up when you give them ownership by explaining they are scientists too.

This is the time when we set up our books with Input and Output pages. "When the teacher puts information into your brain, it goes on the Input page. The information coming out of your brain goes on the Output page." (Helpful hints from Te Toi Tupu facilitators)  We have a class discussion around the importance of recording our thoughts as scientists to refer back to later.

Learning Intentions

Now the fun really begins. Students are given a party popper each and asked to follow the success criteria and observe/record what they notice. There is a lot of conversation and this is when I identify and link students vocabulary back to other learning areas of the curriculum. "Wow! I noticed you have used words like shape and design to describe... Can you see how you are incorporating your understanding of mathematics into your inquiry?"

After about 10-15 minutes (depending on the age of the students), I have a class discussion around our 'noticings' and if an interactive board is available, I'll use this to record. Otherwise, pen and paper is great as there is a chance you may go back and look at the recorded information at a later date with the class. A class science book is a great idea.

Input and output pages

When the students and I are recording the ideas being shared, I stress the importance of being a 'safe and sensible' scientist. We have conversations around the caution and instructions label and I pose the question; What is the definition of an adult and young child? Students apply their understanding, experience and knowledge to answer the question and, together, we come up with a collective definition. We, also, look at language like 'a foot'  and 'hold by neck', to clarify any confusion.

Students dissect party poppers

Second class discussion after dissection

From here we go onto dissect the party popper using scissors. Again, I stress the importance of being a 'safe' scientist. I have had party poppers accidentally (and not accidentally) pop. The shock has lead to tears in some cases and we talk about mistakes leading to opportunities. It's here that I get students to compare popped and un-popped party poppers with their 'fellow scientists'.

Students record their discoveries and we discuss concepts around hypotheses and if anyone has an idea about how a party popper works.

It's important to note the NZC Science Capabilities and by asking students to 'compare and contrast' or use 'trial and error' etc, students are exploring ways science knowledge is created and being used in the world.

Popping party poppers outside

Final class discussion

 Finally, students are able to experience popping a party popper. Popping them inside the classroom creates a great atmosphere and students are able to use their five senses better, but if the noise is going to frighten the 'less willing', I'll take the experience outside. I'd rather promote risk-taking and participation by all.  It's during this recording and discussion that great language is used, including words like pressure, force, triggers and friction etc. If the words haven't been used already in the lesson. It is a surprise to the students that they have a lot of scientific vocabulary and knowledge when they are made aware of it.

Student researching

After more discussion around what we have observed we make our final hypothesis and if there is time we will further our investigation by researching information about party poppers on the internet.  Once we are confident we have an answer, we use one last party popper to check (I provide the ratio of 3 party poppers to 1 child for each lesson). Often, students have their own questions which they want to investigate, or using the party popper remains draw and develop their own party popper prototypes. If there is time, I dedicate the rest of the day to this exploration. I even had one student question what research the company had done to design and create the party popper (see photos).

Student's thoughts

Seeing students engaged and pushing the boundaries of their thinking is exciting and it is on days like these that you think 'this is what teaching is about'. The photo is of a thought from a Year 5 student's Output page and says "My original theory was about gun powder mixing with air.  Now I know that is not the case because when it was exposed to air nothing happened."