Science in the New Zealand Curriculum

Achievement objectives

Level 2: Making Sense of the Living World
Students can use differences and similarities in external characteristics to distinguish broad groups of living things.

Science in the New Zealand Curriculum, page 56
http://www.tki.org.nz/r/science/curriculum/p56_57_e.php

Levels 1 and 2: Developing Scientific Skills and Attitudes
Processing and interpreting: Students can identify trends and relationships in recorded observations and measurements by suggesting links between these.

Science in the New Zealand Curriculum, page 46
http://www.tki.org.nz/r/science/curriculum/p44_51_e.php

Level 2: Making Sense of the Nature of Science and its Relationship to Technology
Students can use a variety of methods to investigate different ideas about the same object or event.

Science in the New Zealand Curriculum, page 28
http://www.tki.org.nz/r/science/curriculum/p28_29_e.php

The teacher's intended outcomes were for the students to:

• group animals according to their similarities and differences
• develop an interest in the world around them.

The intended outcomes were aligned to the following "big ideas":

• Living things are grouped and classified together according to their shared features.
• Nature provides many fascinating phenomena to experience.

The teacher planned a study of the rocky shore with a focus on developing the students' questioning, curiosity, and observational skills. Prior to the visit the teacher asked the class what they thought they would see. The students indicated they expected to see shells, crabs, starfish, and snails. While they were at the rocky shore a local fisherman helped them find a vast array of creatures, including kina and paua, and the visit became a "hands-on" marine experience.

Back in the classroom the students brainstormed their experiences and recorded the types of creatures found and where they were found (tide zones and habitat focus). They discussed adaptive features and how the creatures coped with the conditions of the different tide zones. They used identification sheets to identify and group the creatures found at different tide zones. They wrote about their experiences focusing on descriptive language. They sketched the creatures they observed and presented the information gathered as a report.

Down by the Sea (level 3) and Balancing Act (level 4) are other exemplars that show students classifying living things.

Teacher-student conversation

After the visit:

To move Elliott towards the next learning step the teacher could help him focus on:

• seeking out the correct scientific terms in future work with living organisms (developing and communicating scientific understanding)
• suggesting ideas to relate his learning to a wider context, for example, "Elliot tell me what you could do to help keep the sea shore clean?" (developing interest and relating science learning to the wider world).

The teacher could:

• provide further opportunities to link and explain scientific ideas by encouraging him to compare his ideas with scientists' groupings (developing and communicating scientific understanding)
• provide access to resources for students to research, identify comparisons, and develop criteria for grouping living things (developing and communicating scientific understanding)
• encourage Elliot to look for scientific learning in other aspects of everyday life (developing interest and relating science learning to the wider world)
• provide opportunities for Elliott and the class to take ownership in keeping an environmental area clean (developing interest and relating science learning to the wider world).

Reference

Ministry of Education (1993). Science in the New Zealand Curriculum. Wellington: Learning Media.

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