Science in the New Zealand Curriculum
Achievement objectives
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
Levels 1 and 2: Developing Scientific Skills and Attitudes
Reporting: Students can share what they did and what they found out in their investigations in whole-class situations or in groups.
Science in the New Zealand Curriculum, page 47
http://www.tki.org.nz/r/science/curriculum/p44_51_e.php
Level 2: Making Sense of the Material World
Students can:
- group familiar objects, using observable physical properties
- investigate and communicate differences in the properties of similar types of materials
- investigate and describe everyday changes to common substances.
Science in the New Zealand Curriculum, page 92
http://www.tki.org.nz/r/science/curriculum/p92_93_e.php
The teacher's intended outcomes were for the students to:
- use their ideas and personal observations to make predictions
- make observations
- share what they did and what they found out in their investigations
- record information in a systematic way
- describe and explain, using appropriate vocabulary, the physical properties of substances
- describe how substances combine and the changes that occur.
The intended outcomes were aligned to the following "big ideas":
- Physical properties include smell, colour, texture, and strength.
- When substances are mixed together, they usually react or combine in some way.
- When substances are mixed together, they can change to form new substances.
- Scientists have systematic ways of working and use specific scientific conventions.
The students had not had any experience of carrying out investigations in the Material World strand. The teacher used the context of mixing substances and observing reactions to develop a simple investigative process in which the students could use appropriate scientific conventions.
The class began by brainstorming their ideas about chemicals and asking others at home for their ideas. They then discussed investigating, and the teacher recorded their ideas. She introduced the investigation sheets and modelled the process by mixing vinegar and warm milk to make casein plastic.
The students worked through their own investigations with support from the teacher. They discussed and evaluated the process and discussed the scientific ideas. They carried out further investigations on subsequent days, during which they mixed flour and water, cornflour and water, and vinegar and baking soda. Finally, they recorded and shared their ideas from the data they'd collected on the investigation sheets.
Teacher-student conversation
Discussing Georgia's explanation:
| Teacher: |
Tell me what you mean when you say "The baking soda dissolves into the vinegar and becomes vinegar again." |
| Georgia: |
I mean that at the end you can't see the baking soda any more. The vinegar still looks like vinegar, even though it's got baking soda in it. You can't tell that by looking. |
| Teacher: |
In what way is that different from when you mixed milk and vinegar? |
| Georgia: |
Milk and vinegar made something that looked totally different – not like milk and not like vinegar. |
To move Georgia towards the next learning step, the teacher could help her to focus on clarifying her ideas about dissolving chemicals, chemical reactions, and solids and liquids through further experiences and careful questioning. For example, the teacher could ask Georgia:
- How could you tell if something was solid?
- What words could you use to describe a solid?
- What do you think of the idea that solid things always stay in the same shape?
- Tell me what ideas you have about liquid things? (investigating in science; developing and communicating scientific understanding).
The teacher could:
- provide more opportunities for Georgia to investigate in different contexts
- encourage Georgia to ask her own investigative questions
- help Georgia to reach conclusions and to link her findings to her own ideas
- provide further opportunities for Georgia to share and clarify her ideas and use the scientific vocabulary correctly (for example, by listing the physical properties of substances, identifying chemical reactions that can take place, and describing how substances can change)
- encourage Georgia to make links to other experiences.
Reference
Ministry of Education (1993). Science in the New Zealand Curriculum. Wellington: Learning Media.
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