Science in the New Zealand Curriculum
Achievement objectives
Level 2: Making Sense of the Physical World
Students can investigate and describe their ideas about some everyday ideas of physical phenomena.
Science in the New Zealand Curriculum, page 74
http://www.tki.org.nz/r/science/curriculum/p74_75_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:
- contribute to an investigation and recognise patterns
- explain how low and high pitch occurs
- share and discuss their observations in an attempt to make sense of the evidence.
The intended outcomes were aligned to the following "big ideas":
- Sound is caused when waves of vibrations pass through a substance.
- The number of waves occurring every second (the frequency) determines the pitch (how high it is).
- Scientists share their ideas and use evidence to support or refute them.
- Scientists share and discuss their observations and look for patterns.
The class started with an activity to determine their prior knowledge. Then the teacher encouraged some exploratory learning experiences such as listening to body sounds, balloon sounds, and sounds in the environment. The students formed groups and made bottle organs with jars of coloured water. Each group tried changing the levels of water and investigating the different sounds.
The teacher asked the groups the following questions:
- Which jar sounds the highest?
- Which jar sounds the lowest?
- Why does the jar with the smallest amount of liquid make a high sound?
- Why does the jar with the most liquid make a low sound?
- Do the sound vibrations move slower with more water? Why?
To answer these questions the students shared their ideas and reflected on the investigative process.
Teacher-student conversation
| Teacher: |
Why does it matter how you hit the jar? |
| Josh: |
Because if you hit where there's lots of air, the sound is different from if you hit where there's water. Using metal or wood makes a difference too.
|
| Teacher: |
So it's not just the level of the water in the jar, but all those variables that can affect the sound. How could you get rid of some of these variables? |
| Josh: |
We're going to use the same thing for hitting all the jars, try to hit them all in the same way – not too hard and not too soft – and find the best place to hit that will work with all the jars. |
To move Josh towards the next learning step the teacher could help him focus on:
- reflecting on, and evaluating the investigative process, and challenging or checking evidence (thinking in scientific ways)
- suggesting his own questions for investigation and carrying out simple trials to test his ideas (investigating in science).
The teacher could:
- provide opportunities for Josh and the class to share their ideas, reflect on and evaluate the investigative processes, and the quality of the evidence collected (thinking in scientific ways)
- continue to develop Josh's investigative skills in other contexts, especially in trialling and testing in order to consolidate his skills (investigating in science).
Reference
Ministry of Education (1993). Science in the New Zealand Curriculum. Wellington: Learning Media.
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