Science in the New Zealand Curriculum
Achievement objectives
Level 2: Making Sense of the Nature of Science and Its Relationship to Technology
Students can investigate and describe how simple items of technology work.
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
Information gathering: Students can:
- make observations and simple measurements
- talk about their observations and measurements.
Science in the New Zealand Curriculum, page 45
http://www.tki.org.nz/r/science/curriculum/p44_51_e.php
Level 2: Making Sense of the Physical World
Students can investigate and describe their ideas about some everyday examples of physical phenomena.
Science in the New Zealand Curriculum, page 74
http://www.tki.org.nz/r/science/curriculum/p74_75_e.php
The teacher's intended outcomes were for the students to:
- observe and share their understandings
- identify, draw, and label the main parts of a torch circuit
- suggest how the different components of a torch work.
The intended outcomes were aligned to the following "big ideas":
- Scientists use diagrams to record observations.
- Electricity only flows through a completed circuit.
- A circuit consists of a set of linked components.
The teacher provided a range of opportunities for the students to explore and develop an understanding of circuits. They were then able to try out their ideas and apply them specifically to a torch circuit. An important component of the unit was providing time for the class to try their ideas out before applying them to a real situation.
The teacher asked the students to begin exploring torch circuits by drawing an initial view of what they thought was inside a torch and explaining how it works. The teacher used the first drawing to determine the appropriate starting point for the unit. The class then brainstormed what they knew about torches before taking part in a series of exploratory activities.
These activities all followed the pattern: predict what you think will happen, try it out, share what you found, and explain why you think it was like that and what you have learned. To conclude the unit, the teacher asked the students to make another drawing to show what they now thought was inside a torch and how it works.
Teacher-student conversation
Clarifying Elliot's thinking at the end of the unit:
| Teacher: |
Tell me about how you think a torch works? |
| Elliot: |
It works by a battery – it's got power in it. The power gets into the bulb, and a part gets hot and glows. |
| Teacher: |
How do you think the power gets from the battery to the bulb? |
| Elliot: |
By travelling through the metal bits. |
| Teacher: |
Why do you think the battery runs out? |
| Elliot: |
It's been worked; all its energy has gone. |
To move Elliott towards the next learning step, the teacher could help him to try to construct the torch in the way he has drawn it. It would appear from Elliot's second drawing that the batteries are not aligned in the usual way. A suitable prompt could be: "Is it important that the batteries are put in a special way?" (investigating in science; developing and communicating scientific understanding).
The teacher could:
- encourage Elliott to investigate independent of teacher support by providing more opportunities to ask questions, predict outcomes, and carry out investigations
- encourage Elliott to continue to suggest plausible explanations of his observations and to make links to the scientific ideas.
Reference
Ministry of Education (1993). Science in the New Zealand Curriculum. Wellington: Learning Media.
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