Science in the New Zealand Curriculum
Achievement objectives
Levels 2 and 3: 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 (level 2)
Science in the New Zealand Curriculum, page 28
http://www.tki.org.nz/r/science/curriculum/p28_29_e.php
- recognise when simple investigations can be classified as a "fair test" and make decisions about the worth of results (level 3).
Science in the New Zealand Curriculum, page 30
http://www.tki.org.nz/r/science/curriculum/p30_31_e.php
Levels 3 and 4: Developing Scientific Skills and Attitudes
Reporting: Students can present what they did and what they found out in their investigations in ways and forms appropriate to their peer group.
Science in the New Zealand Curriculum, page 47
http://http://www.tki.org.nz/r/science/curriculum/p44_51_e.php
Level 2: Making Sense of Planet Earth and Beyond
Students can investigate easily observable physical features and patterns and consider how the features are affected by people.
Science in the New Zealand Curriculum, page 110
http://www.tki.org.nz/r/science/curriculum/p110_111_e.php
The teacher's intended outcomes were for the students to:
- clarify and discuss their own theories to explain events in their surroundings
- use scientific ideas to explain what causes wind.
The intended outcomes were aligned to the following "big ideas":
- Scientists develop theories to explain natural events.
- Air exists all around us. Energy from the Sun warms the ground, which warms the air above it. The warm air rises, creating low pressure, which draws in air from surrounding areas. This moving air is wind.
The teacher introduced the unit by setting exploratory activities and investigations. The students set up weather stations, recorded weather observations, and made simple wind measurers in order to investigate patterns of temperature and wind speed and direction round the school. They also carried out a range of activities on "air" (for example, the "spiral snake" on page 75 of Making Better Sense of Planet Earth and Beyond) and discussed the existence of air around us. Everyone agreed that "wind is moving air" and "hot air rises".
The teacher then recorded the students' questions about weather, including:
- You know wind? Does it come from the clouds or the trees? How does it form into real wind?
- If you touch a cloud, can you feel it?
- How do clouds form?
- When a cloud disappears, where does it go?
The class discussed the questions and divided them into "questions we can investigate practically" and "questions we need to think about".
The first question was one they needed to think about. The teacher led a discussion about the activities they had carried out and asked the students for their theories in answer to the question "What makes the wind blow?" She recorded the theories on the whiteboard and asked the students to comment on each, addressing the questions "In your view, is this a good theory?" and "Why do you think that?" This is Samantha's response to those questions.
Teacher-student conversation
About a month after this teaching took place:
| Teacher: |
What is a cloud? |
| Samantha: |
Fog. |
| Teacher: |
So, what makes fog? |
| Samantha: |
In the mornings, it gets foggy. Dew goes into the middle air and gets softer and softer in the air. It's not runny like water, but it is water. |
| Teacher: |
And have you changed your ideas about that? |
| Samantha: |
Yes, the other day I thought that clouds were dew, but I looked at fog, and I think clouds are more like fog than dew. |
To move Samantha towards the next learning step, the teacher could help her to focus on:
- finding evidence to support her theory, for example, by asking "You have good evidence to reject theories 1 and 3, but can you give some evidence to support your own theory?" (thinking in scientific ways)
- explaining her scientific ideas, for example, by asking, "Can you explain your picture so that other people can see it in their imagination?" (developing and communicating scientific understanding).
The teacher could:
- encourage Samantha to support her ideas and theories with evidence
- encourage Samantha to continue to construct new ideas by keeping this vigorous class discussion open for several days and involving parents and other classes.
References
Ministry of Education (1993). Science in the New Zealand Curriculum. Wellington: Learning Media.
Ministry of Education (1999). Making Better Sense of Planet Earth and Beyond. Wellington: Learning Media.
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