TKI - Assessment: Exemplars: Social Studies

Time, Continuity, and Change

The Power of Ideas

Galileo's Legacy

What the work shows Curriculum links The learning context Where to next?

Curriculum links

Social Studies in the New Zealand Curriculum

The curriculum links below are those for the whole unit of work and may not all be evident in this particular exemplar.

Achievement objective

Level 3: Time, Continuity, and Change
Students will demonstrate knowledge and understandings of how the ideas and actions of people in the past changed the lives of others.

Social Studies in the New Zealand Curriculum, page 43
http://www.tki.org.nz/r/socialscience/curriculum/strands_time_e.php#3

Process
Inquiry

Setting
Global

Perspective
Current issues

Concept
The power of ideas and actions

The learning context

This teacher wanted the students to use the inquiry process to explore how one person's ideas and actions had the power to change other people's lives.

The teacher gave the students a set of criteria for choosing a person to study. The person had to:

be from the distant past
have made a significant contribution to society
have some connection with a current event or issue.

After each student had outlined how their subject's ideas and actions changed other people's lives, the teacher focused their attention on writing conclusions. The students worked in small groups to help each other write their conclusions and received further support from the teacher. Each student then added their conclusion to their inquiry and presented the inquiry to the class.

Danielle based her inquiry on the Galileo space probe and gathered relevant information about the ideas and actions of the man after whom the project is named. Following conversations in her group and with her teacher, she wrote the conclusions shown here.

Teacher-student conversation

After Danielle had completed her inquiry, the teacher helped her to write a conclusion to her findings:

Teacher:	Danielle, can you write a conclusion about your findings?
Danielle:	I'm not sure what a conclusion is. I've written lots about Galileo's ideas and actions.
Teacher:	Well, it's a good idea to read through the information you've gathered, then write a sentence or two choosing the most important ideas about how Galileo's ideas changed others' lives. It's like summing it all up.
Danielle:	Okay, I'll have a go. I'll sort some out – Galileo had lots of important ideas.
Teacher:	Yes, I'm not sure if that makes it easier or harder. Rashid has written a really good conclusion, and so has Tom. Have a chat to them and see if you can get some ideas.

Where to next?

To move Danielle towards the next learning step, the teacher could help her to:

	provide more detail in her conclusion about how Galileo put his ideas into action: "Can you give me some examples of the things Galileo tested?"
	reflect on the inquiry process: "Which part of the inquiry process worked really well, and what did you find challenging? How might you improve your inquiry next time?"