Science and Mātauranga Māori

This week my new Year 11 class are starting the Physics 1.1 internal, worth 4 credits.

About 50% of my class is Māori, so I thought it was really important to spend some time showing students that:

a) Science can be fascinating and helps to answer all kinds of interesting questions and
b) Science and Mātauranga Māori are linked, and can support one another.

Here is the link to the presentation about some of the scientific studies throughout history I found the most interesting to learn about at university and beyond! They include how far authority can push the average human (to murder?), how the bystander effect impacts when people help one another, whether humans can survive on Mars (or trapped in a Biosphere for 2 years!) and the current investigation into what my class named "poo pills" can help overweight people have increased gut flora diversity and health, and whether that will help them to lose weight.

And here is the link to this presentation about some recent Māori research that follow the basic scientific method of: ask a question that interests you, work out the best way to find the answer, and then go and research it! It also touches on what Mātauranga Māori is and how indigenous knowledge and collaborative learning is vital to both learning and research.

Guiding Literacy with Year 11

I have a lovely, lovely Year 11 class this year. They're an absolute mix of abilities but most of them seem really driven to achieve. At the start of the year I asked them which standards they would like to do, and which topics from the junior years they felt they were the best at. Almost unanimously the class said "volcanos." 

So at the start of Term 2 we began the Surface Features of New Zealand assessment. I did only one week of teaching about hotspots and subduction, relying heavily on what they could recall from their junior years and hoping to give them enough of a reminder to cope with any online readings they came across. 

My focus for the internal was to build confidence and abilities in online research and report writing. To do so I decided to model the process from start to finish, and show students the skills required for report-writing in a way that they could return to and rewind whenever they needed. 

We spent a full two weeks doing a half-sized practice on Surface Features in America (Mt Rushmore, Yellowstone National Park, the Grand Canyon). 

Students had access to a series of screencast and narrated videos where I tried to speak my thoughts out loud as I researched and wrote:

Video 2

Video 3 - Searching Online

Video 4 - Skimming, Scanning and Selecting

Video 5 - Summarising

Video 6 - Chasing Understanding

I used the idea of checkpoints, rewards and punishments from my earlier PD on writing with Joseph, and while it was in place for all students my particular focus was on the boys in the class. I gave them some choices in rewards, and also let them honestly choose consequences that they wanted to avoid. For some it was chocolate or a phone call home, others wanted lollies and to (avoid) being sent to their Dean. 

Every single day I left feedback on every single practice essay, and I updated every single one of their checklists so they could see what they had done and where their next step was. Some students started to do this on their own towards the end of the practice time. 

For a few students who were really struggling, I made personalised screencasts of how I would go about continuing to craft their essay from where they currently sat. Here is an example below: 

Click here to view the full screencast made for one student as they composed their practice essay.

I don't really have a measure that I can use to show that every student in the class grew in confidence. I can't really compare this year's results to previous years' because the class itself is different. They're quite a motivated bunch. 

However, 13 out of 17 students who sat the internal did pass, 1 with excellence and 2 with merit. 2 students failed for plagiarism and 2 were incomplete in the time-frame given. 

One thing I can share is anecdotal evidence. At the end of Term 2 I presented students with this list of possible internals they could choose from, to do as our final internal of the year at the start of Term 3. 

They didn't choose the one with a field trip.

They didn't choose either of the ones with practicals and chemistry experiments.

They didn't choose the one that would help them with their exam.

They chose the one that was most similar in assessment FORMAT to their volcanos standard. They chose to research online and create a report (and evaluate their sources) about an Earth and Space science event. They told me they chose that one because it would be the "easiest." Even though I don't approve of the laziness underlying the word 'easy' - I was so happy that my students were confident enough to engage in a LOT of reading and writing BY CHOICE! 

Year 11 Microbes Internal

Today I had my Y11 for an internal intensive (rather than a mid-year exam). We've been learning about bacteria and fungi for two weeks now using a mixture of Education Perfect, literacy activities designed by our literacy specialist Marc Milford and class activities. 

Today was a bread and yoghurt-making practical that they will have to discuss for their 4-credit write-up next week. 

Hopoate and Hala sieving their flour as they begin to make bread.

Each group started off the lesson by making a slightly different type of bread using a variation of a basic recipe. After all the steps were followed and the dough was left to rise (aka the yeast were left alone with the flour to conduct anaerobic respiration) we baked the bread for 25 minutes.

Then we made observations of the appearance of the bread, and also did a taste-test. 

Chelsea with the different variations of bread (her wholemeal bread is second from the right).

After we had made bread using yeast we interacted with a different microorganism - bacteria! 

Students first heated milk to destroy any pathogenic (harmful) bacteria, and then cooled it to the optimum temperature for our helpful species. Then the bacteria were added and left to do their work for the next five hours. We'll eat the yoghurt tomorrow!

Makaydyn making yoghurt - the live bacteria cultures are in the yellow packet Desiree is holding on the left of the picture, and are about to added now the milk has dropped to the optimum 40 degrees celsius. 

The students were great and the lesson went really well. I would definitely do this with a class again - perhaps earlier in the topic, so when we discuss respiration in greater depth they would have something tangible to hook the abstract concept on.

We couldn't have run this lesson without Ms Heka helping us out in her kitchen! Hopefully we left it as we found it Ms Heka! Thanks for hosting us :) 

1104 Learns about Density

We've started a new topic for 4 credits at the end of Term 3! And depending on how hard we work, we could even do ANOTHER 4 credits in Term 4! On Thursday we started looking at different types of metals, making observations, and we weighed 1 cm cubed samples of them. 

Then yesterday we graphed their density (g/cm3) before learning what density actually is - the amount of particles packed into a given area. Objects or liquids that are more dense have more particles packed into the same volume.

First we watched this video.

Next I revealed to students the list of the liquids available to them and gave them each a piece of paper with two blank test-tubes drawn on it. Students got to draft a density tower that they thought would be most accurate, and then have a second guess by drawing a second test tube with some of the orders of liquids changed around.

The liquids we used were:

water (pink food colouring)

dishwashing liquid (green)

olive oil (yellow)

conditioner (white)

water + corn starch (bright red, lots of food colouring)

golden syrup (golden)

shampoo (white)

soy sauce (brown)

sunscreen (white)

baby shampoo (yellow)

I quite liked this activity because there was a lot of discovery learning happening. I didn't know the exact order in advance, and there were a lot of questions being thrown around like "is soy sauce going to sink through water?" which I got to answer with "I don't know, go and get a test tube and find out  before you add it to your density tower." There was also some logical thinking happening, like when Duui decided that dishwashing liquid would be more dense than water because when he uses it at home it moves to the bottom of the sink, and Brandon had a think about oil spills and water. 

I discovered that soy sauce is more dense than dishwashing liquid, because it sank right through the dishwashing liquid in my tower and sat on top of the conditioner layer. 

Most students guessed that the golden syrup would be the most dense. 

Here are some photos from our class:

Mac, David and Duui gently adding the next layer to their beakers. 

Mac's first attempt

Students working and cleaning out their beakers after failed attempts. It was quite good to get it wrong and have a layer sink through, because then they knew to add it earlier as it was more dense.

My attempt.

Mac's best "scientist face" as he studies his density tower - many more layers this time!

I think that this lesson (messy, loud, and a little silly) was a good one to illustrate density. 

Next week we'll have to start thinking about why cars and planes might be best made from more or less dense metals.. hmm...  

Year 11 Explaining their Learning

Year 11 are working on an Achievement Standard about the properties of metals and their uses in society. So far we have done some reactions of metals with acids and metals with oxygen... 

For the last 2 days we gave the class time to summarise their observations and what they have learned about the reactions of metals. Some very creative pieces were made, with some students opting to use digital media and others choosing coloured paper and pens.

Some students also opted to collaborate on their presentations while others chose to keep their work to themselves. 

Click on the picture below if you wish to view the presentations up close.

Please also feel free to comment here on the students' work, I'm sure they would love feedback on their efforts.

Year 11 Reactions of Metals with Oxygen

Today (last period Friday) the Year 11 Science class did a practical; they combusted different metals in oxygen! Some of them enjoyed showing my laptop what they were doing - I think we have some future TV presenters in class.

Here's the video of what they did:

No Year 11's (or teachers) were harmed in the making of this production! 

Year 11 Streaking and Culturing Bacteria

On Friday the Year 11 Science class took samples off surfaces around our classroom. 

Some students took samples off bench tops, others off keyboards or laptop screens, and some even decided to test the bacteria in their hair or on their hands. 

We wanted to test the effect of temperature on bacterial growth, so we placed a third of the plates in the fridge where it was cold, left a third at room temperature inside the Science room and placed a third inside a warm incubator. 

It is pretty clear from looking at the results which temperature these bacteria prefer to grow at! 

Take a look at the (pretty cool and gross) samples that grew over the weekend! 

This sample was placed in a fridge

This sample was left at room temperature

This sample was placed in a warm incubator

All plates were sealed with clear tape and students were instructed not to open them during class. Plates were incubated at a temperature lower than human body temperature.

Year 11 Munchable Microorganisms

Year 11 have been learning about microorganisms for the last 3 weeks - in particular bacteria! 

Last Tuesday we made food models of a bacterial cell. 

Check out the picture below, and the recipe underneath!

Flagella - gummy snake

Pili - toothpicks

Capsule - belvita breakfast biscuit

Cell Wall - digestive biscuit

Cytoplasmic membrane - nutella

Cytoplasm - jelly

Ribosomes - sprinkles

Plasmid - smarties (chocolate)

Nucleoid - raspberry licorice