Reflections of my last year - Trips!

Each year I take Y12 out to the Waitakere Ranges to learn about stratification and collect data for their first (and easiest) internal. 

This year was the last year that Peter and Jean King will be our guides, as they are retiring. 

What students don't know is that these two also go out of their way to be my moderators for this standard, as I've always been the lone biology wolf of Tamaki College. 

Whenever I arrive at their house in the bush the kettle is on, Poppy greets me by wagging her whole body, and there's always some fresh baking to nibble on as we mark. 

I've been very lucky to be surrounded by supportive people in so many areas outside the school in the last 6 years. Thanks for the great trips Peter and Jean! xx

At least Isabella has been consistent in having her eyes closed in photos year XD

This year I enrolled both Y12 and Y13 into the L3 Trends in Human Evolution exam. This of course required a trip to the zoo, where students got to handle skeletons and bone tools before exploring the zoo. 

Part of the purpose is to make notes on the differences between current ape bodies and movements, and humans. Unfortunately the zoo was under construction this year, but it looks to be open and will be completely fabulous around December this year.

You always know it was a great day when 80% fall asleep on the bus back. 

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 :) 

Literacy with 9TGn

9TGn is getting increasingly used to reading together in pairs and small groups, as well as discussing what they've read. I designed a litearcy activity to more deeply explore what an "ecological niche" is, in the context of Weta - New Zealand's Mouse. 

My recent readings have reiterated that it's not good enough to just give a scientific text to a class and expect them to engage with it, learn from it, acquire language or comprehend it in a way that's beneficial. 

I created a guided reading (with only three prompts and three discussion points this time - I've done some with more and they REALLY got into that one) and students got on with the paired reading with very little fuss. 

They helped each other with pronounciation of new words and some began to google the meaning of new words as they went. I thought this was interesting because I had created two versions of the guided reading; both had the same prompts, reading and discussion points but they had different glossary words down the side. They could have used the glossary for many of the words they Google'd but preferred to go to Google!

Also, a few students chose to do the reading online (the link was provided) but most of the others got out a pen and scribbled notes on their papers and used their finger or pen to read along with their peer. 

Version 1 of the guided reading here

Version 2 here

Glossary words weren't limited to scientific vocabulary, it also included 'rancid,' 'distinguished,' 'fascinated' and 'deter.' 

At the end of the guided reading and the discussions had taken place I gave out coloured post-its for students to share what they had talked about. 

Students found the second discussion point the easiest; identifying whether a weta was male or female using evidence from a paragraph. The second-easiest point was the first, about 'what an ecological niche includes' - but that required students to take the specific evidence about a weta niche and generalise it out; an ecological niche doesn't include living in a cave, but it does include where something lives. The most difficult point was the 'summarising a paragraph' one.  Some students struggled to combine information from sentences or identify the 'key point' or the 'gist' of the paragraph.

Unfortunately we ran out of time to do anything with shared post-its :( Perhaps I could have asked each small group to create a poster of the class' responses. 

Rocket Launches with 9TGn

This term I've been teaching Third Rock to my Year 9 class. It's a thematic unit that combines learning about tectonic plates, convection, earthquakes, volcanoes, energy changes, rocket launches, speed distance time calculations, investigations, life on Mars, seasons and all kinds of things! 

I've been twiddling it as we go through based on the class in front of me, and due to the school-wide (and cluster-wide) goal of improving the literacy of all of our students. There's been lots of pair and group reading and discussing, story-writing and blogging which has actually been really enjoyable for me to learn about and design for them, and they seemed to increasingly enjoy engaging with it. 

Last week we had a wee cross-curricular sequence. I was absent for the first part where students were supposed to read their first scientific fact-sheet kind of text (our other texts have been stories, articles, methods and reports) about types of energy.

Because the end of term was rapidly approaching (and Y9 camp too!) I didn't have time to catch them up on my return, so instead they continued over to graphics the next day and built their rockets with Ms Fergusson and then the next day we launched them on the field with Mr Dunn! 

Here is a student's perspective of the rocket launch on their blog :) 

I tried to have a few quick chats about the different forms of energy while we were on the field watching each group's launch, and during our next lesson we did some more on energy changes and they completed the activity identifying energy changes in our school Kapa Haka performance (that they should have completed the day I was absent!)

For a Do Now during the review lesson I created a word-find after a request from the students. Word-finds are not very useful for learning, I think, unless maaaaybe for the spelling of words. So instead of giving them a list of words to find I changed it so they could approach the learning in two ways: 
1) go looking for familiar words in the word-find and then match what they found to the appropriate definition OR  2) identify what word they should be looking for based on the definition and THEN look for it in the word-find.

Click here for a link to the word-find.

Class Korowai on Mr Bones

Every year I get my students to decorate two feathers for their class korowai - one with images or words that represent who they are, and one with a specific goal for their time in science. 

This year I decided to merge all the feathers from my four classes to make one large korowai rather than four smaller one, and actually have it worn as a cloak by Mr Bones rather than displayed flat on the classroom walls. 

Here is the finished product:

9KMn Blogs about Alfred Wegener and Continental Drift!

9KMn's blogs are finally up and running, and their first post is about continental drift!

We started the Third Rock From The Sun topic by learning about the layers of the Earth, how the crust is divided up into plates, and how convection currents in the mantle cause sea floor spreading which leads to continental drift.

Students absolutely loved watching the video below at the start of the unit. They convinced me to play it about four times in one lesson!

 After a few days 9KMn was able to understand who all the characters were and what they were talking about when rapping "cut em' out the book notice their shape, they're fitting pretty well there I dare say" and "hey it's Harry Hess and it's after the war, I'm using sonar to map the sea floor."

After a few activities in class such as the classic jigsaw and evidence cut-out for Pangaea, as well as looking at whether certain things count as scientific evidence or not, and looking at Pangaea break-up simulations here and here, students were ready to create and share their new understanding.

They chose what style of creation they would prefer to do. These included a piktochart newspaper article, filming an interview, different styles of writing, creating and performing a rap, or using GOanimate, or Prezi! These links will take you to the criteria students were working off while making their creations.

Some students have finished their creation and included them in their first blog post, while others are still editing and will add them soon! 

Click on their names to see completed blog posts from superstars Talita, Antonio, Anamanu,  Phoenix, and PJ.

Year 9 Visits the Stardome

On Friday we took all of Year 9 off to Cornwall Park to visit the Stardome. 

Students got to walk to the top of the volcano and look around. Students weren't looking forward to the big walk up the hill, but there was a sense of achievement and success when they reached the top and were able to look around!   

We then returned to the Stardome for a show on the sky screen and a talk.  My group watched a show called 'Two Pieces of Glass' about the history of the telescope and how far it has developed with todays technology. It also taught us about the discoveries that telescopes have helped with.

This is a beautiful video of the night skies from a mountain in Spain for any students who were amazed by how big our universe is. 

After the show students got to explore the different activities in the foyer of the Stardome. There was a scale that measured their mass and calculated how much they would weigh on different planets and stars (billions of kgs on a neutron star!), real space suits and telescopes, a rolling-ball demonstration of gravity and a sphere that showed what the different planets look as they rotate, among other things. 

We then went and listened to a talk about how much fuel and speed space shuttles need to get up into outer space! One thing I remember is that at the very start of a space shuttle launch, by the time the back of the space ship has reached the point where the front of the space shuttle was (by the time it has travelled its own length) the shuttle is already travelling at 100km an hour! Students in my group were especially amazed to see a video by Chris Hadfield about how astronauts brush their teeth in space!  

We finished the day with some free time at lunch - I think the rugby game that happened on the field involved most of the boys in Year 9!

PTt Begins the Web of Life

Evon would like to share her experiences from the beginning of the Web of Life unit:

Know how to make a cup grass thing.

1 part: was to get a cup.

2 part: to get a stocking.

3: fill it with seed and next fill it with soil and after wet all did that we decorate the cup and dress it up.  

Each day one person had to water the grass. 

A few weeks late we wondered and the grass grown and we could cut the hair of the grass, make it it into a boy or a girl.

Day 1: Loa is the water monitor on this day. The grass has started to grow from the grass seeds!

Day 8: Siupeli and Phoenix are surprised how much the grass grew over the weekend.

Day 8: Cameron and Jonive investigate the rest of the critters' growth.

Day 12: Cameron cut his grass critter's hair very professionally!

Day 12: Loa is holding her grass critter with it's new haircut.

Day 12: The critters all look great after their haircuts!

9RTd Creating...

Today 9RTd started on their 'create' week as well. Two groups chose to make a MRS C GREN video... 

Students Getting Creative

Year 9 classes 9PLa and 9RTd have reached the 'create' phase of the Web of Life unit! 

There are a lot of different creation activities students can choose from, covering a wide range of content with different styles of creation for students to express their understanding.

Clicking on the picture below will take you to the class Web of Life Creation page, where you can explore the different activities available to the students, check out the criteria students have to meet for each activity, and view the links students have shared of the work they have finished :) 

Two groups of students chose to make a video about MRS C GREN yesterday; two boys chose to make a video in the last 5 minutes of class after they made a poster about trophic levels!  Here is their final product:

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! 

Science Roadshow comes to Tamaki College

The Science Roadshow (sponsored by the Ministry of Education) came to Tamaki College today. Year 9 classes each spent two periods playing with the exhibits, learning off the Year 10 guides, asking questions and watching two live demonstrations.

Just watch the video...

9PTt "Polluted Water" Puzzle

9PTt has been learning about separating mixtures and solutions using decanting, filtering and evaporating. There's only so much you can learn from listening to a teacher, so I decided to challenge them practically. 

I set up large beakers containing rocks, sand, salty water with blue food colouring and topped off the "polluted sample" with a layer of baby oil. Students had to work out how to separate the different parts of the sample to find out how much salt was in the water. 

Students decanted the salty liquid out of the beaker, leaving behind a heavy layer of rocks and sand. There was still some sand floating in the liquid, so students had to filter the liquid through a funnel and filter paper. 

Next students poured the salty liquid into a funnel while holding it closed with their thumb. They (mostly) waited patiently until all the oil rose to the top then let the water out from underneath, leaving the oil behind. 

I didn't quite trust that all the oil had been removed from the sample and didn't really feel like setting anything on fire today, so I collected back their samples and distributed a new one with only salt and water in it!

G opening the bunsen burner hole to get a blue flame

Students then evaporated off the water using an evaporating dish heated over a bunsen burner to find out how much salt was in the solution. There was a lot of engagement during this practical, and I feel that students benefitted a lot from being able to do the separation themselves.  

  Tomorrow the students are going to learn how to separate mixtures using chromatography and make some cool chromatography flowers while they're at it!

How long can 9PLa hold their breath?

Yesterday afternoon 9PLa had some fun learning to read stopwatches! 

Ms Bunce handed out the stopwatches and everyone quickly started playing with them. Two of the boys started to time how long they could hold their breath, so Ms Bunce quickly turned it into a whole-class competition.

Looking around the room I could see faces turning red and there were also students holding their hands in front of each others' nose and mouth to check that no one was cheating! 

You can check out the video from the class below. Unfortunately the real breath-holding competition had finished by the time I remembered I could film it, so this is a less-competitive repeat of the activity!

Year 8 Open Day at Tamaki College

Today at Tamaki College we were lucky enough to be visited by some wonderful Year 8 students from our neighbouring schools.

 We hoped to surprise and delight them with a cool experiment called Elephant Toothpaste... 

Check out their reactions in the video below! 

Great Work by 9PLa

Today our Year 9 classes learned all about the different pieces of science equipment that we use. 

9PLa created some fantastic presentations sharing what they learned about the equipment during the lesson! 

Look carefully for students using the word 'because' in their sentences. We set students the challenge to think about and then explain WHY we use the equipment the way that we do.