Since I am a Science teacher, I feel that my curriculum really lends itself to problem solving and inquiring. My students, some whom I have taught for three years now, have gotten to know that I don't want one right answer, but rather I'm interested in their process and as many answers as possible. So when I went to a workshop from Spectrum and was given six Lego pieces and challenged to build a duck in 60 seconds, I immediately thought of doing this activity with my class.
My modified six pieces
My seven year old daughter and I spent about two hours sorting her Lego so I could provide a similar experience to my 7s and 8s the next day. Below are some of the ducks the classes created.
Some students were a bit frustrated that their pieces were not exactly the same, others were thinking there was one right answer for a duck, and tried to improve upon their duck once they looked around the table. I think those students missed the point.
In a post-modern world where there is rarely anything "new," I could see why my students would think that they can't come up with something innovative. Maybe it's all about remixing?
I personally wanted to build my duck the fastest. When given the tower challenge later on, I wanted to build the most aesthetically pleasing one. Last week, I had challenged the Grade 8s to build card houses, but rather than assigning tallest, strongest, etc, they need to come up with what their goal was.
Their learning goal all along was teamwork and collaboration. They knew that from the start, and were supposed to encourage each other, listen to group members ideas and hopefully build on them. I hope they realize that innovation can be accomplished as a team.
I've drilled and drilled about using Science terms in their labs, in their writing, in their communication. I've given them a vocabulary sheet in front of them while they take a quiz, and they still do not use the vocabulary.
I think I have a solution.
The next Grade 7 unit is Heat in the Environment. The first thing I will do is give them the terms of the unit, and they will create vocabulary cards, similar to the ones they do for French. We will post them around the lab stations. I'm thinking two per word, depending how many we have.
I did it again for our Structures and Mechanisms unit and this is what our board looked like in the end. In general the Grade 8s really shined in learning and using the Science terms and we will keep working with those 7s next year!
I think next year, every time they do a written response for Science, I will have them highlight the vocabulary words they are using. Hopefully that will help!
I think the best part about this time of year is that I noticed them using the Science terms during the presentations of their structures. This was the most ambitious of the structures, made entirely from recovered materials that were saved from going to the landfill. We had a great year in Science!
As I reflect on this past year, I'm happy to report that my hands on, inquiry based intermediate Science program was an overall success. I began the year with a group of Grade 8s who had not had a lot of variety in the way they were expected to show their learning in Science class. By that I mean, they took notes, read from a resource, received a study guide and took a test. Some of them were successful with this process, so in comes this teacher, new to them, wanting to them to show their learning in other ways. Our last Science unit is usually the most collaborative and hands-on, structures and mechanisms. To make some of them feel better, I gave them their lessons and labs in advance, we followed the text book more closely than I have all year. I had high expectations when it came to how they show their learning in lab reports, but I gave them an option to document their findings using alternative ways, not just their lab book. They all chose to show their learning in written lab report, although since I had been taking anecdotals along the way I still think most were successful overall, even though pencil and paper is not everyone's strength. As a culminating task, I provided them with this activity. The idea was that since there were so many interruptions those two weeks, they would be able to plan their learning and decide how they would showcase it. Most of them tapped into having conversations with me, and I kept track of these, but others chose not to. Even if they were working in groups, they needed to show how this new knowledge personally applied to them. The magical moments became when I over heard a conversation go something like this: "Mrs. Skibinski, what do you mean how does the system affect me personally?" Another would over hear and pipe up, "What's your system?" "The transportation system." "That's so easy! Buses emit green house gases which cause global warming!" "But buses also help people get places when they don't have a car, we could take a bus because we can't drive a car." and so on... In the end, the conversations exploded exponentially more than any memorization of facts for the purpose of taking a test would have shown. If this group had been more open to using the blended learning discussion forums, I can only imagine the knowledge building that we would've accomplished! My colleagues and I recently finished a collaborative inquiry project in which we investigated giving students a digital choice in showing their thinking and communication, our focus was on Math but it gave all teachers in the project more confidence to give student choice in other subject areas. One of the struggles I'm finding with "old school" teachers, is they feel parents will also question where the learning is if there is no paper evidence at the end, they don't feel trusted to use anecdotals and observations as a way to report to parents. But this Science class with a group of grade 8 students who have only been showing their learning by reading the textbook and taking a test for their whole elementary career, today they told me they even took spelling tests in kindergarten, was able to adapt. Every month they do a reflection on their learning for me and when given the choice with what to do with the last two weeks, an overwhelming majority voiced that they wanted to do something hands on. Since I had given them hands on learning all along, I did give them the choice to write an inquiry report. A few of them did admit, "oh good, I like that." I just hope that if you're an educator on the edge of trying something new and out of the box that your colleagues at your school may not be doing, you may feel lonely at first. Innovators usually are. Know that the students do appreciate it and it will be worth it in the end.
As I kicked off the Earth and Space Systems strand of my grade 7/8 Science programme, I wondered what sort of authentic task I could ask students to create in order for them to show me their learning. I have a Grade 8 class who in general are very creative and hardworking, but love their text book work and are very reluctant to accept any summative task that is not a test. I have a grade 7/8 class, who need a lot of structure, class time and encouragement in order to produce. Lastly, my grade 7 homeroom, loves to jump on inquiry tasks, but loses track of the big ideas and the curriculum along the way.
My answer: Bill Nye inspired Science videos.
The ironic part was that, while the Grade 8s were open to learning the facts and text books work, the unit content was not as heavy as the Grade 7 curriculum. I was able to get them started on their script writing right away. Some groups finished their script in the same work period! I decided to duplicate the same process that I use with my homeroom class, write the script, upload to D2L, give them feedback, and submit final copy. Some began by filming their footage (demos, lego stop motion) while others needed to practice their script or experiment with the app or program they decided on. They are very task oriented and were focussed on the due date and getting it done. I have no doubts this group will be the first to finish.
The grade 7s on the other hand, were thrilled to have the opportunity to "film at the creek" or try out white board explain everything type of programs such as powtoons I had to keep refocussing on the Science content, and in the meantime, I'm still teaching them procedure writing, proper lab execution as well as observations (I have given the option to do video observations) and conclusions. I'm hoping they will use some of their footage from their labs for their Science videos.
I did end up creating a rubric as well as a reflection task sheet that they had to follow in order to get their video done.
It would've been much easier for me to give them a study guide and a test. Committing to inquiry is more work for the teacher. You need to accept that some groups need more time and others need to be encouraged to experiment, push themselves and try things they didn't think they could, or maybe were not in their original plans.
Even though this is guided inquiry, the conversations most groups are having around what the message of their video will be, has been very rewarding. The written output may not necessarily show how much they know. I really need to make an effort to be near a group while they are discussing. The process is now become more important than the product, which is what I want my students to understand and enjoy before they leave my classroom.
I recently had a discussion with the grade 8s encouraging them to ask teachers to give them options next year. I can't guarantee that their grade 9 teacher will, but at least they can advocate for themselves feeling confident that they were able to show their learning not just with paper and pencil tasks.
On Earth Day, I proudly sent pair of Grade 8s to showcase all the videos to all the other classes in our school. Meanwhile, I'm patiently waiting for some Grade 7s to hand them in.
Without further ado...here are some of our videos! (There are more still coming, I will make them public on our Youtube channel.)
Our first Science unit was Interactions Between Ecosystems. The Grade 7s were so enthusiastic in creating their own ecosystems as well as participating in the labs that I created. We are slowly easing our way into self-directed inquiry, it's more teacher guided at the moment, but at least the students are engaged. Next week, before we break for Christmas, we will be opening up our lunch that we buried almost two months ago!
In the meantime, in their Geography class, my wonderful colleague began a project with them about re-purposing garbage from the landfill. I was collecting bear paws wrappers for one of the groups, and there were many other wonderful ideas. I haven't told them yet, but I want them to connect their lunch lab and their Geo projects. I hope they can make some sort of video creation of their choice to encourage awareness around landfills and garbage.
