The Preschool science show



Starter Science

Professional Development Program

With

MEd, BSc (Psych), GrDipEd (Sec)

Blue card, Supply teacher

ABN: 42 669 724 149

Dear Early childhood professional,

Thankyou for being a part of my Starter Science professional development program for early childhood educators. Remember that you are the expert here, with a deep knowledge of the issues and challenges of working with your particular students and situation. I am sure you will find the program engaging, entertaining, and encouraging; a great way to challenge your thinking and enrich your early childhood science curriculum.

I am Mr Joe; a freelance science teacher working in Brisbane to bring quality educational and entertaining experiences to students. I have worked at many different levels of education, from Kindergarten to Tertiary, and I bring an infectious love of science and learning to the classroom and memorable learning experiences for young minds. If you would like a science show specifically catering to your centers educational and student needs, or would like a special theme for the show (such as water, air, or motion science) please contact me on the details above.

I am pleased to present this Professional development program intended for early childhood educators working in K-3 programs, with a specific focus on preschool and prep groups. I hope you enjoy and put to good use this free program booklet.

Your feedback is always welcome and highly valued in helping me maintain a program of national standard. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions, comments, complaints or queries regarding the program.

Looking forward to the day

MrJoe

the Edutainer

– Never stop learning –

Program Booklet

Program Objectives

• To encourage and inspire early childhood educators about ways to include science in their curriculum

This will be accomplished by teaching;

• Five difference science lessons (suitable for early childhood settings) …

• Using five different teaching techniques…

• Which highlight five aspects of the nature of science.

Five lessons

Five science lessons, each taken from a different KLA (Key Learning Area’s) of the curriculum, are included in this booklet. They are set out so that they can be applied by yourself, in the classroom, with a minimum of preparation.

Five aspects of the Nature of Science

This program is based on the article “You can teach science: including aspects of the nature of science in the early childhood and primary science curriculum” by myself (Ireland, unpublished). In it I argue that a major contribution to the quality of science the in classroom (including helping some educational professionals overcome their reluctance to include science regularly in their programs), will be if we can come to a better understanding of what science is. I introduce five aspects of the nature of science that I believe can help teachers better understand this strange phenomenon called ‘Science’, and help them see it as a valuable contributor to student creation of knowledge in their classrooms which is, in so many ways, already there. Teaching Science can be a rewarding, and surprisingly simple activity.

In brief, science is firstly what I call a very connected activity: it deals with real issues for the students and connects with other area’s of the curriculum. School science is also a collaborative endeavor that not only works well in classroom based groups, but imitates the collaborative nature of science in the community. Scientific ideas that last must be based on Evidence, but are still considered tentative because they also must be prepared to change. Finally, weather in the community or the classroom, science is driven by a curiosity to know how the world works, something which is innate to adults and children alike.

Each lesson in this book highlights one aspect of the nature of science that is valuable to teachers and students to understand so that they can develop more scientifically literate ideas (Goodrum, Hackling and Rennie, 2001). This in turn will help them become critical consumers of scientific claims in the community, and help them learn how to make scientific ideas for themselves. Please remember that these aspects touch every facet of science education, and can be a valuable contribution to any science lesson (not just those presented).

Five teaching techniques

Each lesson in this book is based on a different teaching technique, as illustrated below in table 1.0. Each technique is drawn from various research from around the world.

Please note that the sections in bold underline indicate features of the teaching technique that apply regardless of the topic being taught. Writing in bold indicates sections of the lesson plan that I have added as suggestions specific to the current lesson only.

Each teaching technique is only covered briefly, and is embedded in the explanation of the lesson. This means that if you want to know more about a particular teaching technique that you think might work well for you (and they certainly will work well for subjects other than science) you can find out more in the references provided.

|Lesson Title |Teaching Technique |KLA |Highlighted aspect of the nature of |

| | | |science |

|Air Powered Rockets |Teaching cycle |Energy and Change |Curriculum Connected |

|Senses Stations |Co-operative learning |Life and Living |Collaborative nature |

| |(round robin) | | |

|In the Sky |POE (Predict, observe, |Earth and Beyond |Evidence based |

| |explain) | | |

|Question Quest |Interactive method |Science and Society |Curiosity |

|Magnets |Inquiry learning |Natural and Processed |Tentative (open minded) |

| | |Materials | |

Table 1.0 Summary of 5 lessons in this program.

Please remember that the somewhat complex 5x5x5 approach to teaching used in this professional development program is specific to teacher training. The teaching techniques, aspects of the nature of science, and Key Learning Area’s are fully interchangeable. For example, there is no reason that the collaborative nature of science could not be taught through the interactive method, or a POE (Predict – Observe – Explain) lesson could not cover an interesting subject on life and living subject.

The point here is to expose teachers to new and possibly unfamiliar teaching techniques, using simple demonstrations drawn from each of the Key Learning Areas, and going the extra step of highlighting aspects of the nature of science which impact on all science education.

The Air Powered Rocket

A lesson in Working scientifically and the Connected aspect of the nature of science.

This lesson is set out using the ‘teaching cycle’ regularly used, for example, in the SER (Science education review). Basically, student interest is engaged through an invitation to learn. Students then explore the phenomenon in an organised environment, looking to experience and explain the phenomenon themselves. Concept introduction gives students an idea to work with to help understand the phenomenon. This can be a powerful and useful method for introducing difficult concepts students are not likely to generate spontaneously themselves.

Preparation

Buy an air pressured- power rocket.

Remember to be aware of risk assessment requirements, such as reminding students to always point the rocket away from people.

Invitation

Hold up the rocket and ask for an assistant who can show you “how” to work the rocket.

(Point out that science often uses two processes: How and Why. Learning How to make things work is usually the easy part. It’s understanding Why they work that way that can be tricky! You’re looking for a helper who can show you how to make the rocket fly)

After the demonstration, make sure everyone understands how the rocket is operated (and safety at that)

Exploration

Now ask for reasons Why the rocket flies. You might like to have students work in groups to try and provide answers to that question. Students ideas may have to do with words like “air” and “wind”.

Concept Introduction

I like to explain this by saying that ‘Air is very squashy, but not very squishy.’ You can demonstrate this by filling an empty soft drink bottle with air (it’s not very hard, air pressure will do it for you in less than a second), and putting the lid back on. While the bottle is very easy to squish, see if anyone you know can squash it flat. The bottle is more likely to break before you manage to squash it flat. Air is very squishy, but not very squashy. As a matter of fact, the reason you cannot squash the bottle is because the air is pushing back against you. Air can push much harder than you can!

So when you push the Rocket launcher, you squash the air inside. As air is pushing in all directions, the easiest way out is by pushing the rocket out of the way. This gets the rocket started on its flight.

Extension:

Have students draw what they think happens to the air after the rocket flies away. Why does it keep on moving if the air has stopped pushing? Can they think of a way to test their ideas?

Connected with curriculum: Have students draw pictures, make up plays, or write songs about How and Why the rocket flies. Have them construct models to explain things, or ways to test their explanations with other objects.

Connected with everyday: Have students discuss what this says about how the world works everyday. Help them see how science thinking (such as using ‘how’ and ‘why’) can help them learn about the world.

Senses stations

Life and living and a lesson in the collaborative nature of science.

Teaching Technique – Co-Operative learning (Round Robin)

Co-operative learning grew out of the work of Dr Spencer Kagan, and was profitably put in a science context in the book “Co-operative learning and hands on science” by Candler (1995) from with most of this text is drawn. The program is based on the ideas of Simultaneous interaction, positive interdependence, individual accountability and equal participation. For more ideas on teaching science, and general teaching techniques based on their work, Ms Candlers book comes highly recommended.

This lesson makes use of the Round Robin procedure on pg 36- 37. With this procedure, students 1/ form teams of 3 to 5 members. 2/ tackle a question or topic and 3/ take turns sharing a response. Students are encouraged to “…not discuss or evaluate each others’ responses, they simply listen to each other.” And it is recommended for new topics or as revision for previous lessons. Groups need not work on hands on activities, but may also try to answer questions or problems you or they set. The set up of this lesson differs in process, but not in principle from the ‘round robin’ discussed in the book.

0/ Teacher demonstrates difference between observation and inference.

Observation is not the same as inferring (AKA ‘explaining’). Try to say ‘I feel something hard’ instead of ‘I feel a plastic duck’. Much harder than it seems, and the line between the two moves far too often in the literature and everyday life! It might help to consider that observations come from ones senses, and we use inferences understand what we sense. Ie, you smell a rose smell, as opposed to you smell a rose. You might like to say ‘I see the salt move” as opposed to “The noise is moving the salt.”

Students should learn that we experience the world with out senses, but we understand it with our ideas. (Or that ‘we experience the world through our senses, but we make sense of it through our ideas)

1/ Students number off

On the cover of this booklet, centered and underneath the text, there is a small coloured shape. Groups are formed by shape and should sit together. (Squares in one place, triangles in another). Each group is given a box corresponding to their colour. (Don’t open the box yet!) People with a green shape are designated group leaders (“Lead Scientists”) and are to make sure everyone has a turn and chance to contribute. You may assign other roles as you wish.

2/ Question or topic is posed.

Each group has been assigned a sense, either Seeing, Smelling, Feeling or Hearing. Each group is to practice Observing (V’s Inferring).

3/Students take turns sharing a response.

Now, each member of the group will take turns sharing their response to the question with other members of the group (starting from person 1). Be sure to practice active listening (making eye contact, learning forward etc), and to avoid evaluating each other’s response without an invitation. You may like to explain;

1/ What you experienced

2/ What you learnt about observation and inference or

3/ What you learnt about working co-operatively.

Extension – compare the relative sizes of the sense organs (eyes, ears, nose and mouth, and the skin). Which is the largest?

Extension – Working Collaboratively.

There are many more roles for a group recommended by Candler (1995, pp51), such as Materials monitor, cleanup captain, praiser, recorder and question commander (the only one allowed to ask the teacher a question after making sure no-one in the group knows the answer)

Knowing how to work together well is an important skill for life and science. Scientists often work in groups, and form a kind of community in their daily work. What have you learnt about working together today?

In the Sky

Earth and Beyond and a lesson in evidence based understandings in science

Teaching technique- POE

The teaching technique known as POE (Predict, observe, explain) grew out of the work of Mitchell & Mitchell (1992). Using this method, a teacher may set up a demonstration and have the students predict what they think will happen (eg, put a drop of detergent behind floating pepper grains, pour some vinegar into red cabbage juice). Then, students carefully observe the outcome, and are challenged to explain why they think it happened. It is, in many ways, similar to the learning cycle and 5E’s mentioned above. You thus can also make use of cognitive dissonance to motivate children’s attention by providing results they may not have expected, and encourage students confidence and ability to create and use scientific knowledge and explanations.

Compared with other teaching techniques, this is supposed to be a bit simpler : you bring a demonstration or activity, have learners predict what they think will happen, try it, and then have them try and explain why it occurred. It can be a great way to begin a unit or make a point.

Preparation:

A class board.

A clear sky. Available at most early childhood centres.

Predict.

Begin by asking what is in the sky?

-at daytime?

-at nighttime?

-when it is cold?

-when it is rainy?

Challenge: Ask the students – does the moon come out during the day?

(some will say yes, others no)

Observe

Ask the students: How can we find out?

Ask students what they think they will see if they look outside at the sky. If the sun is there, will the moon be there also?

Take some ideas, Go outside and see for yourselves. But just one observation is not enough. It takes about a month for the moon to pass through all it’s phases, so you may need up to three weeks to say for sure if the sun and moon are visible in the sky at the same time.

Explain

Encourage children to explain their observations. The following explanation may help.

The world is turning, while the sun is staying still. This makes it look as though the sun moves across the sky every day.

However, the moon is moving around the earth, and it takes about a month to go completely around. You can see the moon during the day, because sometimes our sky is facing the moon and the sun as well. Try illustrating it with foam balls.

Sometimes the moon is not visible during the night. Where do you suppose it could be?

Thinking further

So what is your answer now for the question “Does the moon come out during the day?”

Ask students what reasons they gave for their original answer, and what changed their minds (it at all).

We use evidence and reason to change ideas, and many science ideas are changing and growing all the time. Being open minded is an important way to work scientifically.

The Question Quest

Science and Society and a lesson in curiosity

Teaching technique – The interactive approach

The interactive approach is considered one of the most superior methods by most science educators (Fleer and Hardy, 2001.) Basically it involves helping students ask their own questions, and then find answers to those questions while constructing their own understanding rather than having the right answers given to them from the start. In this way students are often intrinsically motivated to learn science, and they can see it’s relevance to their own lives. They can express their creativity in presenting their answers, and are stretched to find the means of answering their own questions. Since we will be using a simplified version of the procedure, I feel to do the normal program by introducing it separately first. The following (adapted from Faire and Cosgrove, 1988) helps explain the stages in what might be considered an interactive lesson:

1. Preparation. Teacher and class select the topic and find background information. At first, you might like to pick the topic, such as ‘ants’, ‘the weather’ or ‘how things move’. In time, you might like to research as a class the topics the children put to you spontaneously to help validate their interests and learning. Another part of preparing means you need to understand what you’re going to teach very well in order to prepare for the flexibility required by the interactive technique, so spend some reading up on the topic (like you always do, no doubt).

2. Before views. The class or individuals say what they know about the topic. Often this may take the form of class mat time, when teachers jot down ideas or pictures on the board of any and all information students already possess relating to the topic. Some information might be terribly wrong (“Bee’s turn into stars at night.”), but instead of correcting it at this point, you might like to jot it down anyway and say “we can test that later on, if you like.”

3. Exploratory activities. Involve the children more fully in the topic. Get some hands on, unstructured time with the topic and materials to be used. This is part of assessing prior learning, and developing theories to be tested later on. You don’t need to be too structured (but may need to lay down safety precautions). A lesson on light might involve pulling apart torches to see what they are made of. A lesson on bugs might involve going into the garden to see what kinds of insects frequent the preschool gardens.

4. Children’s questions. Now it’s back to mat time so you can find out what the children thought of the exploration and what things they (and you) would like to know now. This is ideally a brain storming session.

5. Teacher and children select questions to Explore. Now narrow the question list to one or two questions (more experienced classes might like to tackle one or two questions per groups of 2-4 students) to go and research the answers too. Try to select questions that lend themselves to the needs and curiosity of students (and yourself), and resources available at the school; this can be a fine art to master. With younger children, you might need to offer quite a lot of help, but the important thing is that they feel some ownership of the question and its answer.

6. Investigations. Students now go about finding answers to their own questions. They might look up books, ask experts, go and observe the phenomenon, even perform experiments to test their ideas. This is carefully negotiated time where students practice constructing and testing their own ideas. They need to be self directed and may need scaffolding to achieve a high level of self management.

7. After views and reflection. Students need to prepare a report of their research. There are many ways they can do this; as poems, as posters, as models, music or formal science reports. Students need to compare their ideas now with what they first thought during stage 2. What have they learned? What still needs to be sorted out?

A few things to think about when using the Interactive method.

• The purpose of the interactive method is to help students generate their own questions to explore. The role of the teacher is more facilitator than informer, but that does not mean your role is easy. It also helps to pick specific, not general topics. ‘Spiders’ could even be reduced to ‘spiders webs’.

• Fleer and Hardy (2001) recommends starting simply with interactive learning, avoiding giving students unfamiliar with what is an essentially self directed learning process the opportunity to meet the method explicitly and in simpler stages. For example, having the teacher choose the topic to explore at first or limiting the forms of presentation appropriate.

Extensions - Simplify the process.

Bring something unique to class and have the children think of as many questions as they can about the object, write them all down. Ask the class; Can you think of some questions you’d like answered? What are some ways you can answer your questions?

This can be as simple as a shell, as piece of wood, or a musical instrument. There is also no reason why you couldn’t try demonstrations for this activity, such as vortex bottles, magnets, or the old ‘pop an egg in a bottle’ demonstration.

Simply learning to ask explicit questions, and then finding ways to go about answering those questions, is a great way to do science in the early childhood setting.

In the space following, write down at least one question that you would like to research about the demonstrations you have seen in this activity.

Magnets

Natural and Processed materials and a lesson in the Tentative (Open minded) nature of scientific knowledge.

Teaching technique- Inquiry learning

There are lots of ways to do inquiry, indeed, all the teaching techniques in this program can be considered inquiry. The teaching method here described, however, is based on the Wilson and Wing Jan (2003) model which was extensively tested here in Australia, and is now the basis of the science teaching program for the Ironside State School centre of excellence (technology, science and maths). You can contact the school on Andrea Ferrando on aferr17@eq.edu.au for more information and professional development programs based specifically on this in depth model.

Good inquiry learning is by no means restricted to science, as with all these teaching techniques. The six stages here discussed overlap and inter-relate freely, and it is quite feasible that students become explicitly aware of which phase they are working in.

Preparation:

A class set of magnets

Many materials, especially diverse metals.

“Tuning in”

Students have the opportunity to meet the phenomenon, discuss their responses, and express their prior learning.

We will be given some magnets to play with. What do we already know about magnets and how they work?

“Finding out”

Students turn their curiosity into researchable questions about the phenomenon. They then find ways to investigate them.

Students are asked: What materials are attracted to magnets? How can we find out?

“Sorting out”

Students organise and present their results and data from their investigations.

Students are asked to make sense of their observations. How will we record and make sense of the results?

“Going further”

Students make conclusions based on their evidence : What does this say about the world? What rules can we make that might explain our observation?

Students are given the challenge of explaining the phenomenon of materials that are attracted to magnets, especially with regards to the reactions of metals and magnets.

“Reflection”

Students reflect on the experience, thinking for example of what worked and what will work better next time. They may also note not only what they learned, but how they learned it.

Students are asked to reflect on the experience, thinking about what new questions the experience may have for them.

(Further Reflection)

Students are asked to re-consider their original answer to the question ‘What materials are attracted to magnets?’ Has it changed from what they had at first? Do they think their new rule will stand forever? Is there something that may one day change their idea once again?

For instance, many old TV’s use powerful magnets to change the direction of a beam of electrons. There is no Iron in the electrons, but they are still powerfully effected by magnets. Why is it so?

We use evidence and reason to change ideas, and many science ideas are changing and growing all the time. Being open minded is an important way to work scientifically.

“Taking action”

Students now apply the new knowledge, taking socially responsible actions with what they know. Students can also present the information as a project.

On the page over, students are asked to list one thing that will change in their teaching program as a response to today’s experience.

I hope you have enjoyed this professional development program. Please use this space to write down at least one thing that will change in your teaching program as a response to today’s experience.

If you like, you can use this as an opportunity to create a “Commitment to Change” contract. By making a commitment to change, you are making a personal promise to yourself to set, maintain, measure and report on one of your personal goals for change with a critical friend. This is a great way to make sure the good ideas you have had during your professional development program stick!

Make sure your commitment to change is an achievable goal that is tangibly measurable in some way (and relies on your behaviour, not others). Simply saying “Will teach science better” is not enough. Perhaps “Will teach a dedicated science lesson once a week next term” or “will try out a new demonstration from a book this week.” or “Will explicitly teach the tentative aspect of scientific knowledge is by showing students three experiments where knowledge changes, being …” etc etc etc.

Next, choose a critical friend who you will report to, and discuss how you would like that to occur (when, how). This helps to commit you to your change by having someone other than yourself to ‘answer to’, and can help give you a bit of support and encouragement along the way. You may even like to suggest a celebration as a reward for accomplishing your goal (such as a night out or big block of chocolate!). Remember to be flexible with your objectives: circumstances changes and so do we.

Good luck, and never stop learning!!

Mr Joe

Bibliography

Candler, L. (1995). Co-operative learning and Hands on Science. California: Kagan publishing.

Faire, J. & Cosgrove, M (1988) Teaching primary science. Hamilton, N.Z : Waikato Education Centre.

Fleer, M. Hardy, T. (2001) Science for children : developing a personal approach to teaching (2nd ed) Sydney : Pearson Education

Goodrum, D., Hackling, M., & Rennie, L. (2001). The Status And Quality Of Teaching And Learning Of Science In Australian Schools. Canberra: Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs.

Mitchell, J., & Mitchell, I. (1992). Learning from the PEEL experience. In J. R. Baird, & J. R. Northfield, (Eds.), Melbourne: The Editors.

Wilson, J & Wing Jan, J. (2003) Focus on inquiry : a practical approach to integrated curriculum planning. Carlton, South Victoria : Curriculum Corporation.

Some extra useful resources



Look for the link ‘foundation elaboration’s’ and appendix A. These documents are filled with hundreds of ideas of how you can teach science in early childhood settings, and how it all fits in the five strands of the science curriculum. It is a must have for early childhood centres.

SEAR website



A thorough Australian website focusing on assessment materials in science for the compulsory years of schooling



A useful site with many links to lesson plans in science.

qsa.qld.edu.au/yrs1to10/kla/science/index.html

Queensland studies authority science syllabus website, including modules: A definite place to visit for teachers looking to science excellence.



The Australian academy of science’s “Primary Investigations” website, very useful

“The Hoobs” or “Elmo’s world” – learning about learning

Great for kindy and preschool audiences. What do the Hoobs and Elmo do to create questions, and find answers to those questions?

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My Question Quest

MrJoe

Mr Joseph Ireland

MEd, BSc (Psych), GrDipEd (Sec)

ABN: 42 669 724 149 Blue card

Registered supply teacher

Tel: 3480 5047

Mob: 041 77955 09

Edutainers@.au

Commitment to change!

I

am committing to change by

I will measure this by

My friend

Will support me in this by

It will be completed by

And I will celebrate by

©2006 Mr Joe. 0417795509. Starter Science Professional

Development Program. All rights reserved.

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