This differentiated, self-directed stuff is hard for us all

Today's class saw a bunch of students going "but what do we doooooooo?" and flapping their hands over their freedom. I was so tempted to flap my hands back and reply, "I don't knoooow!"

Part of the problem is that they have never done anything like this. When I rewrite the Y 7 & 8 units, I will be sure to include the babysteps version of this unit. Part of it is that they don't really believe that they are allowed to be self-directed, and another part is that they are unsure of exactly what the parameters of their self-direction are. So, right now, we are compromising. All students have lists of the materials they need and should have them by Wednesday, ready to start experimenting and refining their methods.

I still need to finish off my exemplar. Finding time for this sort of thing is like pulling teeth in this place.

The perils of trying new things, and why it's important to try

I can totally see why teachers, heads of departments and school managers and governors stick to what they know. It's just so much easier than setting fire to the past and starting from scratch (or even just hacking the past back to rubble and then trashing the useless bits).

So, one of the things about the new units we're using in junior science is that they need fine-tuning as we teach, and that is hard work. It's worthwhile work, but it's not like any of this stuff has been tested before, or even like any of the teachers have worked in schools where science is taught this way. So each lesson is a learning experience.

Today, I learned that some students are idiots. Well, that's a pretty mean way to describe it, so let me say it in a more professional way. Some students are so accustomed to being given knowledge that they find the most simple of self-directed tasks daunting - even paralysing. So they cover it up with not caring. This, then, is the most nerve-wracking part, for me. I am trying something new, and expecting students to try something new, and expecting my staff to try something new.

Sometimes, I wish we could all have a group hug.

Ooooh, practical thinkies

One of the things science students always say, no matter who their teacher is, what year level they're at, whatever, is that they want more practical work.

This is awesome, but also a little problematic for teachers. The reason why I am conflicted over it is twofold. First, by the time I get my grubby little scientific mitts on them, students have usually defined what practical work is in their heads and it is a pretty narrow definition. It almost always includes bunsen burners and WORKSHEETS where you fill in things (like the aim and the method) and there is always a defined end point which you know about going in (because, usually, you've covered the topic in class already and so everyone knows that the candle gets lighter as you burn it). Second, they are often woefully useless at self-preservation and so teachers spend an awful lot of time making sure that the classroom is not set alight and that no one tries to drink the acid.

But we have to perservere with this. Experimentation and investigation are essential (the justification for that is a topic for another day). So, right now, I am devising a block of work around chemistry and skin care that will involve enough practical work to satisfy the most demanding adolescent audience. Even better? There is no set end goal. There are activities on the way, but the final golaposts require creativity, critical thought, and actual original experimentation.

Today, I am so happy.

Okay, okay, so there were some good points

One of the good things that did come out of the Curriculum Development day up here was the chance to meet the occasional interesting - and interested - colleague. I met one.

We were talking about assessing key competencies. You know, it's all well and good for everyone to howl and say "but you're not supposed to assess key competencies", but I think it's really likely that you will, at the very least, have to assign a grade on a report card, even if it doesn't carry credits. So anyway, we were talking about how the key competencies are connected, so you can't have one without the other. And then we got to talking about how you could have a day for this, dressing it up as a challenge and using a science context - for example, projectile motion for Y12 physics - to assess them all together.

I mentioned this to one of my minions, and they thought it was pretty cool too. But I am wondering how to make it more authentic and how to make it integrate more collaboration and more web2.0 thinking. But the idea has promise, if not for the informal assessment of key competencies, then at least for providing an engaging science experience in the senior school.

Even more ideas!

I spent all day yesterday at the NZASE conference on science in primary education. It was awesome and I had a great time and learned heaps.

One of the best - and most important - things that came out of the day for me was the importance of providing an opportunity at the start of a lesson for kids to either frame their own questions ("I wonder what would happen if I made the diameter of the tube bigger?"), or to discover cognitive conflict ("X says that falling things can't have balanced forces, but that's not true"). This then gives them context for the rest of the lesson - awesome!

I do this sometimes, but not anywhere NEAR as often as I should. The conference really highlighted for me that I should be doing it more.

So... since my Amazing Adventure is on my brain, I have decided that the start segments (with the three teachers) should pose a problem or situation that is a springboard to students thinking and questioning. For example, if the section on Mexico City is on smog, then the teacher introduction will have one teacher coughing and sneezing, and the other two arguing over whether she can fix herself with medicine, or if it's a systemic problem that can't be fixed.

*goes off to plot*

Writing new schemes is awesome

Yesterday, my minions colleagues and I worked on the new scheme for junior science. There was nothing particularly wrong with the old scheme, it was just... boring. And very, very content-driven. It was all about the content.

So we wanted to do something different. We spent nearly all day working on an integrated scheme, and we've come up with the first stages of something that I think will not only be more interesting and engaging for students, but will also lend itself more readily to inquiry learning, will be rich in ICT opportunities, and will emphasise big concepts and information gathering and processing skills.

So... our eight (one for each term over the two years) big themes/concepts are:

1. Gross! A Y9 unit on just that, things that are gross or funny or icky. In this unit, we'll cover things like microbes and decomposition, the particle nature of matter (and how smell gets to your nose), goo and other sticky, ooky things, and anything else we can think of.

2. It's all about me. Another Y9 unit, this one using the students' own self as a focus. As well as all the adorable human biology and genetics we'll get to do, this is also going to have a social focus. We might consider things like tattoos and the inks used in them, or how to make lip balm.

3. In the home. This Y9 unit is all about what we find around us. I have left this with minion one to be finished, since it was her baby

4. Pretty. Obviously not the final name, this unit is about all the reasons why science makes us catch our breath, and all the ways that science and art collide. We'll look at natural landscape features, astronomy, adaptations in plants and animals, light and sound. It's going to be awesome. Can you tell that this one was my idea?

5. Amazing Race. This one came from my desire that students learn a little bit about the world outside. We have about 15 locations and students complete science activities in groups about each location in order to move along through their race. There will be a prize for the group that gets through the most locations. This will involve things like investigations into acid rain and the effect is has on old buildings (like Hagia Sophia in Turkey), or graphing smog count in Mexico City. Minions one and two and I are going to make a little series of videos to show each week, chronicling our (fictitious) progress through the race.

6. Time. This one looks at geological processes, archaeology, changing scientific models over time, and future predictions.

7. Engineering. We need a catchier title, but the key to this one is the ways that science shapes the world and the world shapes science. We'll look at lots of physics - forces, in particular - but also some genetics and some chemistry. There is lots of scope here!

8. Forensics. We're looking at shaping this one along the same lines as the Amazing Race, so students must take small steps towards solving a crime. We might take a lesson at the start of the unit to make badges or something, just for fun. Forensics is an awesome topic, full of integrated science already. We're going to have so much fun with it.

So. Life is looking good. I'll be uploading the first installment of our Amazing Race (Three Mismatched Teachers Edition) just as soon as we record the first episode.

Today's amazing feat of awesome!

Well, I haven't done it yet, but I shall.

Part of today is devoted to planning the Y11 Physics outline. We spend all of this term on Physics and I love it. Love it, I tell you! It's so much fun, at Y11, or should be fun. Y11 is where we learn the basic stuff, the stuff that rules our lives in the real world. Things like how forces act together to give a resultant force. How a body can have several forces acting on it but not be moving (that one blows the kids minds, even though it's something they have known since they were, oh, five, just from experience). How you can predict motion from the things that you know about a system. So. Much. Fun.

I have a whole pile of resources for this topic, and I am determined to use them to good effect. My students are going to inquire and think and learn if it kills them. One of the things that we are going to do is fair tests, and I will make the students do some of this online. I haven't quite decided how, yet, but I'm thinking that they might investigate experiments that other students have done and posted - like on that community on wikipedia that I can't remember the name of right now - and analyse them against a set of criteria for what NCEA defines as a fair test. Interesting? Well, I think it is.

Also on the table is the rewrite of the junior science curriculum. Fully integrated! With cross-curricula links! Nature of Science as a focus! Other stuff! It's going to be so much fun.