Sci-day Friday. End of term 4 Science day

As part of the self-review on Science that I am undertaking as part of the post fellowship requirements, we wanted to find out what our parents and community think about science education and the science education their children receive at our school.

On the last day of every term we always hold an open day for our community to share what we have been learning about that term. For term 3 we decided to have a science day.
Children and adults would rotate around 8 science activities over the day.
At the conclusion of our day, we would then send home the survey I had put together to find out their thoughts about science and science education.

The 8 rotations were either self led or led by a year 8 student who was an 'expert' at that activity. We thought this was a great opportunity to show off our great students and what they were capable of doing.

Some of the rotations the students had done as part of our 'sci-fit' programme, but there were some extra special ones that they had not seen before.

At our school we only have 35 students. All the students were present that day as well as the same amount of adults! For a small school I was blown away by the interest shown in what we are doing.
It was so awesome to see parents and older siblings working with our students and having a tonne of fun at the same time.

Air Canon

Bloomin Flowers

Cork poppers 

Sound machines .... yip all the kids got to take them home :)  

viscosity racing- which mysterious liquid traveled the fastest

paper twirlers 

Colour wheels - must remember to wash the calico first next time! 

Gravity droppers.... which one is going to hit the ground first? 

chemical obseravations were a hit! 

everyone was really interested in this activity! 

cork poppers! 

The focus for the day from my point of view was explaining what the Nature of Science is all about. On the back of each instruction sheet was an explanation about the activity they were doing and how this was 'science education.' I either linked the activity to a context strand or a NOS objective.
As I went around each activity I was asking the adults about what was on the back of the sheet, I discussed how I would go about using an activity like these ones in the class setting or for teaching about particular ideas.

It was great to hear our students 'talking the talk' and using their scientific language throughout the day and showing their parents the skills that they have been accumulating.
It was awesome to see our 5 year olds trying to use stop watches and measuring tapes, and telling their parents that they had to repeat their test a few times before making a conclusion. It was wonderful to hear our Year 8 students explaning their activities to parents. It was really satisfying to see all the other students participating to the best of their ability and most importantly having fun.

By placing the emphasis on the nature of science, it made all the activities accessible to everyone that was there on the day. Whilst the parents may have been thinking about theories and scientific knowledge, their children were thinking about anything from correctly using equipment, taking turns, asking questions or the like. Even the pre-schoolers that came on the day were getting to experience the activities as well, which of course is building their knowledge and their own 'library of experiences.'

I am totally confident that the community surveys I sent home will come back full of great comments and insights into what our community thinks about science educations and how much they value what we are doing at our school.
Knowing that our community is supportive of what we are doing really gives me the confidence that I can not only dream about making our science programme amazing for our students but I can actually start to make it a reality!

Sci-fit. Term 3's fitness programme

At our school we have always done a 15-20 minute 'fitness' session each day. This could be jump jam, games, relays etc... It's a great chance to get the kids moving during the day and a great chance to have a bit of fun.

Term 3 is our cross country term and also usually the wettest term of the year. So this term it was decided that 3 times a week we would run 'sci-fit.' That's short for science fitness.
3 times a week in the normal fitness slot of the day I would run a short science experience for the whole school to take part in.

A science experience is a session where the students experience an activity that is based on some sort of science concept. These sessions are about the students taking part and getting some knowledge to talk about. They are not going to be taught the 'science' behind that task, but it may lead on to learning more about why something happened.

The nature of science (NOS) was my  focus this term for all the sessions. I hoped to be able to observe how the students were able to work together, solve problems, follow instructions, come up with questions, try different things out, exhibit persistence and most importantly have FUN!

Our school is broken up into 4 houses, and it was in these houses that the students worked. Each house was then split into 2 groups meaning that all groups only had 3-4 students in them. The perfect number to observe things happening and the perfect number to ensure that ALL students had the chance to participate.

The students did things such as ramp racers where they had to work out the best angle on their ramp for their car to go the furthest then followed up the next session with trying out a range of different cars to see which one would go the furthest. The 3rd session we raced off against each other to see who had the best ramp and vehicle.

The students made oobleck, they used their senses to decide what substances were what in a series of containers, they used lemon juice and baking soda to make corks pop out of bottles, they worked out what sort of paper would twirl best on top of a pin stuck in a pencil etc....

One of the ways I judge whether my students are enjoying what they are doing is by how much feedback I get from our parents. Judging by the amount I questions I got from parents over the weeks, I can tell that the students really enjoyed the experiences.

watching 'dancing' raisins.

Paper twirlers 

ramp racers

trying the team approach to paper twirlers 

The oobleck experience was as hands on as it could be! 

Used this as an opportunity to read Dr Suess's book, Bartholomew and the oobleck.  

Cork poppers- working as a team 

stacking straws - water density experiences. Started the first experience just getting the students to use a straw as a pipette, the second sessions was stacking 2 colours and the third session they had to stack 3 colours. Was lots of fun! 

Getting these experiences organised took a lot of time and resources but it was really worth it. The children loved our sci-fit sessions and usually the first question I got when I would walk in the classroom "Is it sci-fit today?" 

This approach of science 'experience' is something that lots of teachers would automatically write off as it's really about the students 'playing.' 

Play in science is such an undervalued part of science teaching. I remember in my early years as a teacher getting really grumpy with my students when we 'did' science. I would set up these great activities and I would have high hopes of the learning that would take place.(I would of course set a ridiculous time-frame to get it all achieved in.) 

I would then get annoyed that the students wouldn't listen to me, and all they wanted to do was PLAY!!! 

I really wish I had just let them have 10 -15 minutes of the session to play, to work out how something was done and to let them start developing their own questions based on what they were finding out. 

I wish I had listened to their conversations! To listen to the language they were using, I wish I had encouraged them to pull something apart or try the things that were swirling in their minds. 

All these things of course, are what I allow my students to now do. 

By giving them this play time, they are now so much more focused when I start to teach them the more formal stuff. 

Learning cannot just be left to discovery, explicit teaching must still happen but time to play and explore is a vital part of the process! 

Roll on term 4!