Science Show

Year 9 students demonstrate the effect of surface tension
to some Year 3 students: VIDEO

Having been appointed the Year 9 Dean for next year, I knew the end to my term was going to be manic. Additionally, having finished exams, I wanted to offer a genuine learning opportunity for my current Year 9 class. What to do...?

Something I have been wanting to do for a while is to get a class to put on a Magic Show or a Science Lesson for a Primary School class. When I visited Camberwell High School in Melbourne earlier this year, a teacher there was doing exactly this. He told me about how successful and fun this was for all. So, I decided this was a great thing for my Year 9 Science class to do.

Having done it now, I have been reflecting upon the success and value of it. In a nutshell, here is what I have identified as some of the key "wins":

• Students understand what it is like to teach others
• Fosters a link with the Prep School
• Exposes younger students to Science
• Students get enthusiastic about Science
• Students learn about forward planning
• Students learn about laboratory safety
• Students learn (a little) about the Science behind their chosen experiment

While this was done late in the year, it would actually be a great thing to do very early in the year instead (or as well…). Chaos did reign a little in the laboratory with so many students but there was a real “buzz” of excitement and interest the whole time.

Fun with Dry Ice - only one has remembered the
discussion we had about safety glasses, though.

Interestingly, two groups had disasters on the day. One group did small-scale trials for making slushies. When they tried to do it large-scale, their timing for the freezing process was completely wrong. We talked about this afterwards and it was a lesson well-learned. Another group was doing a baking soda and vinegar volcano. They ran out of vinegar during the dress rehearsal, so brought a different brand the next day. For some reason, its reaction rate was totally different leading to a "fizzer", sadly.

What was the planning/preparation process?

1. CONNECT WITH A JUNIOR CLASS

One of the most important parts was to establish a relationship with a junior class and its teachers. We are lucky to have a Preparatory School, so I was able to email the two Year 3 teachers and they were wonderful in organising a meeting with me to discuss the timing for them to visit. I was also able to send "previews" to them to make sure the experiments would actually be things their students would enjoy seeing. From the previews, they could also check that the explanations were not too technical for Year 3 students.

2. PLANNING AND VETTING

Baking soda and Vinegar Volcano. Sadly this was a
"fizzer". Luckily, we have a VIDEO of it working.

My students were given time to find experiments on YouTube etc. that they may want to try. They were told to create a list of required resources/equipment and to be aware of the safety considerations. I warned them that some experiments may not be feasible, so it would be wise to plan for more than one experiment.

Each group had to show me a video of what they planned to do, give me a list of resources and explain to me the safety considerations. If I was happy that the experiment was legal for them to carry out, we then went over their resources/equipment list and I told them which resources/equipment the school would provide and which ones they needed to bring to school themselves.

3. TRIALS AND PREVIEWS

If, after all of this, they still wanted to do their original experiment (some did change their experiment), they had two lessons to trial it, culminating in a preview in front of another group. The other group was encouraged to ask questions, which would help the demonstrating group prepare answers for what the Year 3 students may ask.

If the trials went well, we filmed a "dress rehearsal" and this was made available on the Class Blog. I sent the link to these previews to the Year 3 teachers and asked for feedback from their expert perspective. If the trials didn't go well, these groups used the rest of their time to get it right, rather than making a preview video etc.

Start with the Pedagogy

In October this year, I was allowed to go to Melbourne with my Head of Department and the 2014 Head of Mathematics. We went to four very inspiring schools: Camberwell High School, John Monash Science School, Dandenong High School, and St Leonard's College. What an inspiring trip!

We are initiating a BYOD/One-to-One Computing programme with our Year 9 in 2014, phasing it in for the entire Secondary School over the next five years; this trip to Melbourne (along with a recent Twitter discussion via #edchatz) has reinforced something about incorporating IT more and more into the classroom: Start with the Pedagogy!

At all four schools, there was a real range of IT in use, from one-to-one devices to media studios. What struck me, though, was that the IT was not "in your face"; it was just part of how the students learned and created.

At St Leonard's and John Monash, students seemed to work almost exclusively on their devices for keeping records of their lessons and for research. This is not to say the lessons seemed to be computer-centred; this could not be further from the truth; these schools seem to to have embraced the idea of blended learning very well. Their approaches were quite different but both worth exploring.

John Monash did not seem to prescribe a device, nor did they prescribe apps/programmes. The students were given tasks/inquiries and they networked with each other to discover/share ways to achieve the task. This is the kind of freedom I try to give my students, but with so few bringing their own device to class, it has had limited success - bring on next year so I can see if it works for me or not!

St Leonard's have a much more prescribed approach; the departments decide on the apps and online resources they want for their students. As the teachers know exactly which apps and resources the students have, they can plan their tasks and lessons around these. Of course they can add free apps to these. I do like this idea for introducing one-to-one computing or BYOD, and would (personally) expect students to go beyond the prescribed apps and resources as they got into the senior schooling years.

Regardless of the approach towards BYOD or one-to-one computing, it was crystal-clear that all of the schools had started by looking at the learning and social outcomes for their students, then looked for suitable apps, resources, programmes, devices, learning spaces etc. to cater for these educational needs. This is probably why their classes looked like Biology lessons or English classes etc. and did not look like Computing classes. I think you have failed if you cannot quickly tell which subject (or task) the students are working on because the technology is dominating, rather than the learning dominating.

This pedagogy-focus (along with digital citizenship) was made explicitly clear in a recent #edchatnz discussion on Twitter as well. Rather than asking which apps etc. are best, start by asking, "What are my desired outcomes?" Then look for the apps etc. that make those outcomes more meaningful, more real, or more accessible. The other key thing that I think is important is to consider, "What can't I do with a pen and paper?" followed by, "Will the students' devices be able to do that?"

Along with my Science-based outcomes/themes, I want my 2014 Year 9 class to have a few other key overarching themes:

• connect and collaborate
• learning also happens outside the classroom
• contribute positively to all of your communities
• digital footprints are permanent
• high trust, high consequence