Science learning w Susan #1

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I arrived into Room 6 & 7's science lesson with Susan as it was part way through.  Every student in the room was engaged.  The children were exploring a variety of magnets and a variety of other household objects - metal and non-metal.  It was very open ended, allowing the children to discover.  Every so often Susan would bring the tables more materials or another type of magnet, or invite the children to move around the room and explore with their magnets.  I liked how this was offered, as an invitation, so that children could stay at the tables and continue with what they were doing if they wished. 

I loved how Susan referred to the children as scientists i.e. 'the scientists at this table...."  A bit like in Mantle - this elevates the position of the children, and aligns the children alongside the teacher - as in WE are all scientists, as opposed to the teacher being the font of all knowledge.  We are all scientists and all our noticings, wonderings and thoughts are valued.  Susan also used 'elevated' vocab with the children, e.g. referring to the properties of the magnet etc. 

Susan modelled taking good care of our scientific equipment and carefully counted back in the magnets - explaining to the children why this was important.

The value and importance of genuine collaboration and student agency came up in our meeting today with Susan after school - so we have this message coming to us from our science PLD and our Kootuitui PLD also.  And a reminder for teachers to continue to be collaborative.  Which I think we do already and can build on the good habits we built via our writing PLD over the past years. 

Susan reminded us to ask 'how do you know that?' and 'why do you think that?' - this helps us tap into our kids prior experiences.  She asked us to consider - what's more important, the teacher getting what they planned completed or the child's learning journey?  Responsiveness to our students is key.

Our Teaching as Inquiry will be around 'How will we support our students to communicate and participate in science?' (nature of science).  Our next steps are to try some 'mini-experiences' that Susan is going to share with us (examples from today were pouring water onto a surface outside, drawing around it and going back an hour later; lying under a tree looking up for 10 minutes without talking (!!) and then discussing what we noticed; taking a photo of the sky from the same place at the same time everyday).  These all require no extra equipment and are not too scary.  Susan is also going to share some 'productive questioning' prompts for teachers to have displayed in their class.


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