“I need to be more explicit.”
The science team teachers at Newlands Intermediate were very keen to upskill teachers in the science capabilities. The teachers said that they enjoyed their science teaching more because they had a better understanding of the science capabilities. They also wanted to show other teachers how to do the same. Lessons were based around three of the science capabilities:
- Gather and Interpret data - writing scientific descriptions and explanations.
- Interpret representations - using science texts and representations.
- Use evidence - building criteria.
Tapping into the school-wide focus on literacy
There was already a school-wide focus on literacy, so the teachers at Newlands Intermediate incorporated science literacy into their existing programmes by including:
- non-fiction science texts in student reading programmes across the school
- texts that included graphs and diagrams such as weather maps
- science writing in their literacy programmes.
The focus on scientific writing included teaching students to use
- an objective reasoned tone
- precise vocabulary for clear explanation and clarity of communication
- topic-specific vocabulary
- the present tense (explanations are timeless).
An explicit focus in the classroom on using evidence in explanations
The teachers created a set of questions to help students develop their skills of using evidence in their science explanations. These questions included “What evidence are you using to make your conclusion?” and “How reliable is your evidence?”
In one of the science investigations students were asked to explain the reaction of putting mentos in coke. The students had to predict what would happen, show the results, explain the method, and explain the science behind the reaction. After using the science toolkit, a science team teachers decided to focus on just one aspect of data gathering in this investigation. He asked his students how they would measure the fizzing of the mentos in the coke. They could time how long the mentos fizzed or how high the fizz might rise. Students needed to collect the data and critique the validity of their results. Students still performed the full investigation, but only one aspect, i.e., collecting valid data, was the main focus. The teacher said that looking at one aspect of the science capability made the purpose of the investigation clearer for both him and his students. He also found it much easier to explain the purpose of the investigation to other teachers who were not as confident in their science teaching.
In another investigation about whether chocolate tasted sweeter when it was hot, warm, or cold, students were also asked to make predictions, follow a method, and form a conclusion. This time the focus was to identify the evidence students were using to make their conclusion and to make a judgement on the reliability of their evidence.
In both examples students were learning about data collection and then being asked to critique their decisions.