Driving on the beach

This task is about noticing things, and thinking about what you notice.

Look carefully at the picture.

Teaching and learning:

The key ideas that are covered in this task are:

Nature of science: Participating and contributing	Science knowledge
When making decisions about environmental issues, it is important to ask questions such as, “What could happen if …..”	An event could affect the environment and what lives there.

Why are the ideas in this assessment task important for students to learn?In making sound decisions about the environment and what lives in it, we need to be aware that changes have a potential flow on effect to the environment itself and what lives there. Considering what effects an event might have, and deciding how likely and how serious the effects might be, assists decision-making about managing risk. Noticing is an important prerequisite for making decisions. Students need to be aware of the different elements within any environment before they can think about how these things impact on each other. Noticing what is missing is also important.

Diagnostic and formative information:

Based on a sample of 6 Year 4 students.

Question a): Noticing

Trial students noticed general items, e.g. the beach, sea, vehicle, driftwood.They also noticed details, e.g., the sea is quite calm, there is a lot of wood. They discussed the fact that it was not the sort of beach where you would find lots of tourists or people sunbathing. Some had not seen this sort of beach but others could name beaches they had been to that looked a bit like this one.

No students noticed the line of seagulls.

Question b): Identifying problems

Problems identified included:

the exhaust, which could kill animals
algae on the wood could cause pollution if it was run over
people, animals or birds' nests could be run over
stuff might fall off the truck and hurt people or animals (although no one noticed anything on the truck)

Question c): Which is the worst problem?

The worst problem identified was that people, animals or pets might get run over. However, they thought that was unlikely because there didn't appear to be many around.

They thought that birds' nests being run over was the most likely problem to happen. This is in contrast to student responses to Dogs at the beach where another group of students didn't think about this as a problem. Science understandings

The trial students knew that

some sea birds nest on beaches
not all beaches are the same.

They did not demonstrate an awareness that

small creatures (such as sand hoppers, pipi, crabs, spiders, etc) live in or under the sand. The only animals they talked about were birds and domesticated animals that might be visiting with people (dogs and horses).
plants are an important part of the ecosystem (there are none visible in the photograph)
driftwood can provide shelter for small animals.

Some responses demonstrated some misconceptions.

Suggesting that exhaust fumes would kill animals at the beach shows a lack of understanding of scale. This is a common difficulty with students of this age (and older).
They decided the driftwood came from other countries via the sea. None suggested that the wood came down New Zealand rivers.
The comment about algae on wood causing pollution suggests that this student knows about the problem of algae in waterways, but doesn't know how it occurs. However, it is also a good example of a student coming up with a hypothesis based on information available to him.

Next steps:

Science Capability 1: Gather and interpret data

Close observation is an important skill to develop in science and is an aspect of Capability 1: Gather and interpret data. Noticing what is there is an important first step that may help students think about likely impacts of particular actions or events.

In this activity, students should be able to observe the photograph closely and give detailed descriptions of what they see. Students may need practice with this. Encourage students to carefully describe what they see, rather than just label it. For example, if students say they can see a beach, ask, “What does it look like? What do you notice about the sand? What can you see on the beach?” Science knowledge.If students are to make accurate predictions of likely consequences they also need knowledge about the particular context. In this context, finding out about the particular context helps students to better assess risks. For example:

the small, less noticeable animals that might live at the beach, both below and above the tide line.
how debris can provide shelter for these animals
how the beach supports various sea birds' lives
how a vehicle may impact on the natural beach ecosystem.

Vocabulary

Students need the language to explain cause and effect relationships. Asking “Why do you think that?” can encourage students to form better explanations.

Capability 5: Engage with scienceTo be able to make informed decisions about environmental issues, students need to develop a sense of probability and risk. One strategy could be to get students to brainstorm all possible consequences, encouraging students to be as creative as they can, and then get the class to debate which are the most likely scenarios and explain why. The class could also debate which would be the most damaging scenarios. Are there any scenarios that appear near the top of both lists? A scenario that is both likely and damaging is serious. Science in the real world is rarely “black and white” and the ability to weigh up and consider various alternatives is an important skill for students to develop.

Key Competency: Thinking

This task provides opportunities for students to think at a “systems level”, an important skill to science and the environment. Before they can begin to consider how a particular action or event will affect a system they need some understanding of the individual parts of that system. The sand, vehicle, the sea, animals and plants that live at the beach, and people could be regarded as parts of a system in this context. Discussing "what might happen if" particular scenarios are played out can support students to start developing systems thinking. Students need to think about the scenarios both immediately and into the future, Some examples of "what if" questions in this context are:

What might happen if birds that live at the beach are nesting? How would this affect the populations of birds in the future?
What might happen to the beach if there were no seagulls?
What might happen if the four-wheel-drive runs over a crab buried in the sand?
What might happen if there was no driftwood on the beach?
What might happen if you picked up a stone, moved some seaweed, or dug a hole in the sand?

Provide opportunities to discuss "what if" questions in a variety of contexts.

Living World	Environment	Other
3 Birds 6 Soil animals 21 Life between the tides 22 Tidal communities 53 Moulds and fungi	1 Waterways 2 Weathering and erosion 12 Volcanoes 40 Earthquakes 43 Spring 44 Spring is a season 50 Storms 52 The land changes 8 The Moo 9 Shadows	16 Sand, salt and jelly crystals 23 Fresh food 24 Preserving food 32 Introducing metals 33 Working with metals 34 Parachutes 37 Floating and sinking 38 Understanding buoyancy 42 Marbles 46 Keeping warm 47 Insulation 56 Bread 57 Eggs 58 Ice 59 Bikes

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Driving on the beach

Driving on the beach

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