Table of Contents
Lesson 1 - WARMING UP
AT A GLANCE
- To capture students' interest and find out what they think they know about how heat can be produced in many ways and can move from one object to another.
- To elicit students’ questions about heat and keeping warm.
- Source: Scootle: Heating up
Students:
- role-play the way they feel when they are hot or cold
- discuss the ways they would warm up if they felt cold
- explain the reasons they think different things help them to warm up
- experience and explain their ideas on how heat moves.
How well do the prescribed activities meet the primary outcome: to 'Capture student interest'?
- How are teachers guided in evaluating and utilising 'questions raised by students' to promote deeper understanding and education outcomes in the context of physical sciences?
- How useful are these exercises in explicitly promoting scientific understanding of what heat is and how heat is produced and moves?
The above activities fail to capture student interest and provide no method to assess student understanding… except measured against the subjective understanding/misconceptions of the teacher.
Lesson focus
The focus of the Engage phase is to spark students’ interest, stimulate their curiosity, raise questions for inquiry and elicit their existing beliefs about the topic. These existing ideas can then be taken account of in future lessons.
When thinking about ways of 'stimulating their (sic: student) curiosity', how would the activities recommended here rate compared with others? - Very poorly.
Assessment focus
Diagnostic assessment
Diagnostic assessment is an important aspect of the Engage phase. In this lesson you will elicit what students already know and understand about:
- how heat can be produced in many ways and can move from one object to another.
You will also monitor their developing science inquiry skills.
: Is the suggested method of benchmarking and evaluating 'inquiry skills' during the 'Engage phase' scientifically rigorous. How well does the recommended methodology 'monitor their developing science enquiry skills'? NO.
Key lesson outcomes
Science
Students will be able to represent their current understanding as they:
- discuss strategies animals have for keeping warm
- explain their existing ideas about how to stay warm
- identify heat sources
- discuss how heat moves.
Literacy
Students will be able to:
- contribute to class discussions about how to keep warm
- use talk to their share ideas
- represent their ideas about how heat moves
- contribute to the class science journal and word wall.
This lesson also provides opportunities to monitor the development of students’ general capabilities (highlighted through icons).
How is “the development of students’ general capabilities” evaluated and/or included in a teaching feedback loop? NO
Equipment
FOR THE CLASS:
- class science journal
- word wall
- ideas map (see ‘Preparation’)
- multimedia resources showing animals or humans trying to keep warm (see ‘Preparation’)
FOR EACH TEAM
- student science journal
- ice block
: How well are ice-blocks, candles, kettles and similar resources suited for hands-on student use in the classroom? Many, activities involving resources such as candles and hot water, are not well suited for use in primary classrooms.
Preparation
- Read ‘How to use a science journal’ (Appendix 2).
- Read ‘How to use a word wall’ (Appendix 3).
- Create a template for an ideas map (see Lesson step 6) in the class science journal and record the topic 'keeping warm' in the centre.
- Prepare an area for students to stand and role-play the way they feel in different situations (see Lesson step 1). If the classroom is small consider using an outside area. Identify multimedia resources, such as pictures or videos, which show animals or humans trying to keep warm, for example:
- BBC Learning zone clip 12886, ‘Penguin Huddle’: www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/penguin-huddle/12886.html [Opens new Window]
- Discovery atlas: Snow monkeys: www.discovery.com/tv-shows/other-shows/videos/discovery-atlas-snow-monkeys.htm [Opens new Window]
- The book Antarctica by Helen Cowcher, ISBN: 0-374-40371-6. Create a page in the class science journal titled ‘Our questions about heat’.
Role-playing and videos of plants and animals - is that really the best we can do to teach science?
Optional:
Display the science journal, multimedia resources and ideas map on an interactive whiteboard.
Check the PrimaryConnections website to see if an accompanying interactive resource has been developed: www.primaryconnections.org.au
: Most of the optional activities outlined on the recommended sites are broken, outdated and/or irrelevant. Of all possible options and teaching sources available on the modern Internet, why set the bar so low?
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Lesson steps
Introduce the multimedia depicting animals trying to keep warm (see ‘Preparation’).
Ask questions, such as:
- What do you think they are doing?
- Why do you think they are doing that?
- How might this help them keep warm?
Note: In the Engage phase, do not provide any formal definitions or correct students’ answers as the purpose is to elicit students’ prior knowledge.
Research shows that providing formal definitions does little to correct student 'prior knowledge' (misconceptions). In case a bench-mark is required, then, as this is a scientific enquiry, why not run a controlled, scientific pre-test?
Introduce the class science journal and discuss its purpose and features.
Record students’ answers in the class science journal.
Again… Informal questions and answers, animals trying to keep warm. Is this really the best we can do to teach science?
Literacy focus
Why do we use a science journal?
- We use a science journal to record what we see, hear, feel and think so that we can look at it later.
What does a science journal include?
- A science journal includes dates and times. It might include written text, drawings, measurements, labelled diagrams, photographs, tables and graphs.
Ask students to stand where they have space to move (see ‘Preparation’).
Explain that you are going to describe some situations and they will role-play as if they were in that situation.
Ask students to imagine that they are standing in a room that is at a very comfortable temperature. Then ask them imagine that the room is getting colder, and colder, until it is freezing. Ask the students to then imagine that the room is getting warmer and warmer, until it is extremely hot.
Is this really the best we can do in coming up with inventive and engaging ways to teach science? Arghhhhhhh!
Diagnostic assessment:
As a class discuss the activity, asking questions, such as:
- What did you do when you acted like the room was freezing cold/extremely hot?
- Why do you think you acted that way?
- Have you ever been very cold/hot before? Why do you think that happened?
- Introduce the class ideas map (see ‘Preparation). Discuss the purpose and features of an ideas map.
Does this (Diagnostic Assessment as described above), provide a scientific or otherwise rigorous 'Diagnostic assessment'? It does not.
Literacy focus
Why do we use an ideas map?
- We use an ideas map to show our thoughts about a topic.
What does an ideas map include?
- An ideas map includes a title in the centre. Ideas are written around it and arrows are drawn between similar ideas. An ideas map might include pictures and symbols.
Ask students to think about ways to keep warm. Organise the ideas map using categories, such as:
- Go somewhere warm.
- Stand near something warm.
- Hold something warm.
- Put warm clothes on.
- Move your body.
Ask students to add ideas to each of these categories, for example, by coming forward and drawing pictures or by describing things that they or you can record.
Optional:
- Ask students to create their own ideas map in their science journals.
- Work sample of a class ideas map on ways to keep warm
Diagnostic assessment:
Use guided questioning to find out what students think they know about heat and the movement of heat, for example:
- Why do you think a heater is hot?
- How do you think a blanket keeps you warm?
- Why do people need heat?
- In what everyday activities do we use heat?
- What are some sources of heat that we rely on?
- How do we measure heat?
Write students’ explanations on the ideas map and join them with arrows or lines to the ideas they explain.
How does the proposed methodology ensure that teachers themselves have sufficient understanding to 'Use guided questioning' and/or to evaluate student responses?
Diagnostic assessment:
Ask students to hold an ice block in their hands and observe and feel what happens. After the ice has melted and students have dried their hands ask them to touch their faces and describe how their hands feel.
Ask students to draw a picture and write to explain what they think happened to cause the ice block to melt and why their hands were cold using the following sentence starters:
- The ice block melted because … “My hand was warm”
- My hand was cold afterwards because … “The ice block made it cold”
These questions and the corresponding answers provided are incorrect and perpetuate the misconception. The answers confirm that the student has no understanding of the scientific principle of heat transfer.
Record students’ questions about heat and warming up on the ‘Our questions about heat’ page of the class science journal.
Draw students’ attention to the word wall and discuss its purpose and features.
Research shows that most teachers hold the same scientific misconceptions as their students! How does the proposed methodology ensure that teachers themselves have sufficient understanding to 'Use guided questioning' and/or to evaluate student responses? Hundreds of surveys over the last four decades show that more than 70% of teachers share the same misconceptions as their students about heat (see references in next lesson - LESSON-2).
Literacy focus
Why do we use a word wall?
- We use a word wall to record words we know or learn about a topic. We display the word wall in the classroom so that we can look up words we are learning about and see how they are spelled.
What does a word wall include?
- A word wall includes a topic title or picture and words that we have seen or heard about the topic.
Ask students what words or images from today’s lesson would be useful to place on the word wall.
Invite students to contribute words from different languages to the word wall, including local Indigenous words for hot, cold, heat or warmth, if possible.
Construct a 'word wall'. Is this the best we can do to meet our primary objective: 'capture students' interest' though the blending of literacy and physical science?
Curriculum links
English:
Use comparative language, such as cold, colder, coldest; warm, warmer, warmest.
The Arts
Discuss requirements of clothing that is used for warmth.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures Indigenous perspectives
Discuss traditional ways to keep warm, for example, wearing a kangaroo skin.
Again, is this the best we can offer to help teachers in blending physical science, English and the Arts? NO
SUMMARY
All progress takes effort. With the bar set so low, the easiest thing to do is to raise it?