Assignment 1 Teaching Science in Early Primary

Practical Activities in Science

Task Outline

Plan and conduct a Hands-on Minds-on practical activity that would be suitable for developing students understanding of a science concept described in a teaching scenario and related to a Science Understanding strand of the Australian Curriculum: Science. Reflect on the effectiveness of the activity for science learning and how you might implement the activity in a classroom.

Year 3 teaching Scenario

A Year 3 class is observing and recording the living things under the leaf litter in the school garden. This is part of a Biological Sciences unit based on AAC9S3U01 (Students learn to: compare characteristics of living and non-living things and examine the differences between the life cycles of plants and animals). The teacher notices that some children are describing small spiders as insects and realises that these children have a misconception.

The teacher is a little uncertain about her knowledge of Biological Sciences and how to teach it. She asks the schools Curriculum Coordinator for some advice about a suitable hands--on minds on activity that would challenge these students thinking.

The Curriculum Coordinator asks you to develop background science notes and plan, conduct and evaluate a single activity that could be used by Year 3 teachers to help students develop correct understanding of insects and spiders. As you are a recently graduated teacher on contract to the school, the Curriculum Co-ordinator asked you to present a written report of this professional development activity for discussion at your review.

Task description

Part A: Background science notes for teachers

Develop a set of detailed set of background science notes about how living things are classified in Biological Sciences and how insects and spiders differ. Please provide precise citations and/or links to all sources of information (i.e., journal articles, book chapters or pages).

Part B: Plan and trial a teaching activity

Choose a suitable hands-on and minds-on activity that uses living organisms and a practical model/ visual representation/ role play to develop students understanding of spiders and insects. Refer to the course notes and literature to decide on the type of activity. Please provide a working link or precise reference to the source of any activity and materials you used.

Trial the activity yourself, a provide a brief description of what you did, together with a series of photographs of you conducting the activity, showing any materials, equipment used, together with any products made, or data/ results and conclusions. These photographs must be captioned, the detail clearly visible, and your face must be seen.

Part C: Self-evaluation and evaluation of the effectiveness of the trialled activity

Evaluate your personal experience of the activity by:

identifying any manipulative, practical or safety issues of concern,

explaining with reasons, the modifications you have made to the activity

describing how the activity impacted on your thinking and understanding of the science concept

identifying any gaps in your science content and science pedagogical knowledge, and explaining how you would address those gaps and modify your teaching approach

Part D: Revised implementation plan of the activity.

Based on your evaluation of the trial:

Develop a revised classroom activity to help students understand the difference between spiders and insects. This should NOT be a full lesson plan but an activity that could be part of a lesson. You should

list equipment/materials and describe the steps of the activity, including safety instructions

include scaffolding such as procedural and cognitive instructions and questions that challenge childrens thinking

identify the teaching context of the activity (e.g. individual, pairs, or groups)

cite the source of the activity. The activity must NOT be a direct copy of the source..

Include access via a working link to any worksheets, planning devices you have developed or other stimuli material.

Provide an additional set of supporting notes for teachers that:

justifies how the activity aligns with the Year 3 Biological Science curriculum

Justifies how and why revised/extended activity will engage childrens thinking and develop understanding of insects and spiders.

Support your argument with reference to the science education literature, explaining how the pedagogical strategy will developing students understanding of the science concept

advises teachers about practical implementation and safety issue that may arise, and suggests practical ways of avoiding or minimising risk

Presentation of your Assignment

Use the template provided

Please retain the style and format of the template (Calibri 10, 1.15 spaced)

The template should be NO MORE than FIVE pages, including references using APA7 style.

Submission of your Assignment

The assignment must be submitted via the Study Desk Assessment submission area:

The template for this assignment is to be submitted in electronic format as a Microsoft Word document via Study Desk

It is helpful to save the file in the following format to aid the marking e.g., EDX2260_A1 _Surname.docx.

Do NOT submit as a pdf.

Always check that the file has been uploaded correctly and that you have an electronic copy of the assignment available if required.

Task weighting

50%

Academic Integrity

As a student of the USQ academic community, you are asked to work to uphold the principles of academic integrity during your course of study. USQ sets expectations and responsibilities of students, more specifically it states that students will commit to engage in behaviour that is consistent with the Universitys values of integrity and honesty in academic endeavours particularly when undertaking Assessment. (Academic Integrity Policy - Principles).

At university, students are expected to demonstrate their own understanding and thinking using the ideas provided by others to support and inform their work, always making due acknowledgement to the source. While we encourage peer learning, it is not appropriate to share assignments with other students. If you do share your assignment with another student, and they copy part of or all of your assignment for their own submission, this is considered collusion and you may also be reported for academic misconduct. If you are unsure and need further information you can find this in the Academic Integrity Policy.