Teaching Science Concepts in Primary Schools

Teaching Science Concepts in Primary Schools

A resource to inform and support the teaching of the Australian Curriculum: Science in Years 3 – 6

Rachel Sheffield Geoff Quinton

Biological Sciences Chemical Sciences Earth and Physical Sciences Space Sciences

Teaching Science Concepts in Primary Schools

Contents

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Rationale and Aims

Introduction

How to Use this Book

Big Ideas in Science

Level of Complexity

Structure of Each Section

Year 3

Year 3 Biological Sciences Year 3 Chemical Sciences Year 3 Earth and Space Sciences Year 3 Physical Sciences

Year 4

Year 4 Biological Sciences Year 4 Chemical Sciences Year 4 Earth and Space Sciences Year 4 Physical Sciences

Year 5

Year 5 Biological Sciences Year 5 Chemical Sciences Year 5 Earth and Space Sciences Year 5 Physical Sciences

Year 6

Year 6 Biological Sciences Year 6 Chemical Sciences Year 6 Earth and Space Sciences Year 6 Physical Sciences

Bibliography

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Teaching Science Concepts in Primary Schools

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Teaching Science Concepts in Primary Schools

Rationale and Aims

Primary-­‐aged students have a natural curiosity which, when harnessed, can lead to a love of science that will last well beyond their primary school years. Primary teachers of science are very experienced at providing engaging, age appropriate activities in science. There is a large body of knowledge and experience around the teaching of science inquiry with an excellent use of contexts relevant to students’ lives. However, there are issues of the teaching of Science Understanding concepts that offer challenges for the teaching of science in primary schools. This resource is aimed at addressing some of these issues.

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Identifies the key scientific concepts (Big Ideas) that are developed through the curriculum Unpacks the Science Understanding Strand of the Australian Curriculum Provides a clear description of the key concepts that underpin the content descriptions Suggests teaching activities that are appropriate for the concepts at each year level Identifies content and activities that may not be appropriate for the majority of students at certain year levels Provides descriptions of a few of the typical misconceptions or alternative frameworks associated with the concepts and offers advice on how these can be addressed Identifies key words that are important in the description of the big idea, and describes issues associated with the use of these words Explains students’ prior learning expected around the concept

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Seeks to increase teacher confidence in science and science teaching

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Affords suggestions as to how students can produce evidence of their understanding of a concept Suggests appropriate pedagogy for the teaching of science concepts in primary classrooms Explains why some students may find particular scientific concepts challenging Encourages the use of the inquiry methods to support the concepts

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This resource:

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Teaching Science Concepts in Primary Schools

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Big Ideas in Science

This book uses the key concepts identified in the Science Understanding strand of the Australian Curriculum: Science. These can be referred to as Big Ideas of science and they develop through the curriculum from Foundation to Year 10.

They are:

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Biological Sciences • • •

(Evolution has resulted in) a diverse range of living things on Earth Living things interact with each other and their environment Features of living things are related to their function

Chemical Sciences • •

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Substances have different properties that are determined by their structure Substances can change as a result of energy transfer (and interacting with each other)

Earth and Space Sciences • •

Our Earth is part of a solar system (that is part of a larger universe) The Earth is subject to change caused by natural processes and human use of resources

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Physical Sciences • •

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Areas in brackets are aspects of the Big Idea that are taught in the secondary school curriculum.

It is useful to include these in our thinking as it helps frame the conceptual change journey that the students are undertaking. For example, it is important to realise that one of the reasons that there is an emphasis on survival, features and adaptations earlier in the curriculum, is that it leads to the development of the notion of ‘survival of the fittest’ and the theory of natural selection later. Likewise, in the chemical sciences, physical changes caused by energy transfer, such as melting and freezing, will be added to with chemical changes caused by interactions with other substances in upper primary and secondary classrooms.

It is to be noted that the Australian Curriculum: Science has been written as a developmental continuum, with each piece of new content building on that from previous years. As the Curriculum is being implemented, students may not have always experienced the expected curriculum as outlined in the Australian Curriculum. Teachers will need to determine what knowledge and understanding that students bring to their classroom and take this into account when planning programs. This book highlights for teachers the key experiences that are built on, thus enabling efficient use of class time and clearly targeted strategies to maximise the opportunities for students to develop their understandings of these concepts.

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Year 3 Overview

Science Understanding

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• Students begin to develop an understanding of energy flows through simple systems by investigating heat and its effects on solids and liquids.

• They develop an appreciation of regular cycles: for example, in observing day and night, and realise that if a cycle is regular, it can be used to predict future events, (for example, what time will the sun rise tomorrow?)

• Students begin to use grouping to give some order to their observations. For example, living things that have wings, living things that have fur, substances that are solids at normal temperatures. They appreciate that some things are not always easy to classify, and that decisions are made based on observable evidence.

Science Inquiry Skills

• At Year 3, students begin to quantify their observations to enable one situation to be compared to another situation, such as comparing living things based on their features or comparing the effect of heat on different materials. This will involve starting to use more formal units, such as measuring temperature in °C, and time in days and hours in relation to the rotation of the Earth.

• They learn new ways to identify and represent relationships, for example using flow charts and describing cause and effect relationships such as ‘if ________ occurs, _________will happen because _________.’

• Students can look for and describe trends in data by looking at two way tables and graphs (simple column graphs [bar charts]) to identify trends.

• They use their understanding of relationships between components of simple systems, such as the rotation of the Earth to make predictions.

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Science as a Human Endeavour

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• Students should be developing their appreciation that ‘doing science’ means that people are making predictions and describing relationships between events that are observed.

• They identify where people (such as builders, cooks, botanists, zoologists) use science knowledge in their lives. This means that they should be aware of what science knowledge (such as knowledge of living things, properties of materials, movement of the Earth) people actually need to know, rather than they ‘just do science’.

Teaching Science Concepts in Primary Schools

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Year 3 Biological Sciences Overview Big Idea:

Features of living things are related to their function Prior learning linked to the Big Idea

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Living things have a variety of external features (Year 1) Students may have: o Observed common features of plants and animals o Explored that animals have distinct features such as fur, feathers and skin o Examined that plants have leaves, stems and sometimes flowers.

Living things can be grouped on the basis of observable features and can be distinguished from non-­‐living things Key Ideas: o Living things have set traits or characteristics that identify them o Living things can be grouped based on their similarities o Key features that living things all demonstrate o require oxygen (respire) o excrete (remove waste) o move o respond to stimuli o reproduce (produce new living things) o grow o need food (nutrition)

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Future learning linked to the Big Idea Living things, including plants and animals, depend on each other and the environment to survive (Year 4)

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Living things have life cycles (Year 4)

Key Ideas: o Life-­‐cycles can be observed and their stages articulated and explained o Life-­‐cycles of different plants and animals can be compared and contrasted o Plants and animals co-­‐exist and often provide each other with key requirements for survival o Habitats consist of a range of components including producers, consumers and decomposers o Animals can exist in predator/prey relationships and the numbers of each group are dependent on the other o Conditions for the survival of living things are specific to their needs

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Year 3 Chemical Sciences: Evidence of Achievement

Key Science Understanding learning outcome

Students use their understanding of the movement of the Earth, materials and the behaviour of heat to suggest explanations for everyday observations.

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(From Year 3 Achievement Standard)

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Students can be asked to: Examples of evidence Observe and describe changes Explain, using diagrams how familiar substances such as icy of state poles, butter and chocolate, can melt or freeze by adding or removing of heat.

Observe and classify materials Classify materials as solids and liquids based on observable

properties Predict, observe, explain Predict what might happen to familiar substances when heated or cooled Use moulds Describe how different shaped chocolates, candles and ice cubes can be made using moulds Create a presentation using Give examples of where melting and freezing occur in the PowerPoint home.

My examples:

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Year 3 Physical Sciences: Implications for Teaching

Teaching About Energy

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In teaching about energy, trying to define what energy is it is not particularly helpful. The key thing is what energy does. In reality, energy is a property, or an attribute of something. In some sense the term ‘energy’ is a construct, invented by scientists to explain how things happen, how changes to systems occur.

A moving object has energy, called kinetic energy, a sound wave has energy because the sound wave consists of particles of air moving in a particular way and an object held above our head has potential energy–if you drop it, it will fall to the ground. It is the energy of all these things that makes things happen.

So in the teaching of energy in primary school, it is important to appreciate that the teaching is about about forms of energy, rather than energy in its own right. However, by seeing that the different forms of energy such as light, sound and in year 3, heat, have some common characteristics (they have a source, they can travel, they can be sensed, they can be measured, they make things happen), students should find it less of a conceptual leap of faith when asked to consider how one form of energy an be changed (transformed) into another in later years, and eventually consider the law of conservation of energy.

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Earlier in the curriculum students will have explored things that produce light and sound.

Although they may not understand that light and sound are both forms of the entity that we call energy, students should realise that there are some similarities between light and sound. In the first instance we can ‘make’ them by doing things, such as banging a drum or lighting a match. In other words, they come from a source and our bodies know that they have been produced; through our ears and our eyes we sense the presence of sound and light. So can we ‘make’ heat? Yes, but it doesn’t just appear. There must be a source.

Rubbing hands together, lighting a match, connecting up an electric bulb and feeling it get warm. In the home, how is heat produced to cook food, to warm the house or to start a fire? These are sources of heat energy just as there are sources of light and sound, and this will also introduce the idea that some things can be a source of heat, light and sometimes sound as well.

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Common Misconceptions Around Sources of Heat

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Energy can be created. Correct concept: energy can neither be created nor destroyed only transformed from one form to another. When investigating sources of heat, it is important to highlight that something has to happen to ‘make’ the heat. For example, hands need to be rubbed together, wood has to be added to the burning fire, etc.

Energy is what living things have; non-­‐living things do not have energy. Correct concept: any object can possess energy. This misconception is often related to the everyday use of the word energy: “I have no energy today,” “the dogs were very energetic when we walked them.”

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Putting a coat on makes heat. Correct concept: The coat acts as an insulator only; the body possesses heat. Investigating how our bodies produce heat is a rich source of inquiry possibilities, even if it is as simple as holding a thermometer in a closed hand and watching the temperature rise. Students can then consider the coat as something that traps heat, rather than produces the heat.

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You can make ‘cold’. Correct concept: cold is the absence of heat. This is more to do with understanding energy transfer (see next section). If students can understand that energy can move, it is easier for them to appreciate that if heat moves away, the place it has left will now be colder.

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of scientific language. It is the source of the energy, such as the coal, oil or gas that is non-­‐renewable. Likewise food is not energy; it is a source of energy.

Possible Inquiry Questions for Sources of Heat

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Teaching Science Concepts in Primary Schools

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Learning Activities for Heat Moving

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Investigate metal, plastic, wooden spoons in hot water. Good to use spoons of similar size if possible. Compare how hot the end of the spoon gets in the metal and the plastic. This can be done by comparing the end of the spoons by touch. A slightly more quantitative method of comparison can be used by putting candle wax on the end of the spoons not in the water. Dipping the end of the spoon in molten candle wax could work to achieve this (safety note: to be done by teacher). Then time to see the candle wax on the spoons melts first

How can we keep something hot in the classroom? Students can carry out an investigation to see what materials are best at keeping a beaker or cup of hot water hot (safety note: maximum temperature 60 ºC). The temperature can be measured at the start. Students can wrap the beaker with different materials. Students can be asked: what types of materials should they use? How and when should they record the temperature of the water? Should they cover the top of the beaker? How can they make the test fair? Alternatively they could use one material and investigate whether the number of layers makes a difference.

Does wrapping an ice cube in wool/Aluminium foil/ etc. make it melt more quickly? Students can be asked how to measure how quickly the ice cubes melt. One way is to measure the amount of water collected, with the ice cubes set up so the water can be measured (sitting the cube in a funnel above a test tube works well). Then – how much water is produced in a set amount of time? Or how quickly the melting ice cubes produces a certain volume (for example 5 mL, the amount in a teaspoon)? There are ‘concept cartoons’ that can be used to initiate discussions around this area.

What conducts heat better, dry material or wet material? Three bottles of hot water can be set up at the same temperature (safety note: maximum temperature 60 ºC). One wrapped in dry material, one in wet material, one with no material. Measure the temperature of the water after a certain time. Which one stays the hottest? Can be linked to whether wet clothing keeps us warm. This can be done with neoprene (use old wetsuits). Do you get the same result?

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Plastic or Metal

Keeping Hot

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Wet and Dry

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Key Terms for Physical Properties

Definitions and Notes

A solid has a fixed mass, cannot be compressed and has a fixed volume; noun – iron is a solid / adjective – the solid wall Liquid This is any substance that takes the shape of the container and therefore does not have a fixed shape but has a fixed volume; noun – water is a liquid / adjective – the liquid baby food Freezing The process by which a liquid turns into a solid; adjective – ‘it was freezing this morning’ (a non-­‐scientific term and often just means very cold) / verb – ‘the water started freezing’ (this is a scientific idea) Mould Shape used for producing shaped objects from molten substances (as opposed to mould [a type of fungus] on ‘gone off’ food) Volume The amount of space taken up by a substance (as opposed to ‘volume of sound’) Material Any substance, not just ‘fabric’ material such as cotton or polyester; in this context, has the same meaning of the word substance; materials have properties, such as hardness and colour that are independent of the object that they make up; materials should not be described in terms of size and shape. (e.g. “the aluminium is light and shiny, the can is a cylinder shape about 15 cm high.”)

Object An item made out of a material; objects have properties based on the materials that they are made from, and others such as size and shape; an object can be a living thing Property/Properties A characteristic, what it looks like, what it feels like, what does it do? (compared to property in the context of ownership e.g.

“That pen is my property.”)

Recycling Note that this can mean actually reusing an object for the same task or changing the material in some way (e.g. melting plastic and moulding into different objects) Compress To make smaller (reduce the volume), normally by applying pressure or pushing down on something

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Solid

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What not to Teach Around the Effect of the Environment

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Key Terms for the Effect of the Environment

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Equations for photosynthesis or respiration Students are not expected to write equations for photosynthesis or respiration.

Anaerobic respiration Some single celled organisms metabolise other gases including sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide. This enables them to live in unique environments. This equation does not need to be examined but these creatures may be mentioned here.

Evolution Students are required to think about features that suit them to particular conditions but not deeply about natural selection and evolution. Students at this age will still struggle with the age of the earth and therefore will struggle with the notion of evolution.

Definitions and Notes

Habitat

A place where a plant or animal lives that provides for all its basic needs Animals, like bears, bats, tortoises and snakes have extended times when their body reduces its function as a response to changes in conditions (lack of food or change in temperature) When an animal moves routinely as a result of climatic conditions for example ducks migrate when the temperature changes All living things need a form of respiration to produce energy; most living things use a chemical reaction of simple sugars combining with oxygen to produce energy and carbon dioxide The ability of green plants to convert inorganic materials (carbon dioxide and water) to organic materials (simple sugar) and in the process produce oxygen gas A characteristic of an organism A feature produced by natural selection for its current function, it is inherited, functional and increases the fitness or survival Describes any living thing (plant, animal, fungi bacteria etc.)

Migration Respiration

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Trait Adaptation Organism

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Hibernation

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