Category Archives: 2.1 Curriculum

All About Science Literacy

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When one is scientifically literate, they will realise and understand the scientific ideas and methods required to take part in everyday life. Throughout our lifetimes we regularly hear stories about many different issues around the world, such as global warming and new medicines and drugs that have been invented to apparently improve the quality of life. As a scientifically literate person, one must be able to answer things that they question by investigating the answer. These questions come from our inquisitiveness in everyday life.

Scientific literacy suggests that a person can recognise scientific concerns underlying local and national choices and express positions that are scientifically and technologically informed. One who is scientifically literate can display positions that are scientifically and technologically well-versed. They are also able to look at scientific statements and evaluate them by studying their source and procedures, and use this in such a way that they can then put forward arguments to reach a conclusion.

Being science literate means not believing the first thing you hear before you have surrounding evidence to the fact. In 2002, BBC news reported that German scientists had found out that blonde hair would become extinct within the next 200 years as it is a recessive trait. It stated that for “a child to have blonde hair, it must have the gene on both sides of the family in the grandparent’s generation” (BBC News, 2002)

The New York Times, found out later that year that no actual study had been done. Despite this revelation, the study continued to be cited in publications right up until 2006.

This sparked a panic and instantly everyone knew about this, though it was only one study, which turns out to not have even happened. Therefore, you should not trust any fact unless you find more than one reliable study to support the evidence presented in the fact.

I believe that it is important to teach children how scientific experiments can sometimes be “fixed” to derive a preferred outcome. This, is often to fool people into believing something that isn’t true. For example, on the 1st April 1957 the BBC aired a ‘Panorama’ programme which hoaxed thousands of viewers to believing that spaghetti was grown on trees in Switzerland which, anyone who is scientifically illiterate would testify isn’t scientifically possible. For children to develop the knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts so that they are able to challenge facts they believe aren’t correct then we, as teachers, must teach fair testing throughout the scientific curriculum. I believe that it’s important to enforce to children that they cannot just take the conclusion from their first experiment which they only carry out once. For reliable results they must repeat the experiment several times to ensure that their conclusions are correct. Thus, building their scientific literacy.

 

BBC NEWS (2002) Blondes ‘to die out in 200 years’ Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2284783.stm (accessed 26/01/16)

BBC NEWS (1957) BBC Fools the Nation Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/1/newsid_2819000/2819261.stm (Accessed: 8/02/16)

ICT: Animation

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Teamwork—a hugely important skill in animation! When we teach animation to children, often they will be required to work in pairs or groups, therefore teamwork and cooperation is essential for the lesson to be successful. In a lecture the other day, in pairs or small groups we were required to make a mini movie using animation. We were instructed to have a director and a camera person in our groups, and then one person playing one character in the animation. If the people in the group do not get along or work well together, it just won’t work. You need all these people to ensure the smooth running of the process of creating an animation and it wouldn’t work even if there was only one of these team members missing.

ICT skills are important when creating animation on a computer. The child needs to be able to work a camera and understand why you would place it at different angles, different distances away from the subject of the animation and the effects that all these changes would have.

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Image from: img2http://internet-safety-primary-education.wikispaces.com/animation

Children need the ability to add in sounds to their animation to make it more exciting and creative. They need to be able to either record a sounds themselves through a microphone (which also require ICT skills), or the ability to source a song online and then add it into their animation. This can get tricky, especially if you aren’t that good with ICT, therefore the children should be shown how to do this.

Internet safety is key! A teacher must ensure that he/she teaches the pupils how to use the internet safely before allowing them to go online or use ICT. There are so many resources out there for children to use. Classtools is a great website with lots of different activities for the children and the teacher to use. Here is a link to a profile I created on ‘Fakebook’, which can be used as a resource for teachers to teach children about fictional or historical characters in a completely safe way.

ZU3D is a great software that is safe to use and makes creating animations really easy. It is simple to record your own sounds and add them into your animation wherever you want, or to add subtitles or credits into the movie. We were introduced to this software the other day in uni and this is an example of what can be created:

The teacher should familiarise the children with how to work this software before getting into the lesson. The teacher should ensure all of these skills are taught to the children before creating an animation to ensure the best possible outcome.

Speaking of outcomes, here are the expected experiences and outcomes from the Curriculum for Excellence:

available in PDF format at http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/learningandteaching/curriculumareas/technologies/eandos/index.asp

available in PDF format at http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/learningandteaching/curriculumareas/technologies/eandos/index.asp

Peer Review Strategies for the Classroom

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Pinterest is such a fantastic resource for teachers. It is so easy to use and is full of great ideas. I have started a new board on my account where I have saved some peer review strategy ideas. I will continue to use this board over the period of my course, so hopefully by the time it comes to me having to use peer review strategies in the classroom, I will have this as a reference to go to for ideas and inspiration.  P (2)