Festival of Physics

I believe that you need three things to be a good science teacher. 1. An understanding of the place of science in the curriculum, 2. An understanding of how children learn and 3. A passion for science for the sake of science. This blog post is about number 3.

When I first started teaching I had come straight from my degree course and to be honest I was "scienced-out". Over the years that has changed a lot. As my degree level knowledge has wained my love of science for the sake of it has increased. So I gathered together my family (partner -48 and step-daughter -12) on saturday and headed to At-Bristol for the IoP-South West Branch Festival of Physics. We saw lectures about colour perception, Astronomy, Molecular Gastronomy and a workshop on the Hydraulics of helicopters.

All three of us had an engaging day; we learned something new from all of the lectures.

The day started with a lecture about colour. It took our key stage 3 knowledge on light a step further. My step-daughter who recently studied light in year 8 was able to happily access the ideas being talked about. The lecturer covered colour addition and subtraction and proved that what we teach at key stage 3 isn't quite the full story.

The lecture about the Universe was nothing that we don't teach at GCSE. However she included information about the astronomers that helped make the discoveries - I didn't realise so many were women! The presenter also talked about amateur astronomy, and showed us some amazing images she had taken, explaining the equipment she used.

The hydraulic workshop was excellent. The presenter works for a company that makes helicopters and despite the high technology involved was able to explain the ideas behind moving the angles of the propellers in terms of year 9 pressure. The teachers in the room (there were 5 of us) were all excited by his equipment and took a lot of photographs to recreate the equipment at school!

The last lecture was about molecular gastronomy. We were shown the RSC video of Heston Blumenthal eating tobacco jelly. Again linking to the curriculum. It was interesting to find out how much your own experiences affect the taste of the food you eat.

I am always impressed that my GCSE and Key Stage 3 science knowledge is enough for me to access a lot of the general interest science lectures and TV programmes. Of course I also have some knowledge of A-level Biology and Chemistry from 15 years ago, and my key stage 3/gcse knowledge is very strong due to 10 years of teaching it!

More than that though, by attending events like this I can relate the work of real scientists to what I teach. It is relevant that students understand about colour addition and subtraction in year 8 if they are to be involved in the digital arts. If cooks and chefs understand that people enjoy food more if it is served off a white plate that will help their business be more successful. I now have some information about how to be an amateur astronomer and may encourage one of my students to get involved in this. Knowing that helicopters use hydraulics may help to engage a disaffected student.

Well done to the IoP south west branch. I am already looking forward to next year!

What do you use twitter for?

I was asked this question last night, but I wasn't at my computer so the best I could do is send a couple of tweets in reply. But a 140 characters, even two lots of 140 characters does not begin to explain how I use twitter.

I think that the two comments above do a disservice to myself. I do "take" from twitter, but I also "give". I hope that is reflected in the number of my tweets that are marked as favourites or retweeted by other twitter users.

So what have a got out of twitter and how do I use it?

Firstly, I don't use twitter independently. I have this blog, a tumblr blog, a pinterest account a TES connect account, googlemail, googledrive, a delicious account and an about.me page. http://about.me/helen.rogerson

These extra accounts allow me to share resources. Pinterest allows me to link to photographs and describe them in 1000 characters. Many more than twitter. A link to this photograph and description can be tweeted, but the photograph stays organised on my "boards" so it is possible to find again in order to use. With tumblr I can create a blog post around a video, set of images, link, sound file or writing and add hashtags so I can find them again. Again I can automatically tweet from my tumblr account as I can from Pinterest allowing me to categorise the information and write more than 140 characters. 

Delicious and pinterest are also useful as I can save links and/or images to them an find them later. The ability to "favourite" tweets is great, but they are difficult to search. Pinterest allows me to save resources under titles and delicious allows me to tag them so I can search them later. 

If I want to share a resource then I can upload it to TES or store it as  googledoc and tweet the link. 

And if I want to give or receive more personal advice I will use the direct message service on twitter to send my email address to another twitter user so we can contact each other directly. 

Many users I follow use facebook because you can write more than 140 characters and comments are linked to the post, not spread out in a timeline. But twitter allows them to reach further and some social media apps allow you to post to more than one social media source at once. 

I think there is a lot more power in twitter if alternative social media is used.

Writing New Schemes of Work

The new national curriculum gives us the opportunity to review our schemes of work. I have been reviewing what we deliver and the considering the purpose of our curriculum over the past few months, but now I need to act ready for September.

I have asked myself a few questions that I need to consider and allow for in the writing of schemes of work. The appear below in no particular order.

1. What resources, techniques and lesson styles will support students with low level literacy or slow processing skills?
2. What resources do we need to incorporate into lessons to help EAL students develop their level of English and understand the science being covered while their specialist vocabulary is low.
3. At key stage 3 are we using the interests of the students to engage them and help understand the relevance of what is being taught?
4. What are the strengths and weaknesses of our students and how do our schemes of work use that?
5. How are the skills needed at GCSE being developed at Key Stage 3?
6. How does the curriculum prepare the students for the science they will need in their everyday lives?
7. Does what we do at GCSE prepare students for A-level? Does it encourage students to continue with science to A-level?
8. What methods can we use to differentiate work and what will this look like in a scheme of work?
9. What contexts will engage students (especially girls)?
10. How are G&T students identified and then stretched and challenged?
11. How do the schemes of work support intervention methods?
12. How are lessons and series of lessons structured to allow marking to support progression?
13. What does a good science lesson "look" like?
14. How will scheme of work help to promote independent learning?

In terms of things that I feel I would like to include in the scheme of work:

1. lesson activities
1. questions
2. resources
3. presentations
4. worksheets
5. support resources
6. practical requisitions and risk assessments
7. descriptions of activities
2. learning objectives
1. differentiated
2. including skills
3. knowledge
4. linked to prior and future learning
3. learning outside the classroom
1. field work
2. homework/prep
3. competitions
4. trips
5. ICT resources to support optional extra curricular work
6. revision resources
4. overview of the scheme and the progression of ideas throughout it

Other things to consider:

1. time scale of rewrite
2. review of the schemes
3. how to store, share and organise resources
4. where should assessment fit into the scheme?
5. what life skills should we be delivering?

Lastly, is it possible to collaborate with other heads of science in the GSA or Allied Schools?

Exit ticket AfL

My year 10 and 11 students have files instead of books. I don't really like it, but it is what they expect to have and I don't want to argue over it. (Year 11 kicked up such a fuss when another teacher suggested going back to books, and I was always told "pick your battles").

There are advantages to having files (hole punches don't run out in the same way that glue sticks do). However, this means I don't really get to "mark their books". I mark their homework/prep, but don't take in what they do in class. There are pluses and minuses to this. I have to plan for time to look at their work in class as they do it, and I incorporate more self-assessment into the lesson as there is no other way to feedback on the work they have done, which does mean they get more immediate feedback. It also means that I have less marking.

However, I am not satisfied. I feel that I don't give enough longer answer questions of feedback because I need to have simple work. It doesn't help my student prepare for the 6 mark questions or develop literacy in general.

So I am going to plan to include an opportunity for the students to write freely and hand it in at the end of the lesson as their "exit ticket". I have used the specification to try and write questions that can be differentiated by outcome.

The first attempts can be found under my username on TES resources: http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Exit-Ticket-Worksheet-C2-OCR-Gateway-2011-12-spec-6319894/

It will be interesting to see what the students think, and how they respond. I have deliberately made quite a few initially so that it is easier for me to persist with this.

what makes a good science teacher?

ASE conference session: Online models of CPD

I was invited to this session by Emily Perry at the Science Learning Centres, along with other teachers who had taken part in a trial of online CPD. Three of us were at the conference and able to attend.

I have written about it in blog posts previously, here http://geordiescience.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/using-online-conferencing-software-to.html and here http://geordiescience.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/using-simulations-in-classroom.html.

The first section of the session was about Experiences and expectations of CPD
There are lots of ways that teachers can experience CPD. The question was posed: Does online CPD get put into its own category? Should it?

Online CPD can take all sorts of forms. If you are reading this, then it is online cpd. Twitter is often claimed to be CPD. It is possible to for articles and pedagogy ideas online as well as using YouTube and TED. However we were interested in online conferencing and discussions; face to face, but not in the same room.

We were asked the following question: What describes the best CPD? (Any type)
The words we came up with as a group were: Relevant, reflective, new, Stretching, useful, problem solving, socialising , strategies.

Socialising was interesting, I shall return to that point.

I thought that an excellent quote about the merits of CPD in general was: "If it doesn't solve a problem then I don't want to be involved in CPD". It is a great message to any manager or teacher about the usefulness of taking part in cpd.

Before going on to explain the projects carried out by the science learning centre we were asked to consider the rhetorical question: Does "face to face" mean different things now - what does it mean?

The Two Examples of Online CPD

This section of the session was started with an overview about why the SLCs were interested in online methods of delivering CPD.

They find it is:
-difficult to get teachers out of school,
-difficult to get the SMT to prioritise subject specific CPD,
-and really difficult to get teachers out for subject knowledge/contemporary science.

With this in mind investigating online models seems a very sensible idea.
The SLC found a good thing about video conferencing they used is that it is managed by JANET, the academic network, and very stable, good quality audio and video. But that skills are needed to manage the online dialogue.
Initially the two trial projects were:

Science without walls:
Involving 6 scientists in 6 different sessions communicating with science teachers in hour long sessions which involved discussions and questions - dialogue.

The sessions had to be carefully managed because "socialisation" is important part of online CPD as it is harder than face to face.

It was a really interesting sounding project, brining scientists to schools and teachers without either having to move great distances.

And Teaching Challenging Topics
This project was the one I was involved in and had both synchronous (video chat/meetings) and asynchronous (web forum) activities.

The online "face to face" sessions were done using the adobe connect software.

Again using the video conference software presented challenges when managing meetings as there are less body language cues from participants when all you can see are their head and shoulders.

As mentioned the project also use the hub between meetings to upload resources and have forum discussions.

Outcomes from the teaching challenging concepts programme:
-Content that was found and developed by the SLC to support the teachers teaching that particular challenging concept.
-Getting to know other teachers and teachers in other contexts
-Using the online tool became part of the CPD


Next steps in developing online CPD
Socialising is important in CPD
Reviewing CPD sessions periodically.

I really enjoyed revisiting this project and it brought back a lot of the good points. Working with people online made me a much more proactive and reflective practitioner, and I liked to think that I was those things already. It has slipped though so the session was very useful in reminding me how it felt to deeply consider what I was teaching and the impact.

The theme throughout the session was about socialising being an important part of CPD. I hadn't considered that before. However, the social side of the ASE conference itself was very beneficial to me. I think I got more out of it because there was more of a social side for me, it made me comfortable and confident.

Both in interacting both with people I do know and people I don't, by swapping ideas in the context of our schools, allows us to reflect on what will and won't work.

Before taking part in the "teaching challenging topics" online CPD I had never considered in this level of detail what it takes for CPD to be worthwhile. There are a lot of levels to it.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Online models of CPD

ASE conference session: Literacy in Science

I really enjoyed this talk by Chris Haines of Essex LA. I don't think that any of the things he said were a surprise to me, at least they shouldn't have been, but they did make me think.



Firstly Chris showed us a list of criteria from other GCSE subjects (including Maths). All of them required quality if written community (QWC) to be measured. This shouldn't have been a surprise to me, as it would be obvious that writing would be important in an essay subject such as history.

Literacy is important to every subject as ultimately the students are going to be assessed through their writing.

Then he gave us a list and asked us to put them into "English", "literacy in Science" or "both" in the form of a Venn diagram.


To be honest all of the things should have been in the "both" section. Just because we don't explicitly teach verb tenses in science doesn't mean that we shouldn't ensure that the students in our classes are using them correctly or challenge them if they get it wrong.

I often find tenses a challenge when writing an investigation. The plan should be in the future tense, but the evaluation in the past tense. Encouraging children to write in the third person is also difficult, but I do try and do it in lessons.

The idea of addressing literacy in science lessons isn't new, but after a push in the early 2000s it is becoming increasingly more important in schools. (Maybe to do with ofsted and QWC in exams, but I don't think that any reason to improve and expand the teaching of our own language can be bad).




Some of the points I wrote down from Chris were:

All teachers must teach literacy - this is included in new teaching standards. Are we teachers of English or science? (Both) Including literacy in out teaching is also part of the ofsted criteria (and numeracy). As literacy is a common thread across curriculum - QWC Required in most subjects - we are supporting each other by teaching it. It is also important to note that there is an increasing demand of literacy with increasing grades.

Finally he asked: Is there a difference in demands between key 3 and 4? This is something that I am not sure about, although I am sure the answer would be yes!

Chris pointed out some major questions that need to be asked in a science department in order to assess how well literacy is being taught.

Will teachers need support?
How will you transfer skills between subjects?
Do your students show the same level in their writing in science as they would be expected to do in English?

He said when writing an action plan:

Find out what you need to do,
Find out where you are,
Find out what you need to do to get there.

Words I am finding useful, not just in addressing literacy but a lot of the developments in the science department.









The question to ask myself is "Where do you find the support?" I have already approached my teaching and learning assistant head teacher who also happens to lead English about this and she is keen to support me.


Chris went on to say that quality written communication is not the same as getting the spelling, punctuation and grammar correct. But about structure, coherence and use of key words too.

He said we should think about how key words are introduced, e.g look at how MFL introduce new vocabulary. He suggested a book called "mucking about with sentences" and using the old strategy resources.

He also suggested departments provide students with rich tapestry for reading. I have mentioned Alex Weatherall's Science Library in a previous blog post and I think that Chris's comments mean that it is something all science departments should take notice of. http://scienceteachinglibrary.wordpress.com/




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad