mythbusters

** Research question: ** How can we reinvent the way science is taught and learnt to improve engagement and student outcomes The effect of negotiated curriculum and project based learning on engagement and therefore outcomes for science. ||  || **//Higher order questions, underlining reasons why we are investigating this unit of work//** How can I investigate this better? **//Higher order thinking questions//** How do I go about busting these myths? What do variables have to do with the outcome of experiments?
 * ** E5 CURRICULUM PLANNER  ** || ||
 * Myth Busters
 * Focus: **
 * ** YEAR  ** |||||||| **  DURATION  ** || ||
 * ** Year 10 ** |||||||| ** 20 Weeks (1 Semester) ** ||  ||
 * ** THROUGHLINES  ** |||||||| Students negotiate investigations and manage their own learning. ||   ||
 * ^  ||^   ||^   |||||||| Students learn how to discover and learn new concepts ||   ||
 * ** FOCUS QUESTION(S)  ** |||||||| === Curriculum Framing Questions ===
 * Essential Question: **
 * Unit Question: **

Content Question
**//What students need to learn/know?//** How do I write up a practical report? What safety considerations do I need to consider? What is a risk assessment? What myths would I like to bust? ||  || This unit is an elective aimed at students who are in year 10. It is a project based unit that will run for one semester (approx. 20 weeks). Initially students will be introduced to the importance of accurate procedures in the science classroom. This will be achieved by completing a number of practical investigations that require students to obtain relevant information and understand what they are required to do with this information (i.e. how they can use it). Students will be encouraged to explore variables and the effect they have on the outcomes of their experiments. Once students have demonstrated a satisfactory knowledge of experimental design they will be encouraged to come up with something that they wish to investigate. This should be something that they are interested in and can come from any of the scientific fields (e.g. Biology, chemistry, physics, etc). Students will then be required to complete a proforma describing what they want to look at, how they are going explore it and finally how this is then going to be presented. This must be completed and discussed with the teacher prior to the commencement of their investigation. Assessment will examine Practical write-ups, proforma, scientific knowledge and application, originality of their ideas and their ability to see a project all the way through. || ||
 * ** BIG IDEAS / UNDERSTANDINGS  ** |||||||| =//Teaching and Learning Strategies- including higher order thinking //=

|||||||||||| At Level 6, students explain the behaviour and properties of materials in terms of their constituent particles and the forces holding them together. They explain how similarities in the chemical behaviour of elements and their compounds and their atomic structures are represented in the way the periodic table has been constructed. They use the periodic table to write electronic configurations for a range of elements representative of the major groups and periods in the periodic table. They use atomic symbols and balanced chemical equations to summarise chemical reactions, including neutralisation, precipitation and combustion. They identify and classify the sources of wastes generated, and describe their management, within the community and in industry. They use a specific example to explain the sustainable management of a resource. Students explain change in terms of energy in a range of biological, chemical and physical contexts. They demonstrate the link between natural selection and evolution. They explain the role of DNA and genes in cell division and genetic inheritance. They explain how the coordination and regulatory functions within plants and animals assist them to survive in their environments. They explain how the action of micro-organisms can be both beneficial and detrimental to society. Students apply concepts of geological time to elaborate their explanations of both natural selection and evolution, and the origin and evolution of the Universe. They give both qualitative and quantitative explanations of the relationships between force, mass and movement. ||  ||   Science at Work |||||||||||| At Level 6, students describe the science base of science-related occupations in their local community. They use the relevant science concepts and relationships as one dimension of debating contentious and/or ethically based science-related issues of broad community concern. They demonstrate an awareness of the ways in which scientific vocabulary is used incorrectly in the mass media, distinguishing between the intended meaning of such terms and their meaning in non-scientific contexts. They provide two examples of the work of scientists that demonstrate different approaches to developing scientific knowledge or solving a scientific problem. Students formulate their own hypotheses and plan and conduct investigations in order to prove or disprove them. They use chemicals (including biomaterials), equipment, electronic components and instruments responsibly and safely. They select appropriate equipment and measurement procedures that will ensure a high degree of reliability in data collected and enable valid conclusions to be drawn. They construct working models and visual aids that demonstrate scientific ideas. They present experimental results using appropriate data presentation formats, and comment on the nature of experimental errors. They use Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) and risk assessment to evaluate the safety of their investigations. They evaluate the appropriateness of the experimental design and methodology used to investigate their predictions. || ||  (Presenting)    ||||||||||||  At Level 6, students demonstrate their understanding of the relationship between form, content and mode, and select suitable resources and technologies to effectively communicate. They use subject-specific language and conventions in accordance with the purpose of their presentation to communicate complex information. They provide constructive feedback to others and use feedback and reflection in order to inform their future presentations. ||  ||
 * **VELS** ||   ||
 * ** DISCIPLINE BASED LEARNING DOMAIN(S)  ** |||||||||||| **  ELEMENTS OF STANDARDS AND LEARNING FOCUS  ** || ||
 * Science Knowledge and Understanding
 * ** INTERDISCIPLINARY LEARNING DOMAIN(S)  ** |||||||||||| **  ELEMENTS OF STANDARDS AND LEARNING FOCUS  ** || ||
 * Communication
 * ** PHYSICAL, PERSONAL & SOCIAL LEARNING DOMAIN(S)  ** |||||||||||| **  ELEMENTS OF STANDARDS AND LEARNING FOCUS  ** || ||
 * Managing Personal Learning   ||||||||||||  At Level 6, students initiate personal short-term and long-term learning goals and negotiate appropriate courses of action to achieve them. Students allocate appropriate time and identify and utilise appropriate resources to manage competing priorities and complete tasks, including learner-directed projects, within set timeframes. They initiate and negotiate a range of independent activities with their teachers, providing progress and summarise reports for teachers and stakeholders. They monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of their task and resource management skills, reflecting on their progress and suggesting and implementing appropriate management strategies for improvement. They take responsibility for their learning environments, both at school and at home, anticipating the consequences of their actions. They demonstrate control of impulses and mood modulation. Students review and modify the criteria they use to check that their work is relevant, accurate and meets task objectives and make appropriate changes to completed tasks using these criteria. They identify and refine the strategies they use to study, organise and revise their work, both at school and at home   || ||

=// What PD might you require with in the context of this unit? //= This unit is a project based unit that allows students to guide their own learning by allowing them to explore and investigate problems that they are interested in. There will be a minimal amount of whole class direct instruction, after this time students will be required to design, develop, investigate and present a myth that they have focussed on. Linked below are a series of resources that can be used to discover more about Project Based Learning. What is project based learning? A brief history of project based learning Project based learning DVD’s Project based learning planning sheet Project Based Learning Multimedia Presentation Checklist Create your own checklist: http://pblchecklist.4teachers.org/checklist.shtml || Below are some useful resources for questioning: Create your own checklist: http://pblchecklist.4teachers.org/checklist.shtml =// Introducing new knowledge //=  Go with the flow Super Sparker Newspaper tanning  Fire Tornado __ Mythbusters Activity Sheets __ : Acceleration Ancient Death Ray Chemistry Electricity Lightning Microbiology Rusting Physical and Chemical Change Salsa Escape Talking to plants Shattering CD ROMS || Using visual organisers to ideas, concepts and stories. Visual organiser ? Planning pyramid ? Clue planner document ? Venn Diagram Mind Map Tool http://www.thebrain.com/#-47 || A useful website to assist students with processing information http://www.cap.nsw.edu.au/QI/TOOLS/index.htm Planner for using Thinkers Keys Five Whys Processing tool and example ? Cluster Diagram Capacity Matrix ||   ||   || Throughout this unit there are many different focused learning activities that can take place. You may find that different focused learning activities arise depending upon the requirements of the specific group that you are teaching. Some focused learning lessons that I have encountered: Comparison Matrix Goal Setting SMART ? http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/diy/make-mountain-dew-glow-in-the-dark-like-a-lightning-bug-308316.php Mountain dew information sheet How it could have been done (Busting the myth) Glow stick formula 1. 50 grams of sugar 2. 25 mls of 50wt% NaOH 3. 5 mls of Isopropyl Alcohol Slowly stir sugar into NaOH, Green colour will develop with no glowing characteristics, Add IPA only when you want the mixture to glow. Have fun. Cheap to make too.. ||  ||   || To assist with this the following resources may be useful: Introducing new concepts and linking to prior knowledge POE (Predict, Observe Explain) ||  ||   || To assist with assigning groups the following resources may be useful: Grouping students randomly ? ||  ||   ||
 * |||||| **E5 INSTRUCTIONAL MODEL** ||
 * |||||| ** ENGAGE Tuning In ** ||
 * **Learning Goals ** |||||| It is important that students have a clear understanding of what is expected of them and why they are learning science in a way that is probably foreign to them. To enable this I think it is important students and teachers have an understanding of what project based learning is and how it is going to be approached in this classroom.
 * **Prior Learning** |||||| This unit develops the knowledge that students have gained throughout their previous three years studying science at Weeroona College. This enables students to utilise their skills of writing and analysing results to enable them to further examine and present findings to others. ||
 * **Student Questions** |||||| Student questions are an extremely important component of this unit. Students need to questions and enquire about almost everything that they encounter. One of the most important things is that they question and investigate variables that occur during their experiments.
 * Question Matrix ?
 * Scientific Variables Presentation [[file:Scientific Variables.doc]]
 * What is a scientific investigation ? ||
 * **Immersion Activities** ||||||
 * __ Urban Legends: __**
 * Science urban legends http://www.snopes.com/science/science.asp
 * Coke urban legends http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/cokelore.asp
 * Automobile urban legends http://www.snopes.com/autos/autos.asp
 * Horror urban legends http://www.snopes.com/horrors/horrors.asp
 * Medical urban legends http://www.snopes.com/medical/medical.asp
 * Sports urban legends http://www.snopes.com/sports/sports.asp
 * |||||| **EXPLORE Finding Out **  ||
 * **Graphic Organisers/ ICT tools** ||||||
 * || **EXPLAIN Sorting Out **  ||   ||   ||
 * **Processing Information** ||
 * **Focused Learning** ||
 * Laboratory Safety
 * Risk Assessment
 * How to Write a Practical Report
 * How to complete a Prac/Equipment request form
 * How to use digital camera and digital video camera
 * How to edit and compile digital video
 * How to make glowing Mountain dew **
 * **Link to Prior Learning** || Throughout this unit students are required to negotiate their projects and choose something that they have an interest in. To do this it is essential that they have some previous knowledge of the topic or area that they are going to investigate. It may be necessary for the teacher to help them make connections and see the scientific relevance of the topic that they are going to investigate.
 * **Student Collaboration** || Students have the opportunity to work on projects as individuals, as pairs or in teams. I have left it up to students to decide on their teams; however this is because I feel I am teaching it to a cohort of students that are capable of choosing their own groups.
 * ||   **ELABORATE Going Further  **    ||   ||   ||
 * **Generalising Understanding** || Throughout this unit students have been encouraged to investigate a topic that has links to thing that they may encounter in the real world. This is why they were able to negotiate their own topic rather than being assigned one. Below are some resources that may be useful to assist students to make these connections
 * INTEL Seeing Reason Tool http://educate.intel.com/workspace/tryit/SRTryIt.aspx?LID=en
 * Writing a science report [[file:Writing a science report.doc]]

Mythbusters Criteria Card ||   ||   || Many students have chosen to create a video/documentary as part of their application of what they have learnt. Students need to have a purpose for conducting their research and presenting a write-up. To give students this purpose I have found it useful to give them an intended audience. <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Students’ findings will be presented in a variety of fashions. However, it would be great to link it in with activities that take place during science week. http://www.scienceweek.info.au/ Students could link in with the Discovery Centre Bendigo to present their work. They could showcase it to a real audience making the project more authentic http://www.discovery.asn.au/ Student findings can be used to promote the school within the local area and could also be used during various open nights  ||   ||   || Project based learning planning sheet Assessment of, for, as learning report. **Assessment AS learning** By introducing the notion of Assessment //as// Learning, I intend to reinforce and extend the role of formative assessment for learning by emphasizing the role of the student, not only as a contributor to the assessment and learning process, but also as the critical connector between them. Students, as active, engaged, and critical assessors, can make sense of information, relate it to prior knowledge, and master the skills involved. This is the regulatory process in metacognition. It occurs when students personally monitor what they are learning and use the feedback from this monitoring to make adjustments, adaptations, and even major changes in what they understand. Assessment //as// Learning is the ultimate goal, where students are their own best assessors. Recordkeeping in assessment //as// Learning is a personal affair. Students and teachers decide (often together) about the important evidence of learning and how it should be organized and kept. Students routinely reflect on their work and make judgements about how they can capitalise on what they have done already. Comparison with others is almost irrelevant. Instead, the critical reference points are the student’s own prior work and the aspirations and targets for continued learning.
 * **Apply and Transfer** ||
 * ||  **<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">EVALUATE Making Conclusions, Taking Action  **   ||   ||   ||
 * **Student Reflection** || Students are required to keep a journal of what they have achieved and what they plan to achieve throughout each lesson.

Student self-assessment  ||   ||   || The predominant kind of assessment in schools is Assessment //of// Learning. Its purpose is summative, intended to certify learning and report to parents and students about students’ progress in school, usually by signalling students’ relative position compared to other students. Assessment //of// Learning in classrooms is typically done at the end of something (eg, a unit, course, a grade, a Key Stage, a program) and takes the form of tests or exams that include questions drawn from the material studied during that time. In Assessment //of// Learning, the results are expressed symbolically, generally as marks across several content areas to report to parents.
 * **Performances of Understanding** || **Assessment OF learning**

Student Investigation Rubric ||   ||   || <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Consider a combination of assessment practice (Assessment __for__, __as__ & __of__) [|//www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/blueprint/fs1/assessment.asp//]<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> =// <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Consider what form of evidence you will use to support your assessment  //= <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Myth Buster Results sheet  <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">  <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">? <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://mythbustersresults.com/ <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Progression points rubric ? Project based learning checklist Student self assessment PMI criteria card – checkpoint 1 Criteria Card My work rating card   <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> ||   ||   ||
 * **Monitoring and Tracking** || See Features of Assessment FOR, OF and AS Rubric below

Technology Hardware Myth Busters DVD Series
 * Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki's Great Moments in Science **, Rated: PG, Duration: 44 mins, 2002

Printed Materials Dr Karl Kruszelnicki books
 * Bumbreath, Botox and Bubbles and other Fully Sick Science Moments **, HarperCollins Publishers Pty Ltd, Australia, 2003, ISBN 0 7322 6715 3.
 * Q&A With Dr. K - Why It Is So. Headless Chickens, Bathroom Queues and Belly Button Blues **, HarperCollins Publishers Pty Ltd, Australia, 2001, ISBN-0-7322-5855-3.
 * Great Mythconceptions - Cellulite, Camel Humps and Chocolate Zits **, HarperCollins Publishers Pty Ltd, Australia, 2004, ISBN 0 7322 8062 1.
 * Munching Maggots, Noah's Flood and TV Heart Attacks and other cataclysmic science moments, ** HarperCollins Publishers Pty Ltd, Australia, 1998, ISBN-0-7322-5858-8.
 * Flying Lasers, Robofish and Cities of Slime - and other brain-bending science moments **, HarperCollins Publishers Pty Ltd, Australia, 1997, ISBN 0-7322-5874-X
 * Pigeon Poo the Universe & Car Paint - and other awesome science moments **, HarperCollins Publishers Pty Ltd, Australia, 1996, ISBN 0 7322 5723 9

Internet Resources [|Virtual Bibliography] Myth busters internet quiz: http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/mythbusters/games/mythsunmasked/mythsunmasked.html Project based learning checklist: http://pblchecklist.4teachers.org/testing.php3?idunique=3&max=6&checklist=9 Dr Karl Kruszelnickis home page http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/ Excellent range of science experiments http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/


 * Features of Assessment //of, for//, and //as// Learning**
 * // Approach  // || //  Purpose  // || //  Reference Points  // || //  Key Assessor  // ||
 * Assessment //of// Learning ||  Judgments about placement, promotion, credentials, etc.  ||  Other students  ||  Teacher  ||
 * Assessment //for// Learning ||  Information for teachers’ instructional decisions  ||  External standards or expectations  ||  Teacher  ||
 * Assessment //as// Learning ||  Self-monitoring and self-correction or adjustment  ||  Personal goals and external standards  ||  Student  ||