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Planning for a student-focused science course

Giving students agency

When students are asked late in Year 10 to identify ideas and questions they are keen to explore in science, they will usually start with themselves, their hobbies, and sports. Food and eating always seem to feature!

Here are questions that the students in one school came up with:

  • How does my own body work?
    • How do muscles and nerves and bones connect for movement?
    • What particular muscle groups are used in waka ama?
    • What’s the problem with smoking?
    • What triggers my asthma? How come I can breathe in but I can’t breathe out properly?
    • What’s the problem with eating fast food every night?
  • How do I fix my motorbike? How can I make my own jewellery?
    • Which metals are safe to wear and won’t tarnish?
    • Why did traditional Māori use pounamu for adzes and neck pendants?
    • Why did some traditional Pasifika use shark teeth for their necklaces and tortoise shell for their combs and wrist ornaments?
    • What has science got to do with what I’m building in the technology workshop?
  • How do I eat (or work in the school canteen) without getting food poisoning?
    • Health and safety in cafes, industry or supermarkets?
    • What can marae do to ensure food safety?
    • Do hand sanitisers really work?
    • What’s the difference between “good” bacteria and “bad” bacteria?
  • How can I stay warm – outdoors and at home?
    • What’s this merino craze for outdoor clothing?
    • Why were different materials used in Māori cloak making (for example, in a hieke or kahu-kura).
    • How can I stay warm when mountain-biking and still look cool?
    • How does double-glazing work?
  • How can I make sense of events that occur in the world around me?
    • Why couldn’t they predict the Christchurch earthquakes?
    • Why is there such division over water issues? For example, the tensions between Māori proprietory rights, the Resource Management Act, corporates, and Government.
    • How safe is nuclear power? Who can we believe?
  • How can I understand what I hear about climate change, sustainability, etc., and know who to vote for?
    • Can I believe everything I see on the Internet?
    • What are carbon credits? Who gets them?
    • Why do Tainui iwi regard their awa as a taonga?
    • How can Pasifika nations better understand how to provide sustainability for their agriculture?
    • How can Pasifika nations deal with climate change that results in land erosion? For example, the effect of a rise in sea level on Tokelau and Tuvalu.
    • A warmer climate sounds good to me. What’s the fuss?
    • Why should I believe a scientist who claims that hair dyes are unsafe?

Developing the course around scientific inquiry

After seeking student input, teachers used the learning area achievement objectives and indicators of progression from part 1 of the teaching and learning guide to develop relevant learning outcomes showing the expected achievement at level 6.

For each context, the teachers selected a number of focus questions that had been generated by the students and planned inquiry activities around these questions. They planned each unit so that they had a broad overview of where they expected the course to go.

Students were encouraged to find answers to their own inquiry questions. The opportunity to choose is a strong motivator and leads to differentiated learning activities that meet the needs of individual students. Such an approach lends itself to whānau input.

Making the learning explicit

This involvement in setting the direction of their learning encouraged the students to develop the skills and attitudes relating to the study of science as well as make progress in key competencies such as self-management. Every effort was made to make these learning outcomes explicit.

Involving students in decisions about how and when their learning was to be assessed ensured that they retained agency in their own learning.

The result was a course based around a series of rich, student-centred contexts. One unit from this course, Heat energy in the home, is discussed in this section. 

Last updated December 17, 2012



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