Recently I wanted to try something a little different for my students. It was a risk, but I wanted to try it. I wanted to put what I had learned through the Australian Maths and Science Partnership Program (AMSPP) as well as integrating cross KLA concepts into a more STEM focussed lesson. So I decided to explore the layers of the Earth through mathematics.
It should be noted the student’s considered it a ‘science’ class and I am their ‘science’ teacher but over the years and through working with some very inspirational people I am developing a much broader approach to my lessons. Less and less I consider them ‘science’ classes or ‘science’ students. More and more I consider it simply ‘learning’ and I am embracing as many different disciplines into each lesson that I can. For the students in this case linking ‘science’ and ‘math’ is straight forward. Both rely heavily on each other and you simply cannot have science without math.
The philosophy behind today’s lesson was simple. I have students who struggle with creating graphs and working with numbers and whilst we often ask them to graph in science, and we do our best to explicitly teach graphing skills, there are some who will always struggle in this area and this class in particular struggles behaviourally and academically with many students requiring higher literacy support than others. So today, I decided to focus my science lesson squarely on explicit math technics through the context of the current topic, ‘Structure of the Earth’.
I was nervous, introducing that much dedicated ‘math’ into a ‘science’ lesson could have resulted in mutiny. So I came prepared.
Knowing I had students who needed a little extra support I called in help from the school’s Learning Support Team. I spoke with one of the LST teachers before the lesson and received feedback on how appropriate my plans were for that particular cohort. She made me realise I might have been a little too ambitious with some of the concepts I wanted to cover.
Initially I wanted to use statistical data of Earth’s layers such as depth range and average layer temperature to explore different ways this information could be presented. Not only was this to help build numeracy skills but also develop skills in communicating scientific information in an easy to digest format.
The originally planned activities included:
- Total depth calculations
- Creating fractions of each layer vs overall depth
- Calculating percentage % thickness for each layer
- Constructing a column graph for layer comparisons
- Constructing a line graph for depth vs temperature trends
- Constructing a pie chart for % depth display
- Constructing a line chart representation of layer data
- Constructing a scale continuum for temperature and depth data.
We ended up cutting it down to a scaffolded worksheet that focussed on
- Total depth calculations
- Creating fractions of each layer vs overall depth
- Calculating percentage % thickness for each layer
- Choosing either a column graph for layer comparisons OR a line graph for depth vs temperature trends and,
- Constructing a pie chart for % depth display
Once we had agreed on a suitable approach for the target audience I invited her to help with the actual lesson and was very grateful she was able to attend. One student in particular benefitted greatly having someone be able to work one-on-one with her and walk her through more specific instructions for each section. This allowed me to spend more time moving around assisting other students as required. It also helped when we were able to welcome two math student teachers into the class as well and both took the initiative to wander around helping the students with their calculations.
And so the lesson was off. We began with a quick related puzzle to get them thinking and to start the lesson with an easy way to get success through solving the puzzle. This was followed by drawing on their knowledge of the layers from the previous lesson and once they were comfortable with the terminology we proceeded to outline the fun activity of playing with numbers for a while.
Before the students saw the data we would be using we played a little game of predicting the temperature of the core. This turned into an auction style segment as they bid for the highest temperature predictions. This had them giggling and ready for the numbers to arrive on their desks. They were pleasantly surprised to see how close they were.
From here we walked through how to calculate the thickness of each layer based on depth range and then showed them how to turn that information into a useable fraction and percentage. At each step of the way we asked students to perform the calculations and contribute their answers to the board. A few sneaky mistakes allowed them to correct me and get even more engaged in trying to catch me out. This then lead to a little friendly competition as to who could get the correct answer first. Anyone who tried was rewarded with their name being placed on a list of recognition ready for a merit award next lesson. (We were having too much fun I ran out of time to write the awards on the spot). Giving them a choice on which graph to create was a little chaotic but worth it to provide them with a sense of ownership. With the additional support in the classroom it was possible to help each student focus on their graph of choice and provide some good feedback and instruction.
I was relieved my initial nerves were unfounded in focussing more on ‘maths’ than ‘science’ in a ‘science’ lesson. Those who struggled with the concepts were able to get support and the continued assertion we were playing with numbers helped keep the feeling light and positive allowing students to feel good about working with ‘maths’.
I plan to try it again with another class, but I am prepared to experience the “what works for one class on one day, may not work on another class, or even the same class, on any other given day” phenomena.
Focussing on the positive from today. As a team we taught skills. We taught math skills in converting numbers to fractions and percentages, we taught basic calculations and we taught skills in line graphs and column graphs and the different uses each have in displaying information. We also taught skills to help with communicating science knowledge, results and data in a graphical way.
And every student got a high five as they walked out the door for a job well done.
…. Now my next lesson’s challenge is ……..