In Term 1, students will learn how to:
- conduct scientific investigations,
- conduct their own investigation(s) by testing a hypothesis of their own choosing,
- and present and communicate their results (at school and at the annual Canterbury-Westland Schools' Science & Technology Fair.)
Any aspect of the physical, chemical, biological, geological or psychological world that involves the testing of a hypothesis and the gathering and processing of data to reach a conclusion is valid.
In more detail, students will:
- conduct practical science investigations, which involves:
- keeping all your work documented in a logbook
- proposing a hypothesis (share your hypothesis with Zack for approval before moving to the next step)
- writing a method
- conducting trials and revising the method to ensure it's a fair test
- gathering data/observations
- processing and graphing the data
- reflecting on what they've learned and sharing any "next steps" or "wonderings" ("based on these results, this raises more questions I would like to investigate the answer to, such as...")
reflecting on what they'd change about the experimental design
- communicate their results to an audience, which involves
- creating a display which can be put on display for the Canterbury-Westland science fair
- delivering a short talk to the class about what you investigated (think TED talks...give us a short rundown)
trying other methods of science communication, such as recording a short audio clip to make a podcast, or having a student interview you to make a "news" segment.
“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” – Marie Curie
“Progress is made by trial and failure; the failures are generally a hundred times more numerous than the successes, yet they are usually left unchronicled.” – William Ramsay