Teaching and Learning Activities for Science and Technology
The assignment work is related to my masters in primary education degree . General information on Assignment 1- Development of a unit of work for your school. · This is an individual assignment. · You are not to use Electricity as a topic, since we will be focussing on it for Assignment 2. · You are to use New Primary Science Syllabus. · Refer to the checklist provided for details on each aspect of the assignment. Also see the examples provided. Note that these are previous student work samples, therefore not perfect. They use old template and old syllabus, therefore it includes outdated outcomes. · Select a Stage and Year upon which the lesson sequence will be based (select a singular hypothetical class not a composite class). · Some of the sample assignments given may include 5 learning experiences; however you need to have only 4 experiences in your unit of work. A template is provided. · Primaryconnection units follow a linear structure, that is, from one E to another per lesson experiences. However we are not following that structure. We use all 5Es in each lesson experience. · You can choose any school from NSW to base your unit of work on, not necessarily the school in which you are doing/have done your practicum. · If you were never on Professional Experience in a school, school data can be accessed from annual report on the school website, ABS (Australian bureau of Statistics) etc. · Make connections between the specific nature of the school you target and the learning experiences you develop: we want you to appreciate and respond to the context in which you are teaching. · Focus on 3 NSW Primary Science Syllabus outcomes. A maximum of 4 outcomes should be used. Values and Attitudes is a mandatory objective for all lesson experiences. · One learning experience is not a 40 minute classroom lesson. It may take hours or many days to finish depending on the concepts and learning activities you intend to cover. · The complete series of learning experience can take a month to complete depending on the core concepts you intend to cover. · You need to show the time needed/ duration of the planned experiences in the summary or in the organisation sections of the learning experience template. · Learning experiences should include varied activities and even include, out of school activities such as excursion to a farm, powerhouse museum, zoo, visit to talks by Aboriginal Elders, community events, bringing an expert so that students can interview. · The final experience MUST contain a major summative evaluation, where the knowledge, understanding and skills developed during the series of learning experiences are assessed, while other experiences should have formative evaluation strategies related to each experience. · You can adapt learning activities from various resources available for science teachers, however not more than 40 % of material from a single resource cannot be employed in a lesson experience. Note that you need to show reference to all activities taken from various sources; otherwise it will be considered as plagiarism. Note that examiners are familiar with materials from major teaching resources for science teachers. One such great science education resource is http://www.deakin.edu.au/arts-ed/education/sci-enviro-ed/ · If 40% of material from a single resource is observed in one lesson experience but referenced correctly to the source, it will still be regarded as lack of originality and will be penalised. · The learning activities should be student centred, engaging and fun. No need to give a detailed plan, however you must show what the students will be doing during each E phase. Also what the teachers role will be. You might create some original activities of your own. Also you can refer to resources online; however you must show reference to those activities in the text. Some are; Primaryconnections, http://www.deakin.edu.au/arts-ed/education/sci-enviro-ed/ http://www.sciencekids.co.nz, http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/websites/4_11/site/science.shtml, http://www.abc.net.au/science/games/ http://www.abc.net.au/science/surfingscientist/ http://coolscience.com.au · Various pedagogical strategies such as Jigsaw, Think-Pair-Square-Share, The 5 Whys, SCAMPER, the use of T charts, Y charts, mind maps, KWL, P.M.I. need to be integrated and briefly discussed how you will organise them in the classroom. · Worksheets as resources/assessments are not accepted for this assignment. Similarly, minimum use of traditional assessment strategies, such as filling in worksheets/structured formats should be made. · Include activities that encourage the cross curriculum priorities depending on the topic. E.g. Activities on sustainability theme if you are doing renewable energy. · You can use content descriptors given in the syllabus as indicators, however they are broad and general in nature; therefore you can develop your own indicators by using simple action words. Use action verbs like predicts, questions, explains, narrates, labels, draws, designs, constructs, manipulates, calculates, See the example assignment. · ICT should be integrated in a creative manner to the learning experience. The use of ICTs should be meaningful and authentic and designed to improve the quality of teaching and learning, not for the sake of using them. · You can provide supporting materials as an appendix but this is not mandatory. · In-text references do not have to follow APA referencing format; however, the reference list must follow APA use (minimum 5 resources). · Although, APA format is made not compulsory for sections of the assignment such as school data, concepts and the lesson experiences, you must give the sources of the information, (but use of APA format is optional) as a hyperlink. · Please use discussion board or contact Unit coordinator for any assistance J.
