Learner: Christian, Kormel and Yuvika   Learning Coach: Margaret Patrick            Date: 24.09..2015

Learning Area: Science Narrative Learning story

Learning Observed

These learners were part of the “Mythbuster” group for iExperience in Weeks 6-10. They ”busted” the myths about everyday objects behaving in unusual ways. They were curious and explored the  physical and chemical reactions that caused the strange things to happen.They practiced writing up the phenomenon using a scientific experimental method developing their capabilities.  In week 10 they collaborated to form a  group and they had to make their own experiment, connect with other research available and come up with a hypothesis as what they expected to happen, do the experiment and reflect on the actual outcome. Following this they were required to make a presentation to an audience of learners. This included: the actual experiment, explanation of any changes they made, review of their hypothesis, present their digital recording of their work and field answers to questions. They managed their time well and were ready. They had observed a balloon inflated from the chemical reaction of baking soda and vinegar and decided to use this chemical reaction to be part of their “make it yourself’ Mythbuster. christian took responsibility for getting a bottle and used her time to paint it a rock colour to look like a mountain. On the day of their presentation that one of the team didn’t bring the  vinegar. They borrowed some from the staff room but realised that this was significant factor in creating the size of the explosion. There was not a lot of vinegar and the explosion was less significant. Refer link to their slide show

Evidence of learning

Next Learning Steps

try out other experiments in a safe supervised manner explore where this scientific phenomenon is used in real life activities write a reflective blog post about your learning. Add a cross-section of comments from the other learners’ feedback during your presentation. encourage your family to go online and read your blogs. spend time ensuring all group members have a role during a presentation. create a schedule for group members regarding responsibility for bringing various items to contribute to the group’s experiment.

Christian's Food Web Learning Story

Learners: Christian, Sadeen, Samantha, Richard, Divya, Shreya     Learning Coach: T.Dillner           Date: 22.7.15

Learning Area: iExperience - Science (Food Chain)

Learning Observed

At the moment, the learners in LH1 are looking at Animals and their various features. Today’s session was looking at the Food Chains that are formed by NZ plants and animals - both native and pests. The learners had to examine a set of animal pictures and come up with a system of organising them according to who would eat what. They had to transfer the name of the animal to a strip of paper and connect them to the animal/tree that would eat them, eventually forming a chain. Christian, Sadeen, Samantha, Richard, Divya and Shreya worked collaboratively to strategise a way of organisation. They assigned each animal a strip and laid the photo on the top. When they had established the bottom of the food chain (invertebrates), they matched up the rest. When a tree/animal had been incorporated, they removed the photo to eliminate it from those that remained. Their final food chain was showing the relationship between invertebrates at the bottom of the food chain to feral cats at the top.

Evidence of learning

Working together to create a method to classify the animals in the food chain.

Key Competencies/Vision Principles

Collaboration was the main focus of this task. The learners in this group worked well for a majority of the time they were given. They did work together to figure out how to group the animals, and mostly worked together to create the chain. There was some stress at the end to get it finished on time though. (Participating & Contributing and Managing Self). To complete the links in the chain, the group had to work out the connections between the animals by thinking about their needs, physical size/shape, and diets (Thinking).Their chain showed some of these connections as it was not completely straight, it had extra links added in on the sides.

Next Learning Steps

Continue to independently focus on collaborative behaviour: How do we speak to one another? How do we make sure everyone has a turn? How can we involve people who could contribute more? Find reading material/research that could inform them of different food chains e.g. marine food chains.