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CHALLENGING YET FUN: ONLINE SCIENCE IN THE JUNIOR SCHOOL Teaching Science online to Junior School students during the learning from home period was challenging yet fun. Lessons were created which were hands-on and usually included an instructional video created by myself, the Junior School Science Coordinator. In fact, during this lockdown period, I made more than 50 videos for the girls which demonstrated experiments and other activities that they had the opportunity to complete at home. I based the ideas for the lessons on the units of work that would have been taught if we were at school. In many cases, this created amazing opportunities for the girls to do more extensive and individual experimentation that would have been more limited in the classroom environment. Many of the instructional videos demonstrated experiments for the girls to carry out. I endeavoured wherever possible to ensure the experiment videos were personalised to our girls and not simply taken from YouTube. Some of the experiments included using cups to investigate sound amplification, the importance of water for blooming flowers and the effect of salinity on the growth and survival of plants. PLC SYDNEY / CAMPHORA
Model making was another task students participated in during online Science. Models are frequently used in Science to help understand complex concepts and as a learning tool. Models were presented to the students
Sustainable energy production was also investigated and Year 4 students made their own model windmills to investigate the effect of blade size on energy efficiency. Cooking is a great scientific task too. When students cook they follow instructions (like a scientific method) and if they do this well, their product (results) should taste good. During online learning, various cooking tasks were carried out for Science by the students at home. Year 2 students had the opportunity to make butter and ricotta cheese whilst Year 3 students made their own chocolate spiders.
During online learning, various cooking tasks were carried out for Science by the students at home. Year 2 students had the opportunity to make butter and ricotta cheese whilst Year 3 students made their own chocolate spiders. to help understand adaptations of turtles and mangroves and also when experimenting to investigate how hair can prevent heat transfer. They also used paper clips on water to model how a large surface area is useful in spreading the force of a huge animal like a polar bear walking on ice.
PLC Sydney is fortunate to have the wonderful expertise of the Animals Program. During online learning, Science and Technology classes had the opportunity to utilise this resource with Laura Howell producing videos to incorporate into lessons. One example was a wonderful movie for Year 6
