Task Five: Professional Connections

Science as a subject touches the lives of every single person in ways both subtle and overt. Neil Degrasse Tyson has described scientific illiteracy as a "tragedy of our times" and the need to instil a level of understanding about the scientific process and the issues facing us as a species is an ongoing challenge. Science is a subject that therefore links into most other subjects found within the school curriculum, a large number of employment sectors, and other areas such as community and politics. The diagram below shows the connections made between my own practice as a science teacher and other communities. 

Full diagram here

As I've discussed in earlier entries, I am lucky that my school's vision for education makes finding connections between subjects a core part of our planning and teaching. Looking at the left hand side of the diagram, I have already taught extensively with teachers in every subject specialism listed. Within social studies and maths especially, there has been a lot of cross-curricular inquiry carried out that has linked to authentic, relevant contexts. These links to other subjects within the school are very positive and satisfying as they allow teachers to develop their skills in new areas and to deepen their understanding of the relevance of their subject to a wider context. 

Staying on the left, there are links to be further developed between my practice as a junior college teacher and how the subject is taught to other age levels. There is a primary school on the same site as my college, and a senior college a few minutes' walk away, but at present there is little opportunity for planning and curriculum development between these schools. There has been some crossover, for example the conservation day below, but we have very little knowledge of what Science is being taught in the primary school, or what the senior college is focusing on that we could support at the junior level. There's a lot of potential to create contexts that span several year groups and schools, but there is a need to make professional development time available for teachers to meet and plan before this can happen.

Waicare Day with Y5 students, 2013

On the right side are the employment sectors that science teaching links to. Aside from STEM, the links to media, communications, health, politics and conservation are emerging as being increasingly relevant to all our learners no matter where they are headed in their professional lives. The links that I am developing with environmental, conservation and political communities are particularly interesting. As part of our joint English/Science work on sustainability and the Outlook for Someday competition, a group asked if they could interview the environmental campaigner Michael Tavares on tree conservation. He agreed to come in and give a seminar to the whole year group on the importance of activism, being informed about local and wider issues, and what can be achieved through campaigning and raising awareness.

Michael Tavares discusses the need to be an informed citizen

The response students have had to links like this has been explored in my previous post but these connections have helped to reinforce the message that they have power and influence within and outside the classroom, and the difference that can be made through positive actions. It's important to build on the current links being made within the school, and develop links outside it, so that the students can see the relevance of their learning outside of the classroom.

Task Four: My Community of Practice

As a biologist and ecologist, community is a word that has meaning both related to and developed alongside the sociological one. An ecological community comprises of the different populations of organisms that inhabit the same habitat, and interact. Whilst at a species level I am related to all the teachers across the country and the world, my community lives in a more localised habitat. My educational habitat could be seen as being my school, my professional community is my whanau within that school, and I represent a population of science teachers within that community.

My whanau within my school serves as a model ecosystem. Coast whanau has two senior leaders, eight teachers, a whanau admin assistant,  around 200 students and teaching assistants for our deaf students and a blind student.

The teaching community within my whanau strive to ensure the connectedness of our practice. We meet weekly to plan our inquiry learning schemes and to discuss connect our subjects. We attempt to ensure that as much of our subject teaching as possible is not separated from each other and that we break the barriers found in traditional learning environments. For instance, the maths teachers had decided to teach geometry to year 8 by having them design and build a model of a community centre for our area. I took this idea into my lessons by teaching them materials science, looking at reactivity series of metals, metal and non-metal properties, even making and smashing concrete samples to investigate the importance of proportion when mixing concrete. This folded into the maths work by getting students to consider what buildings are made of, and why we use these materials. Their global studies teacher looked at how communities can incorporate their cultural diversity and kaupapa into public buildings. By showing students how these subjects can be woven together, they created absolutely beautiful work and referenced their learning in other subjects in a way we don't normally see without this level of collaboration.

Students add the finishing touches to their buildings

This learning reflects the vision of our school, which is that learning should be authentic and relevant to the lives of our students. Our community's values of connections within learning helps to create this authenticity. My year 8s, now that their projects are finished, are looking at the controversy of the Ihumatao special housing area in Auckland, as an example of when the differing needs of a community come into conflict. This case study has led to my learners researching the history of the Maori land wars and consequent confiscation of land, debating the relative merits of slowing or halting immigration to Auckland and writing letters in support of or opposing the plans, using their persuasive writing skills learned in English.

My personal practice aligns with this core community value of authenticity and relevance, as I strive to ensure our learners are aware of the environmental and social concerns that surround their community, their learning, and their role as scientifically literate citizens.

Y7 students talking about their action as part of reduce, reuse, recycle

By linking individual subjects together, and from there to a wider context, and empowering students to address the challenges that arise from this context, our community of practice respects and promotes the kaupapa of the school.

It also relates to the wider core values and vision of the National Curriculum, the document that connects all the habitats and populations of teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand. By having a group of practitioners, all with different subject skills, who are working together to create contextual learning that enables students to engage with their world, we are helping prepare our students for whatever challenges they may face outside the classroom.