Plant and Food research

Yesterday PTs from the BOP and Waikato plus some classroom teachers from Te Puke Primary school met at the Te Puke site of Plant and Food research to learn more about their work.

To quote, "our science delivers new plant and seafood based foods, beverages and ingredients from environmentally and economically sustainable production systems".

It was very interesting and we learnt a lot about the long process of releasing kiwifruit cultivars, impacts of Psa-V pathogen and girdling on kiwifruit, possible interactions between fungi and pests such as chorus cicada, potential use of pheromones to disrupt moth mating behaviour around avocado trees and research into a potato blight using radioactive compunds.  These ideas were presented through vocabulary, photos, diagrams and statistics on a slide show, diagrams on the whiteboard and also specimens for us to look at and hold.

Science Capability - interpret representations. Scientists represent their ideas in a variety of ways including models, graphs, charts, diagrams and written texts.

We also learnt of the potential of awheto as an international export. This caterpillar is prized in China and has also been highly regarded by Maori for its medicianal benefits and use in tattooing.  With more research and consultation with iwi there is the potential to expand this as an export commodity too. 

NoS Participating and Contributing
Explore various aspects of an issue and made decisions about possible actions (awheto has potential but would need to find out where it is currently commonly distributed and investigate partnership with iwi)

Sediment sampling

On Friday I went out on the Maki with Dave, Rex and Caleb to sample sediment from different locations in the Tauranga Harbour.  Dave is working towards his MSc and is interested in "Environmental effects of Port runoff from timber processing".

We took a control sample close to Matakana Island then samples from the north and south of the port where the logs are loaded onto the ships.

The smell close to the ships was unpleasant and strong.  Visually the samples looked a lot different when taken from the different locations. They were quite shelly and grainy from the control site and slimy and dark from by the port. 
(Science Capability - gather and interpret data)

Dave had his sample bags and specimen containers prepared in advance with labels written on waterproof paper.  He had also borrowed a dredge called the Petite Ponar.  This is used for shallow samples.  At times it didn't work so we also had Rex on board in his dive gear ready to collect the samples manually if need be. 

NoS
Understanding about science - science is a way of explaining the world and knowledge changes over time (this sampling hasn't been done since 1998)

Investigating in science
Ask questions, find evidence, explore simple models and carry out simple investigations to develop simple explanations

Fertilisers in NZ

Yesterday Dr Hanno van der Merwe came to speak to the Ag/Hort high school teachers (and me!) about fertilisers in NZ. 

Fertilising maximises food production and food is crucial to human survival.  As nutrients are constantly extracted by farming every year we need to put these back.

He spoke in depth about phosphate fertilisers.  Phosphate rock is imported from the West Sahara and made water soluble through acidulation.  Phosphate rock is reacted with a sulphuric acid.  You can see both the phosphate rock and silos of sulphuric acid stored at Balance.

Hanno made me think more about the importance of fertilising (my horse is kept on a 10 acre block and we haven't fertilised for years) and also about teaching the nitrogen cycle more at school.  I am definitely more familiar and comfortable with the water cycle perhaps this can be one of my next challenges.

NoS
Understanding - Science is a way of explaining the world and science knowledge changes over time (Hanno used lots of examples from history and the in particular the development of knowledge from caveman times to now)

Participating and Contributing
Explore various aspects of an issue and make decisions about possible actions (world population and food as a resource, minimising waste at Balance factory)

Science Capabilities
Engage with science (using fertiliser is an example of science in a real life context, also engaging with Hanno, a local scientist working in the fertiliser industry)

Shark dissection

Mel is the only person in NZ at the moment studying sharks!  Her Masters topic is:  Coastal habitat partitioning by sharks and rays (elasmobranchs).

A common by-catch, normally recorded and thrown back to sea (dead or alive), Mel has asked for dead sharks to be kept for her to study further.

Dissection is an  important way to understand the internal functioning of living things and I found it fascinating to compare the 2D image from the text book with the 3D object in front of us. 

Spiny dogfish earned their name from the line of sharp spines along their backs, and because they attack other fish in dog-like packs. They have flattened heads and relatively large eyes, and grow to about 1.6 metres  (Copied from http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/5315/spiny-dogfish)

The most incredible discovery was that of 9 baby sharks still attached to eggs inside the mother.  She also had quite a few unfertilised eggs inside too!

I read that spiny dog fish have the longest gestation period of any animal - 24 months!

NoS

Understanding about science- gills, embryo
Investigating in science - dissection

Capability
Gather and interpret data - big stomach=pregnant

Rena Sampling

This morning when I was over in the hangar looking for the shark dissection, I bumped into a crew processing Rena samples.

I learnt that this is the fifth round of sampling from the Rena and is expected to continue for 10 years from when the ship wrecked.  I also learnt the Rena has been the second most expensive wreck to clean up in the world and that it is the most expensive monitoring programme thus undertaken in NZ so far.

They are sampling different species from all trophic levels.  While I was there, kina (omnivore but prefers large brown seaweed) and turban snails (herbivore grazing on algae) had been collected and were being prepared to be sent away for testing.

Participating and Contributing - use their growing science knowledge when considering issues of concern


Science Capability:    Engage with science in real life contexts

 

 

First lesson at House of Science

Chris D invited us to teach lessons from the Marine Resource Box we are preparing to a visiting school.  This tied in nicely with an assignment we have to do as part of our course in which we need to incorporate the science capability of "Critiquing Evidence".  It also gives us the opportunity to test what we want to include in the box and to put into practice ideas we have been learning on our curriculum days.

We focused on classifying and naming shells, modelling how a filter feeder eats and questioning and challenging.

We then reflected on our teaching and the learning and have tweaked a few things for tomorrow.  Namely making more explicit to the children (and their teachers!) the way that checking the source of a text is reliable and utilising peer review are forms of critiquing evidence.

Sponge samples

Today Chris explained the process of identifying sponge samples.  One of the students here has been working in a previously unmapped area.

80% ethanol is used to preserve the sample.
A sample of this is put into Nitric acid to make the slide (this dissolves any organic material attached)
This is then washed with water and ethanol to leave the spicules behind (skeletal structure of a sponge)

A thick mount of fresh tissue is made in order to get a 3D view.  Seeing how the spicules are put together can give us more information. A more powerful microscope can be used to give more information too.

 

Gems from the scientists:

 

The work from others before helps us immensely today (prior sponge identifications)

Looking in a microscope is amazing

There are still a lot of identified sponges in our oceans

 

 

 

 

 



Field work in Tairua

From Monday 9 March - Thursday 12 March I was in Tairua helping out with some field work and processing of samples.  Below is the blurb copied directly from Rebecca's email:

"I am interested in how crabs process marine plant leaf detritus in the sediments. So, in addition to having crab treatments in the cages, I will add some seagrass leaf material to see how crabs facilitate it's breakdown and decay"

We all worked hard testing pumps and batteries, setting up the cages, taking and processing water and sediment samples then pulling it all down and setting it up in the next area.

 

Gems from this experience:

 



It is impossible to carry out investigations on your own
Nature does not work in with human sleep patterns
Scientists are extremely careful with their delicate equipment
Through repetition (sieving, changing filter paper) we get better at tasks

Reflections from Leadership Course in Dunedin

What now?  Day 1:

• Postcards from Dunedin to thank colleagues
• Use BES data in assignments and goal setting
• Practise mindfulness to achieve flow

What now?  Day 2:

• Incorporate values (school and personal) personality and leadership inventory findings into goal setting
• actively change outward behaviour so that it matches intent

What now?  Day 3:

• Identify 1 fatal career flaw and solutions
• Choose story to share at PD to utilise the power of story telling
• Type out vision and put up in prominent place and also paste onto documentation

What now?  Day 4:

• Find and print science proposal for 2015
• consider AI questions and progression for T4 and T4 - run this past JD and LM
• Plan a staff meeting around innovation and AI

Reflections from curriculum day #3 27.02.15

Alice shared her survey results in which children had to draw and label "Who could be a scientist?"  and "Do you want to be a scientist?"

16% wanted to be a scientist
50% maybe wanted to be a scientist

How to be a scientist - Sci tunes on You tube

Future in Tech ambassadors (volunteers from industry)
funded by the government
resources available online

Nail activity and play dough circuits

 

 

Message that science doesn't care who you are, it is a great leveller

 

Michael Winter from CORE education

 

There will be webinars coming up, use the blackboard collaborate software, Java and maybe Adobe needed

 

Believable contexts

Model resource use and linking to context

Onslow college - principal's award

 

Surveyed children about what they enjoyed/didn't enjoy about science

reframed classic units according to student interest

test by applying facts - not spotting facts

 

Science Postcards

could post these to students during the holidays

density activity in which we stacked colours

 

Literacy Online TKI - for Connected series 2013+

Can embed these slides onto the classroom blog etc.

Add link to R3 desktop

 

Google classrooms

Edmodo - perhaps a better blog format to use as more interactive between audience

 

Science Learning Hub - rapid response to Rena

often about NZ science

can come to school, host webinars

 

Capability activity - take a science photo and write observing and inferring questions pertaining to the photo and the NZC level that you have stated

 

Sedendipity

Canon inkjet printer invention

 

Continental drift, plate tectonics

Wegener 1912 - cartoon thought bubble activity

community of experts (volcanologist, seismologist etc) to use tectonic map and sea floor map to observe, infer and explain



Reflections from Curriculum Day 2 26.02.15

Doughnut activity to share about our host and any gems we had learnt so far

Science as culture, discussed how teachers bridge the gap for students and science "facilitators of border crossings"

Roles that scientists play

• constructors of claims
• critiquers of claims

Are these roles that children could be encouraged to play?  Links to Science Capability of Critiquing Evidence!!

Alice led a session on Capabilities and Science in NZC
need functional knowledge in order to engage critically
NoS continuum - footprint activity "tricky tracks" a lesson in observation and inferring

Ally Bull talks of building a library of experience and it is the talk accompanying this that is critical

Rex Bartholomew  - Applied Investigations using sycamore seeds

"Design an investigation which will establish how far the seeds can spread from the tree.  Decide the hypothesis regarding the increase or decrease in spreading distance". 

Reflections from Curriculum Day 25.02.15

Dramatic Science as a support and aid to teach science in an innovative and creative way.

We acted out being a part of a machine, adding on to our neighbour's ideas, participated in a role play in which we visited an industrial age factory and then worked in groups to create a never before designed container in which to hold something.  A photo of some the completed bags below.

Discrepant events are those which have unexpected outcomes - for example the flaming tea bag

See the Gluckman report for the major purposes for science education

• career
• practical knowledge
• science literacy
• part of an intellectual education

Interconnectedness as relates to the curriculum
skittle, hot and cold glasses and lens activities

 

 

Engaging the disengaged

In summary (copied from the Alert Newsletter)

An article on Australia’s The Conversation by Craig Cormik and Suzette Searle calls for different types of activities to try and engage four segments of the population that view science in different ways:

• Fan boys and fan girls;
• The cautiously keen;
• The risk adverse;
• The concerned and disengaged. 

Engaging the disengaged with science