Communicating matters
View Sequence overviewStudents will:
- re-examine substances and considering how to answer questions about them, with supporting evidence.
- predict the behaviour of the particles that make up difficult to categorise substances.
- consider how they are building on the work of other scientists and science communicators.
Students will represent their understanding as they:
- contribute to discussions about difficult to classify substances.
- consider ways to effectively communicate science ideas.
In this lesson, assessment is formative.
Feedback might focus on:
- the questions students ask/anticipate. Can they be answered in detail by what has been learned in this teaching sequence? Or will they require further investigation?
Whole class
Class science journal (digital or hard copy)
Each group
Samples of substances students have examined during the teaching sequence, including those that were difficult to classify
Each student
Individual science journal (digital or hard copy)
Lesson
Re-orient
Review what has been learned so far about the properties of solids, liquids and gases.
Review the role of a science communicator, and discuss again how students are going to create a text to convey the ideas they have learnt to their specific audience, and why these ideas are important.
What should we communicate?
Pose the questions: What is important for people to know about solids, liquids and gases? What questions might be asked about them? How might we respond?
Preparing to communicate: reviewing
Re-examine the samples of the substances students have looked at during the course of the sequence, including any they had difficulty categorising, including oobleck, honey, various powdered solids, carbonated drinks (soft drink, mineral water), sponges etc.
In collaborative teams, students:
- examine various substances.
- discuss/record:
- if each substance is a solid, liquid or gas.
- if it might be difficult to categorise and why.
- the category they would place it in.
- why they would place it there.
- represent what they think its particle structure might look like and why they think that.
- consider the questions they might be asked about substances, and how they might answer them.
Prompt teams' thinking with sample questions if required:
- If something can be poured, wouldn’t it be a liquid?
- Is soft drink a liquid or a gas?
- If something is soft, how can it be a solid?
Teams might also:
- revise the terms used during this teaching sequence.
- consider the amount of ‘science knowledge’ the audience may or may not already have, including the vocabulary they might use.
- consider how they might, like a science communicator, use everyday language to communicate their ideas.
- consider how these ideas are important to their audience, and why it might be important to know them.
Communicating science ideas
Science communicators effectively communicate science ideas to all.
The goals of science communicators are to effectively communicate science ideas to all, to raise public awareness of and interest in science, and to engage diverse communities with science.
They use a variety of literary techniques, including persuasion, storytelling, humour and metaphors to connect with an audience’s interests and values.
By thinking about how they might communicate science ideas effectively, and engage potentially disinterested people in science, students are not only building their own science capital, but potentially the science capital of those around them.
Preparing to communicate: collaborating
Share teams’ ideas about the substances they re-examined as a class.
- How did you categorise some of the trickier substances?
- Why did you categorise that way?
- What do you think the particle structure would look like?
- Do you think the properties of these trickier substances could be changed? How?
- What would adding water, heat etc. do to the substances?
Teams then share the questions they think they might be asked about solids, liquids and gases, and the potential answers they have prepared. Record these in the class science journal.
Ask other teams if they might add any details to these potential answers, including considering how they might refer to particle theory in the explanations/answers.
Highlight that, by collaborating and building on each others’ work, they are behaving like scientists and science communicators who have investigated and communicated about particles before them.
- What questions do you think people will ask you about the substances?
- What responses might you give?
- How can we build upon each other’s work to be the most prepared as possible to answer these questions?
- How are we building on past scientists'/science communicators' work?
Reflect on the lesson
You might:
- reflect on the list of solids, liquids and gases, created throughout the teaching sequence, as well as some of the trickier substances students have encountered. How confident do they feel that substances have been categorised correctly?
- add to the class word wall of vocabulary related to solids, liquids and gases.
- add to the class TWLH, completing the H and L sections with what they have learned about particles.