The McDonald Science Practical Format

I'm finally doing it, the long awaited blog post about the science report format that I have developed this year.
Taking advice from those wiser than me I'm putting my name on it and going to give a description of the format here.

One of the core focuses of the Australian Curriculum is the development of science inquiry skills (http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Science/Content-structure). Working closely with Joseph Hughes I designed a planning template intended to direct inquiry thinking skills in all levels of students. This format has then been used to restructure the format of science laboratory lessons from years 7 to 10. It is designed to allow students to develop inquiry skills, collaborative learning abilities and increase engagement while providing accountability for all students.

The template we designed was called the inquiry square. It has four main components with the interconnecting skill of Evaluating and Critically Analysing. The end goal of the inquiry square is to allow student to have improved communication about these skills and their learning. The four components are Questioning and Predicting, Planning and Conducting, Observing and Analysing and Concluding. These headings were taken in part from the curriculum and adjusted to fit for easy understanding by students (for example 'drawing conclusions' became 'concluding' because we found students making drawings of unrelated information!)

A discussion with Andrew Heher, a fellow science teacher and carpool buddy, brought up a common issue. Students were not participating in practicals with as much enthusiasm as we thought they should, and their reports were far below the standard we needed and expected. So this got me thinking about what needed to change. I then remembered the inquiry square and how it was designed to be directing their thinking in laboratory reports. So why not use it?

This square is the base for the McDonald Science Practical Format. Students are broken into groups of 4 in the class. Each student gets one of the roles, and evaluating and critically analysing is expected to be included in all four roles. At this point students belong to two different groups. Their lab group has somebody doing each role and their role group is comprised of all the students in the class who do that roll. The structure of the lesson is then based on students working in a combination of those groups.

I will run through the lesson structure that I use.

1. Students choose which role they will be performing that lesson.

2. Students get into role groups. This means that all the Questioning and Predicting people will get together at one station, all the Planning and Conducting at another and so on.

3. At their station students have a colour coded folder that is specific to their role. The folder contains information about the role they will be doing, guiding questions and the work required to get an A grade on the task.

4. Students begin to put their thinking and working onto A5 pieces of paper that are matched to the colour of their role. The role groups are designed to provide support for students who are unsure of what to do, or may need support in literacy and numeracy tasks before returning to their lab group.

5. Once the Planning and Conducting person from each group has read their method they then collect the needed equipment and set up a work area for their lab group. The other members then join them and help complete the lab while focusing on their own roles and supporting their group.

6. After the task is complete each member puts their coloured sheet onto a larger piece so that all the colours are represented. This becomes the writeup that the group submits as evidence of their learning.

7. Before the next lesson I then mark their work using a marking template which has the A grade descriptors of their work. These templates are used across all classes and so can be moderated easily.

8. In the next lesson I speak with each group about what they did well and allow them to select one thing that they will improve on next time. This becomes their goal and is highlighted on the marking sheet. The marking sheet remains in the classroom as a record of which roles each student has completed and what their goal is going to be.

This format has been adapted by all the teachers at my school in the Science department from years 7-10. We use a different set of A grade descriptors for the years 7 & 8 classes but otherwise the format is exactly the same. This means that students have continuity from the time they start at the school until they leave and will therefore develop skills vital to inquiry based learning.

This routine can be difficult to implement with a new class but with practice students are comfortable in using the role titles and moving from station to station when needed. Other staff I work with asssisted with developing the coloured A5 paper and folders, and have used other systems I have set up such as a list of what tasks students will be working on during the next practical.

The staff members that have helped significantly with the development and implementation were Joseph Hughes, Cattlin Hubbard, Andrew Heher, Kurt Halbauer, Rachael Nielsen, and Teegan Williamson.