Main Curriculum Focus
SCIENCE
Cross-curricular Links
Media arts, creative writing, drama
Context
This is a year 7 enrichment Science class. Students come from varying and often challenging backgrounds, and most have learning challenges. The students are fortunate to have Rosie Rotheram as their teacher. Rosie is a dedicated, creative and patient teacher who cares for her students. She is passionate about teaching and especially interested in our solar system, which was the curriculum focus for our Creative Schools project this term. Rosie and I have worked well together to deliver creative, comprehensive and hands on learning content. In order to cater to the student’s learning needs, we focused on creating interactive learning opportunities rather than the traditional research and writing approach. This allowed cross-curricular links through media arts, creative writing, drama and art while still meeting the Science curriculum objectives.
Project overview
Our year 7 Science class focused on the solar system. We explored celestial bodies such as stars, planets, satellites, comets, asteroids, meteors, meteorites and the Kuiper Belt. Students researched the influence of the Earth’s location in relation to the sun as well as our moon, the phases of the moon, tides and seasons.
How did we make the curriculum come alive?
We made the curriculum come alive with lots of interactive and hands-on activities. For example, in our main term project, students created and decorated their own planets using styrofoam balls of varying sizes. These were hung from the ceiling to create a Science class solar system. The location of the planets, in relation to the sun, affected the weather, atmosphere, geography, gases, rings, satellites and life forms of each planet.
We built on this idea, and students ‘landed’ on their created planets. They wrote, directed, edited and produced their own individual iMovies of their life ‘story’ to share with the inhabitants of their individual planets. Students described the night sky of their birth and included constellations, moon phase, zodiac signs, weather and seasons.
Students were provided with a wonderful opportunity to have a story telling incursion with a story telling expert. They were fortunate enough to have the school’s Indigenous Education Officer come and share a session about Indigenous mythology, constellations, seasons and storytelling. These sessions informed and enriched the student’s own storytelling when they created their iMovies.
At the end of term we held a ‘movie premiere’ and invited staff to join us for our screenings. This was a wonderful way to celebrate the student achievements of their hard work and learning over the term.
Students also made a daily moon flip book. This encouraged them to look at the moon every evening, to learn moon phase terminology and to document their sightings in a fun, creative way.
We held a moon photo competition to see who could take the best photo of the moon. The winner was presented with a $5 canteen voucher.
We threw (sun)light from a light box onto our Styrofoam earth and moon to create and document our own moon phases. In addition we researched moon stories from around the world.
Our favourite session was held at the Perth Observatory in Bickley. We engaged in some very interactive sessions such as Telescope and gravity, Travelling around the moon, Moon survival and Sun seeing.
Finally, we explored the seasons, both indigenous and western, via nature connection activities such as creating ephemeral artwork and botanical drawings outside.
How did we make the Creative Habits of Mind come alive?
We made the Creative Habits of Mind come alive with a Sticker Solar System. As time is not on our side with a short class, I decided to use a quick and easy representation of our learning. Using the 5 colours of learning in sticker dots, students reflected on their learning and chose a colour that represented their strength over the session. These were placed on a long sheet of butcher paper, stuck up on the wall. Students were encouraged to decorate their stickers. Stickers were only disseminated once the students provided concrete, verbal examples of why they chose their colours. For example, “I chose green (persistence) today because I really did not feel like doing the task, but I pushed myself and actually finished, and am happy that I did” Students also do an extended reflection of the 5 habits of learning by filling out a Reflection workbook the next day with Rosie. They reflected on the creative habit they chose the day before and why but also reflected on a different habit that they could focus on in the next creative session.
How did we activate student voice and learner agency?
We activated student voice and learner agency by making most tasks hands on. We organised a lot of collaborative group work, whilst also maintaining an overarching individual term project. A few students were reluctant at first but developed as the sessions went on. Student’s took pride and ownership of their planets, they were so excited when their planets were fixed to the ceiling. Their extensive learning content over term, culminated in individual student iMovie’s. During the last session of term we held a movie screening and invited other teachers and staff to come watch and celebrate the student achievements. In the last creative session, we sat in a circle and reflected on our creative journey. Upon reflection, the students discovered they had many positive deep learning experiences, which they will retain over time.
WHAT WAS THE IMPACT?
Student
Students gained more confidence in navigating the curriculum with a wide variety of hands on activities, an infusion of more creativity, such as creative writing, and of individual ownership of tasks relating to self. Students have gained a deeper connection to, and understanding of, planet Earth and our solar system.
Teacher
Creative Schools has been really good. I’m using the 5 habits of learning framework outside of the Creative schools session and asking the kids to identify with the habits. The kids are enjoying it. I’d love to be the program coordinator for Creative Schools at Rockingham SHS next year and get other teachers involved. Creative Schools doesn’t feel like extra work. Melanie does all the reflections write ups which takes a huge burden off of me and makes the program viable for me and my workload.
The chance to work with Mel has been amazing, it has extended me in my classroom practices and given me new ways to look at how the students can learn. She has also been so much fun to work with and her energy has been infectious, not just with me but also the students. I wish I could have her as a permanent part of our classroom.
Creative Practitioner
In the beginning I felt the student’s had their hand break on when it came to getting involved, however as they have gotten used to me and the Creative Schools approach, they are more open to what we are presenting. It has allowed some students the opportunity to shine, where they usually wouldn’t and has provided extensive opportunities for practical engagement with curriculum content. I felt privileged to work along side Rosie, she is a dedicated, enthusiastic, patient and creative teacher. I learned a lot from working with her and was inspired by her consistent patience with the students. Rosie is a rare teacher who is invested in her students learning and growth.
School
Creative Schools created a good opportunity for the school to embrace fresh ideas about learning and a structured and supported way to provide creative opportunities to students.
The school chaplain began attending and participating in the classes on a regular basis. This allowed him to engage positively with students and form bonds to better support them from a non-curriculum perspective. He enjoyed the sessions and would like to see more of this program in the school.
Parents
Students are sharing their learning with the parents and involving them in the main project as they research their birth date and the events that surrounded their birth.
“I get to practice being persistent in Creative Schools. It helps me be persistent because in some lessons I feel sleepy and don’t get work done but in Creative Schools I’m in a good mood so I get work done.” (Student)
“I’m strongest at being persistent because I can challenge myself and not give up. I’m not so strong at being collaborative. If I work with other people, I could practice it and get better. I usually work alone.” (Student)
“Creative schools is different from normal lessons because it helps you and it’s not complicated. It’s not boring like some lessons.” (Student)
“Creative Schools is a fantastic program especially for the demographic of kids in this class. It’s engaging and it’s tactile, everything they are creating, they can touch and feel. I hope we can do it again and that you guys come back.” (School Chaplain)
“In the beginning I felt the student’s had their hand-break on when it came to getting involved, however as they have gotten used to me and the Creative Schools approach, they are more open to what we are presenting. It has allowed some students the opportunity to shine, where they usually wouldn’t and has provided extensive opportunities for practical engagement with curriculum content.” (Creative Practitioner)
“Creative Schools has been really good. I’m using the 5 Creative Habits of Learning framework outside of the Creative Schools sessions and asking the kids to identify with the Habits. The kids are enjoying it. I’d love to be the program co-ordinator for Creative Schools next year and get other teachers involved. Creative Schools doesn’t feel like extra work. Melanie does all the reflections write ups which is really awesome.” (Teacher)
The selection of students creative projects can be seen on by clicking on the following YouTube links:
Beau D https://youtu.be/PgmfvyKrg_g
Tommy https://youtu.be/r3GC17z6Fjs
Brody https://youtu.be/QmeYU0F4HCI
Mason https://youtu.be/JgwO2RzlXmI
Daniel https://youtu.be/wGOIMc_W2X4
Deegan https://youtu.be/27GC3eM_dCw
Eden https://youtu.be/HpkfXvYUf2M
Logan https://youtu.be/vatyHKf_t9k
Jacob https://youtu.be/tY-_N8M4wr8
Beau https://youtu.be/i6-km6_r5Ro
Angie https://youtu.be/Wmu0Kizas7c
Shay-Lee https://youtu.be/I1y3qRMOaUI
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