Learning Outside the Classroom - conducting experiments and understanding rivers.

This term Year 7 & 8 Science learning has focused around how scientists conduct experiments and how gathering valid results are vital to outcomes. Our context has been learning what feeds and shapes rivers. 

Last week the class went to Waitangi River to gather data about the velocity of the river and to notice natural phenomena such as sedimentation, erosion and soil type. 

Next week students will be deciding what aspects of their learning they would like tso share and how. Some students have started learning about creating info-graphics using Google-Draw, others are learning how to create graphs. I look forward to seeing different aspects coming together and being presented over the next two weeks. 

 Here are a few pictures of the day. 

Nutrient Impact Experiment

Learning through science. 

Estuaries play an important role in a healthy environment. They are the connection between land and sea; they are teeming with life - the nursery of sea. 

Rivers carry nutrients out to the estuaries and into the sea, but what happens if too many nutrients are getting into water systems and estuaries? 

Our class was tasked with coming up with a way to explore this question. Hawaiki’s, Zoe, Hunia and Khody talked through their idea and the class adopted it. 

Our Plan

Create two mini environments that model living plants in the soil and living plants in rivers. Feed one water and the other water with nutrients. Watch and observe over the next few weeks.

The class learned that fair testing during an experiment makes the results reliable. We wouldn’t have different plants or amounts of water in the two models as results could be due to those variables. Because of this, everything was measured carefully.

Science - the joys of discovery

How do plants get the nutrients they need? 

Exploring ideas by working through the scientific method, research and hands on task brings a greater understanding of ideas. 

The initial hypotheses of the class were very limited, ranging from a “I don’t know’ to a ‘nutrients are soaked up through the roots because that’s how they get their water”. 

Plan the Experiment 

Make Observations 

40 minutes later