Presenting Science and ICT (“Digital Storytelling”)
Put simply, “digital storytelling” is just using computer-based tools to tell a story. There are many different ways to do this – from making movies, recording voices, creating animations or electronic books.
In science, technology can help to take a mundane task – such as writing a report, explaining a process or describing an experiment – and allow the pupils to demonstrate their understanding in more creative ways.
Can you use technology to do more than “just go write it up”? Can they tell a story about their experiment and what they found out?
For example, pupils can create:
- Comic strips
- E-books
- Photo slideshows
- Slide Presentations
- Flyers and leaflets
- Stop-motion animations
- Short films
- Podcasts and audio recordings
This blogpost suggests some apps to use: https://www.whiteboardblog.co.uk/2021/10/creative-tools-for-digital-storytelling-in-the-classroom/
Comics and Comic Strips
Make a comic strip to explain the results of an experiment using tools such as StoryboardThat https://www.storyboardthat.com/storyboard-creator
Audio and Video
Digital cameras are now relatively inexpensive and simple to use, and tablets such as iPads also have the ability to record video and audio. Audio recordings can also be made easily on a laptop using software such as Audacity and a cheap microphone.
Pupils can record videos of practical work and provide a commentary as they go along. Playing back videos allows the pupils to review and evaluate their work. Audio and video files could be shared on the school website or social media channels (if parent permission given).
Some cameras have the ability to make time-lapse videos, which could allow pupils to make videos of, for example, a plant growing in the classroom or a shadow moving over the course of a day.
The pupils could film their own news report about the results of an investigation, with one child as the interviewer and the other as a scientist. They could make a short documentary about the life of a famous scientist such as Mary Anning or Charles Darwin, or they could create short commercials. With a plain green bed sheet pinned to the wall some iPad apps allow for chromakey to replace the background, turning the classroom into a news studio, a rainforest or even the moon!
These can be a great way to allow the pupils to develop their communication and literacy skills. They will need to work together to create scripts, record each other and edit a finished product.
Ideas for audio or video recording include:
- Pretend to interview a famous scientist
- Describe a science investigation and its results
- Make a news report from a faraway location
- Produce a radio commercial
- “Public information” films
- Discuss a science story that has been in the news
- Read out science poems or stories written in class, perhaps adding sound effects
- Make an animation to explain a process such as a life cycle or the water cycle
Remember, the technology should be used in the classroom when it is appropriate, not just for the sake of it. It should enhance the teaching of science in the lesson, rather than being a distraction. The teacher should decide when, and when not, to use the technology.
Data Handling and ICT
Technology can support science in schools by helping pupils observe, measure, record, manipulate and interpret results. Data-logging equipment can aid the collection of data, which can then be turned into a graph and/or analysed in a spreadsheet.
Pupils’ investigations in science can generate plenty of data that needs to be sorted and analysed (Kelly and Stead 2013). Software such as data loggers or spreadsheets can be used to quickly create graphs, removing the need to draw them by hand. This can free up more time for analysis. However, such software shouldn’t be used every time: it is important that pupils also have the opportunity to practise drawing graphs by hand.
Pupils are expected to be able to create and use pictograms, bar charts, line graphs and scatter graphs. Data for all of these graphs can be produced during science practical work, via experiments, surveys or research. Simple formulae can be used to calculate totals and averages.
Data Logging
Data logging provides quicker and more accurate data collection, as well as allowing you to monitor changes over long periods of time. To carry out data logging you need a computer, an interface that communicates with the computer, and sensors that communicate with the interface. You will also need special software to be able to make sense of the information and display it on the screen.
Sometimes, a data-logging interface will have its own screen displaying readings from the sensors so that it can be used without having to be connected to a computer. It can then be connected to a computer to download the data. You can use iPads or even old phones for datalogging using Arduino Science Journal. This post explains more.
There are many different kinds of sensors available. Temperature and light-level sensors are the most commonly used, so they good choices for your first sensors. Other sensors, such as humidity and sound sensors, can also be very useful in primary science.
Two temperature probes could be used to explore why animals have fur – fill plastic cups with warm water and wrap one in cotton wool and leave one bare. Leave for 20 minutes and look at how quickly they cool.
A sound sensor could be used to look at sound insulation. Put a sound sensor inside a box and a noise source such as a loud alarm clock outside the box. Wrap the box in different materials to see which is best at insulating the sensor from the noise.
For a list of datalogging ideas, take a look at this guide to datalogging.
Simulations
A computer simulation is an on-screen representation of a situation or a process, such as the particles in a material or an electrical circuit. Computer simulations can be a valuable tool for teaching science.
Simulations and models allow pupils to investigate abstract ideas or carry out practical work that would be difficult or time consuming in the classroom – for example, building electric circuits or looking at the motion of the planets (Massie and Long, 2009) They are also very useful for carrying out practical work as part of home learning.
Always make sure that pupils are supported in their use of simulations. Podolefsky et al. (2010) found that scaffolding is essential to support pupil engagement in science simulations. Such as ensuring the pupils are prepared with some level of understanding of the topic or basic vocabulary before embarking on the simulation. Young pupils in particular will need guidance in their use and a clear focus.
Examples of Simulations
Phet Simulations
The Phet site is an excellent resource full of simulations for all ages and subject areas. A great example of this is the circuit construction kit. This allows pupils to build and explore electrical circuits. Where possible, allow the pupils to explore a “real” circuit first, before exploring the simulation.
Unlike in the classroom, there are no limitations on equipment or safety issues, so if the pupils want to know what happens if they use 10 batteries then they can find out! (Try it out, see what happens!)
https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/circuit-construction-kit-dc-virtual-lab
Solar System Scope
Solar System Scope (https://www.solarsystemscope.com/) is an online orrery, providing a simulation of the motion of the planets around the Sun. You can play the simulation forwards or backwards at different speeds to see how the planets move, or you can drag a specific planet around. You could zoom in on the inner planets or zoom right out to see how the outer planets move.
Scaffold this with a question sheet for the pupils to give them specific things to find out, such as the length of a year on different planets.
For example – a good time to send a space probe to Mars will be December 2022, when Mars is close to the Earth. By dragging Mars around the Sun to travel forward in time, could the pupils find out the next best time to send a probe to Mars? And the next?
Clicking on particular planets will bring up more information about each one along with a close-up view of the planet and its moons.
Useful Links
Harlen, W., and Qualter, A., (2018) The Teaching of Science in Primary Schools. Routledge
Kelly, L., and Stead, D., (2013) Enhancing Primary Science. Developing Effective Cross-Curricular Links. OUP.
Lewin, C., Smith, A., Morris, S., and Craig, E., (2019) Using Digital Technology to Improve Learning: Evidence Review. Education Endowment Foundation https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/evidence-reviews/digital-technology-2019
Massie, J., and Long., (2009) Simulation for Science Education. Online: http://etec.ctlt.ubc.ca/510wiki/Simulation_for_Science_Education
Nicholson, D., (2019) Data Logging in Primary Science: A quick starter guide https://www.sciencefix.co.uk/2019/10/datalogging-in-primary-science-a-quick-starter-guide/
National Centre for Computing Education. What is a Spreadsheet? https://teachcomputing.org/curriculum/key-stage-2/data-and-information-spreadsheets/lesson-1-what-is-a-spreadsheet
National Centre for Computing Education. Datalogging https://teachcomputing.org/curriculum/key-stage-2/data-and-information-data-logging
Nicholson, D. (2021) Creative Tools for Digital Storytelling in Class https://www.whiteboardblog.co.uk/2021/10/creative-tools-for-digital-storytelling-in-the-classroom/
Nicholson, D., (2016) Creative Use of ICT In Science https://www.whiteboardblog.co.uk/2016/01/creative-use-of-ict-in-science-ase-talk-2016/
Phet Simulations https://phet.colorado.edu/
Podolefsky, N., Perkins, K. and Adams, W. (2010) Factors Promoting Engaged Exploration with Computer Simulations Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 6 https://journals.aps.org/prper/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.6.020117
Storyboard that: https://www.storyboardthat.com/storyboard-creator
Solar System Scope: https://www.solarsystemscope.com/
Title Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
The post Integrating Computing into Primary Science appeared first on Danny Nic’s Science Fix. Written by Danny Nicholson