Week 4 - Lessons in classification
This week has been a wonderful week of learning. On Monday Kathy, Bryan and I took two PhD students Geoff and Mirja to Kowhai Intermediate so they could facilitate a lesson on volcanic rocks, which tied in really nicely with their current volcanoes topic.
We took the rocks and sand that Kathy and I had collected from the rock storage unit, plus a few that were lent to us from various very kind colleagues. A nice collection was made to work with the classification chart.
They took 5 lessons across the day that teachers observed so they could then replicate that learning in their classrooms. I was overjoyed with how engaged the students were (both young and old). Our students were thrilled to be holding pieces of the mantel, ash, and lava. In return, the engagement turned into some pretty fabulous learning opportunities for them. See the write up in the school newsletter here:
Newsletter 18 August 2017.pdf
Learning why we have white sand on the East coast and black sand on the West. (Because the Waikato River used to come out in Thames).
Mirja and students working with Ash and Lapilli.
Deciding if this sand is Volcanic or not.
Using our senses to observe the rocks.
Bryan helping students navigate through the classification chart to decide what this rock is called.
I also took some time this week to engage with some first year students in their Lab session for EARTHSCI103. In this lab they were using their own classification chart to name different mineral types. I thoroughly enjoyed this as I find minerals mesmerising to look at. These students (19 year olds), taught me how to do a scratch test - using a nail and a porcelain pad, and what 'cleavage' meant - it means the different directions that a mineral can break in. They were very patient with me asking all sorts of questions, and even thanked me as I left for being so inquisitive.
Doing a scratch test to see what colour scratches onto the porcelain pad
Some of the different minerals we were classifying. Some of which captivated me through their sparklines!
Learning how to use a nail to decipher its hardness as a defining characteristic
This week in my readings I have been really engaged with the idea of a Maori Narrative. I am lucky that I am part of a school with a full immersion Maori unit, so I have been able to email some colleagues for their guidance.
I started off with this paper: Decolonising Māori narratives: Pūrākau as a method by Jenny Lee. This paper introduces the idea of Purakau, however I needed some more information so I could fully get my head around it. So Kathy (my host) directed me towards this: Mātauranga Māori—the ūkaipō of knowledge in New Zealand by D. Hikuroa. This clearly defined Purakau as a narrative that the Maori used in order to explain natural phenomenon. I really enjoyed this article and was able to reflect on how we could best use Maori Purakau and Western Science together in harmony in the classroom.