Planning Cycle – Adapted from, The Early Years Learning Framework Professional Learning Program: The Planning Cycle, Early Childhood Australia, retrieved from, http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/nqsplp/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Worksheet_planning_cycle_your_context_A4.pdf on 22 Nov 2016

Integrated Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Learning in Kindergarten

A STEM Investigation in Kindergarten –

What makes it go?

Planning Cycle – Adapted from, The Early Years Learning Framework Professional Learning Program: The Planning Cycle, Early Childhood Australia, retrieved from, http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/nqsplp/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Worksheet_planning_cycle_your_context_A4.pdf on 22 Nov 2016

Integrated Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Learning in Kindergarten

Data - from observations, voices of children/parents, photographs, work samples etc.

Students have been observed creating a ramp for marbles to roll down and into a cup. “Mine goes down into the cup and then it wins. You have to move this bit first then it goes.”

A number of students beginning to notice their environment and are noticing the busy road adjacent to the playground and commenting on fast or loud cars – “It’s a race car.” ”Ambulance!” “That car was too noisy.”

One student chose to spend about 20 minutes to create a digger and match it to the front of a book in the classroom. He came and asked if I would take a photo to show his mum. Other students were impressed by his work and offered their congratulations to him.

Students noticing that the cars move by themselves when on a slope. Students wondered how to make their cars go faster down the hill – “My car goes faster than yours because it has more wheels.” “How can I make my car be the fastest?”

Students rolling on wheels at PlayPod – “This is my car.” “I’m in a wheelchair.” “I’m going to make a car?” “What can make me go fast?”

A small group of students were observed using the Mobilo to create cars and race them. During the same play session the students used the nearby toy cars to race down a sloped roadway they created using the toy road and a basket. Students discussed how many wheels their Mobilo cars had –“It needs three wheels (three sets of two) because it needs to go faster than other cars because it’s a racing car.”

As students explore the cars at the Construction Centre students are spinning the wheels and rolling them up and down the ramps. Students are observed having favourite cars and when questioned about why specific cars are their favourite students responded by saying they were the best because they were the fastest and went the furthest when rolling down the ramp.

Planning Cycle – Adapted from, The Early Years Learning Framework Professional Learning Program: The Planning Cycle, Early Childhood Australia, retrieved from, http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/nqsplp/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Worksheet_planning_cycle_your_context_A4.pdf on 22 Nov 2016

Integrated Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Learning in Kindergarten

Analyse - What learning is taking place here?

Students are learning that objects move in a variety of ways. They are seeing that cars and balls roll and are experimenting with trying to make the balls and cars roll further and faster. Students are developing an understanding of common objects that do roll and common objects that do not move or roll. Further exploration of the ways in which different objects move will enable students to consolidate this understanding and also build on their prior and current knowledge of how things move.

Students are learning that the way objects move can be effected, such as altering the incline or adding wind. Students are learning to experiment, this new understanding of how experimenting with different variables can effect outcomes could be extended by developing an understanding of making predictions first and then experimenting.

Students are learning that perseverance is essential when exploring or learning something new. This was evident when students were attempting build a sloped road to roll the cars down, a number of students were quick to give up but then saw what happened when other students persevered and then persevered themselves.

Students are learning that the way objects move can have an impact on our everyday lives, such as ambulances moving fast to get someone help.

Students are beginning to learn to ask questions of their environment to discover new information. Students are asking the teacher and their friends “How can it go faster?” “How did you make your car go so fast?”

Students are learning to notice and observe their environment. Students observed cars driving past the school playground and noticed specific features of the cars. This learning could be extended by providing students with the vocabulary to explain what they are doing when they are observing and noticing. By students becoming aware of the specific skill of observation they will develop an understanding of how useful it is as well as when it is beneficial to learning.

Planning Cycle – Adapted from, The Early Years Learning Framework Professional Learning Program: The Planning Cycle, Early Childhood Australia, retrieved from, http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/nqsplp/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Worksheet_planning_cycle_your_context_A4.pdf on 22 Nov 2016

Integrated Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Learning in Kindergarten

Plan – What other learning is possible?

Students will be provided with opportunities to explore the marble run during Investigations. This will enable students time to work collaboratively with their peers as well as notice how their peers are working. Students will be able to make their own predictions and follow through with their own ideas. Students also use this time to add their work into their digital portfolio using the iPads.

Teacher will be aware of incidental opportunities to point out when something is moving, this will continue to create and build interest in how different things move as well as make connections in a real-world context. Students will also begin to become more aware of their world and start to make connections and notice moving things independently. Things for teacher to be aware of include: bikes in the playground, wind moving the trees, body movement and paint brushes moving paint.

As students begin to notice their own environment more and more the teacher will begin recording their noticing on a piece of butcher’s paper displayed in the classroom. The piece of paper will be shared with the students and students’ noticing will be celebrated.

Integration of literacy through songs such as Wheels on the Bus, Open Shut Them and Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes. Teacher will introduce songs and will sing them once before pointing different types of movement in each song and generating discussion about moving our bodies in songs. Students will be invited to share any other songs they know where you have to move your body.

As students continue to explore the marble run teacher will add tubes, ramps and a variety of different sized balls into the construction area to promote critical and creative thinking as students build their own courses using the tubes and ramps. Stopwatches will also be added into the construction area to enable students to explore measurement, time and reading numbers.

The teacher will provide a provocation using some paper to measure how far a ball can roll down a ramp. The teacher will demonstrate how to measure out and write the numbers on the paper. The teacher will then model how to make a prediction and test out the theory. The teacher will pose some questions (I wonder if the tennis ball will be as fast as the marble? I wonder what would happen if I moved the ramp higher?) before leaving the construction area to allow students to explore on their own. The teacher will return a short time later and will ask students to share what they have discovered. The students will be reading numbers as their balls stop on the numbers and they will also be using the language of ordinal number.

Students will watch a number of examples of Rube Goldberg machines on YouTube as a provocation. The teacher will provide some grid paper for any students who wish to plan their machines as well as ample opportunity for creation of a machine using tubes, ramps, balls and anything else the students ask for. The teacher will suggest challenges if necessary “I wonder if you can get the ball from here to here?” As students work to create their own machine students will be developing their critical and creative thinking skills as well as their own perseverance and collaborative skills. Students will be filmed as they are creating their machine and they will film their own creation and add it to their digital portfolio. Students will watch the video of themselves working and reflect on how they worked together and that they did when something wasn’t working.

As students become more aware of what movement is and how different living and non-living things move the teacher will introduce positional language. An obstacle course will be set up and students will have an opportunity to explore the course after the teacher has modelled using positional language and read Rosie’s Walk (over, under, up, down, through, in, out).

Students will have the opportunity to see the teacher’s tip tray ute and discuss when it would be helpful to have a tray that can turn into a slope.

Students will independently record their inquiry into their digital portfolio, students will learn how to select information to be shared with others and how to describe their learning/work/processes/thinking as they add the voiceover in their digital portfolio.

Planning Cycle – Adapted from, The Early Years Learning Framework Professional Learning Program: The Planning Cycle, Early Childhood Australia, retrieved from, http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/nqsplp/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Worksheet_planning_cycle_your_context_A4.pdf on 22 Nov 2016

Integrated Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Learning in Kindergarten

Act/Do

Planned provocations shared by teacher and placed at the Construction Centre: - We Can Move It text- Marble run- Ramps, tubes, different sized balls - Stop watches- Long piece of paper for measuring distance

We watched this short ABC Splash clip with the sound off. Students were invited to think and then turn and talk about what is happening in each of the pictures that is the same. Students shared their own or their partner’s thinking back to the group. A number of students independently recognised that everything in the clip was moving. http://splash.abc.net.au/home#!/media/1568220/

Students were invited to think about when it might be useful to know that balls can only roll on a downhill slope. The teacher then shared her tip tray ute with the students. One student instantly recognised why this would be useful “If there is rubbish there it can be tipped out!” We put some cardboard into the tray to tip out and another student noticed that “It won’t come out if the gate is closed” so the teacher demonstrated how the back of the tray could fold down to allow anything in the tray to slide or roll out. Everyone had an opportunity to look at how the tray raised and what was underneath it. We shared this experience with parents through the digital portfolios.

During our Community Circle we started talking about what we have been investigating recently. A number of students agreed that we had been finding out about how things move. The questioned was then posed ‘What do you know about things in our world that move?’ Students shared prior and more recent understandings and knowledge about what/how things move. We shared this conversation with our parents by posting it in our digital portfolios and in our class diary.

Planning Cycle – Adapted from, The Early Years Learning Framework Professional Learning Program: The Planning Cycle, Early Childhood Australia, retrieved from, http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/nqsplp/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Worksheet_planning_cycle_your_context_A4.pdf on 22 Nov 2016

Integrated Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Learning in Kindergarten

Act/Do

Act/Do

After a number of students noticed that people and animals can move we discussed the movement of different animals (slow, fast, slithering, flying, walking etc.). An area for exploration of living things was set up in the classroom. Students noticed and made some connections to movement here, this exploration provides a foundation for further exploration into living things and different types of movement in living things in the future. The teacher used the opportunity to raise body awareness through movement to music using scarves and also singing movement songs (Heads and Shoulders etc.). An obstacle course was set up to further explore body movement and positional language use was modelled and then applied.

After much interest in how things move and many discussions the teacher suggested that the class begin to record the different things they notice that move at school. A large piece of paper was displayed on the wall and students were able to add their ideas anytime. The teacher explained that by noticing and making connections we are learning the skill of observation and being researchers.

During our regular visit to the Play Pod one student created a structure based around his understanding of how things roll. He continued to modify his work until he was able to successfully pour gravel into the top of the tube and roll it down into the sink. When questioned about what he was thinking when he created the structure he responded “I needed to make it tall and the rocks will go down into the bucket.” He explained his creation and how it worked to the class during a reflection and sharing time at the end of the play session.

Planning Cycle – Adapted from, The Early Years Learning Framework Professional Learning Program: The Planning Cycle, Early Childhood Australia, retrieved from, http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/nqsplp/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Worksheet_planning_cycle_your_context_A4.pdf on 22 Nov 2016

Integrated Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Learning in Kindergarten

Reflect /Review – Evaluate what Principles, Practices and Learning Outcomes have been considered in your planning

Students were invited to explore a ‘mystery bag.’ Each bag contained an assortment of items from around the classroom (wooden blocks, bottle lid, marble, tube, pine cone, ping ball etc.). The teacher posed the question “I wonder what is the same about the things in the bag?” Students then enjoyed exploring the bags, some of the connections they made were “these bounce and these don’t” “circle things and not” “rolls and doesn’t roll” “coloured and wood.” Students then took a photo of how they had sorted the items and their images were later shared on the television with each student explaining the connections they made between the mystery bag items.

As students became more confident at observing and researching as well as intrigued by how things moved the teacher provided a challenge for the students. The teacher explained that people all around the world took up challenges to create and make things. The teacher shared a YouTube video of a Rube Goldberg machine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCMZe6FVbpc. The teacher prompted the students to think about how they would create their own Rube Goldberg machine and what kind of thinking and working together they would need to do. Students worked individually as well as collaboratively, they took a lot of inspiration from each other and were willing to share and help one another. Video footage of students working was captured and students watched the footage of themselves reflecting on what happened when something went wrong, what they were thinking at the time and how their machine turned out.

“I had to try so many times but I didn’t give up. The marble got stuck because it was too big. I was thinking that it was too hard for me but then I was excited because we made it work. I needed some help but not very much.”

Early Years Learning Framework Outcomes – the outcomes that were primarily considered during this investigation - Outcome 1: Children develop their emerging autonomy, inter-dependence, resilience and sense of agency. Students were provided with support and motivation as they faced challenges when constructing and creating independently or collaboratively.

Students demonstrated that they were open to new challenges and discoveries as they persevered with their ideas and creations. A number of students began to initiate negotiating and sharing behaviours and all students were increasingly able to co-operate and work collaboratively with others.