[Light-hearted, upbeat music]

Speaker

The new Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus was released by the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) in 2017. This resource is designed to support teachers' knowledge and understanding of the Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus, in particular, the inclusion of four thinking skills.

These thinking skills are computational thinking, design thinking, scientific thinking and systems thinking. These four thinking skills encompass the productive, purposeful and intentional thinking that underpins effective learning in science and technology. This video will explore the thinking skill computational thinking and how it is embedded in the new Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus.

As the table shows, computational thinking skills are embedded within various content strands of the new Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus. Opportunities to embed computational thinking skills are identified by the ComT abbreviation after individual syllabus dot points. So what is computational thinking?

Computational thinking is a process where a problem is analysed and solved so that a human, machine or computer can effectively implement the solution. It involves using strategies to organise data logically, break down problems into parts, interpret patterns and design and implement algorithms to solve problems. Computational thinking is typically subdivided into four key aspects which are decomposition, abstraction, pattern recognition and algorithms.

Decomposition. Decomposition involves breaking something down into smaller parts. We often do this when we have a large or difficult task and need to break it into smaller steps in order to make it more manageable.

[Decomposition STe-7DI-T: Students follow and describe a sequence of steps (algorithms]

In Early Stage 1, for example, this might involve having students break down the routine of arriving at school. How did they get ready for the day? What transport did they take? What did they do when they arrived at school?

[ ST2-3DP-T:Students describe and follow a sequence of steps and decisions (algorithms) to solve defined problems involving branching and user input]

In Stage 2, for example, this might involve examining the individual ingredients used to make a cake or writing a list of steps to plan a birthday party.

Abstraction. Abstraction is the ability to focus on the key details of a problem and ignore details that are unimportant. This is a vital skill in computational thinking as it can help us avoid getting bogged down by little details of a problem.

In Stage 1, this might involve students identifying the key skills you need to be a good soccer or football player. Whilst students might think that new soccer boots or fancy equipment make a good player, these details don’t focus on key skills such as passing and shooting. Abstraction removes unnecessary information in order to focus on what is important to solve the problem or answer the question.

Pattern Recognition. Pattern recognition is about looking for trends or similarities which might help us better organise our thinking. Pattern recognition is another key computational thinking skill that many students will already be familiar with, particularly in mathematics.

In Stage 2, this might involve students creating a T-chart to classify or organise a selection of living and non-living things. Pattern recognition requires students to look for similarities and differences between items in order to compare and group these things in meaningful ways. Exploring mathematical patterns such as the Fibonacci sequence can also be a great way to delve into pattern recognition.

Algorithms. Algorithms or algorithmic design involves creating a set of step-by-step instructions in order to complete a task or solve a problem. Providing a robot with a set of instructions to follow a map is an example of an algorithm.

[ST3-11DI-T: Students explore how the main components of digital systems connect together to form networks that transmit data]

In Stage 3, students might create a flowchart or written instructions in order to complete a task such as borrowing a book from the library or separating a mixture.

The problems and challenges that our students may face in the future are yet to be determined. Computational thinking will help students address this uncertainty, encouraging them to become more flexible problem solvers and innovative learners.

The science and technology page on the NSW Department of Education website contains additional syllabus implementation support materials for teachers, including professional development opportunities. If you would like further information about syllabus implementation, please contact the science and technology K-6 curriculum team on the details below.

[ scienceandtechnologyk6@det.nsw.edu.au

education.nsw.gov.au/science]

[End of transcript.]

[Music]

Speaker

The new Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus was released by the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) in 2017. This resource is designed to support teachers' knowledge and understanding of the Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus, in particular, the inclusion of four thinking skills.

These thinking skills are computational thinking, design thinking, scientific thinking and systems thinking. These four thinking skills encompass the productive, purposeful and intentional thinking that underpins effective learning in science and technology. This video will explore the thinking skill design thinking and how it is embedded in the new Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus.

[Table with cells coloured to indicate where opportunities to embed design thinking are found in the Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus across particular stages and content strands. Design thinking can be embedded in:

• living world and material world from Early Stage 1 to Stage 3
• physical world in Stage 1 and Stage 3
• Earth and space from Stage 1 to Stage 3
• digital technologies in Early Stage 1, Stage 2 and Stage 3.]

As the table shows, design thinking skills are embedded within various content strands of the new Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus. Opportunities to embed design thinking skills are identified by the DesT abbreviation after individual syllabus dot points. So what is design thinking?

Design thinking is a process where a need or opportunity is identified and a design solution is developed. The consideration of economic, environmental and social impacts that result from design solutions are core to design thinking. Design thinking methods can be used when trying to understand a problem, generate ideas and refine a design based on evaluation and testing. Design thinking is intrinsically linked to the skills of design and production.

Consider the following professions: an architect, an app developer and a furniture designer. On the surface, it would seem these professions have little in common. However, the one unifying factor is that each of them utilise design thinking in their roles.

Whilst this design thinking might differ slightly between each of these professions, they will essentially follow the same basic steps. These steps are: empathise, define, ideate, prototype and test. Let’s look at a classroom example of design thinking from Stage 2.

Freya and Olivia love playing dice games in mathematics.

[Empathise – ST2-2DP-T: critique needs or opportunities for designing solutions through evaluating products and processes]

The only issue is that the dice make too much noise when rolled on the desk. Some students in the class are sensitive to this loud noise and to accommodate them, the class play dice games on the carpet. With the whole class on the floor, however, things can become a little crowded. Freya and Olivia feel that everyone would be more comfortable if they could spread out and play dice games at their desks.

To understand their audience better, Freya and Olivia survey their teacher and other students in their class.

[Define – ST2-2DP-T: define a need or opportunity according to functional and aesthetic criteria]

They discover that most people feel a similar way about the dice problem. Students would like to play dice games at their desks but understand the need to play on the floor.

Freya and Olivia are beginning to define their problem. The noisy dice have created congestion on the floor during some mathematics lessons.

[Define – ST2-2DP-T: investigate and research materials, components, tools and techniques to produce design solutions]

They conduct some internet research looking at the history of dice, how dice are made and the materials used to make dice in order to better understand the problem. They also use a decibel meter app to measure the loudness of the dice when rolled on the desk.

Now that Freya and Olivia feel that they have a good understanding of their problem, they move to the ideate phase.

[Ideate – ST2-2DP-T: develop, record and communicate design ideas and decisions using appropriate technical terms.]

They spend some time brainstorming solutions, writing down as many ideas as they can come up with to solve the problem. At this stage, they don’t judge their ideas.

Even if an idea seems silly or impossible, they still write it down. They choose one idea to explore further.

Freya and Olivia develop a design for a soundproof box that they can use to roll the dice.

[Ideate ST2-2DP-T: produce labelled and annotated drawings including digital graphic representations]

They draw sketches and eventually use digital software to develop blueprints which will guide the building of their product.

[Prototype – ST2-2DP-T: plan a sequence of production steps when producing designed solutions individually and collaboratively]

Freya and Olivia then spend the next few lessons building a prototype, a basic version of their product. They make sure to follow their blueprints as closely as possible.

During the next mathematics lesson, Freya and Olivia test the prototype.

[Test – ST2-2DP-T: critique needs or opportunities for designing solutions through evaluating products and processes]

They use the same decibel meter app to measure the loudness of rolling dice in their soundproof box and compare it to their original measurement. Whilst their soundproof box reduces the overall loudness of the dice, Freya and Olivia decide to try a variety of different materials inside the box to further soften the sound.

[Test – ST2-2DP-T: investigate and research materials, components, tools and techniques to produce design solutions]

Unfortunately, none of the materials they try reduce the sound to a level they are happy with. In addition, they are also having problems seeing into the box which makes reading the dice quite difficult. The students return to the ideate phase to consider alternative design options.

Eventually, Freya and Olivia settle on a design to create dice out of a shapeable, lightweight foam material which doesn’t require a box. They have much better success with this second design.

As the previous example demonstrates, design thinking is rarely linear or simple. Steps sometimes need to be revisited in order to move forward with a design. Using design thinking, Freya and Olivia were able to successfully create a solution to a real-world problem. In fact, here’s a photo of their finished product which they called ‘Silent dice’.

Design thinking is an important thinking skill that is utilised by people in a variety of professional industries. Equipping students with this thinking skill will give them a flexible framework for solving real-world problems.

The science and technology page on the NSW Department of Education website contains additional syllabus implementation support materials for teachers, including professional development opportunities. If you would like further information about syllabus implementation, please contact the science and technology K-6 curriculum team on the details below.

[Science and technology K-6 curriculum support. scienceandtechnologyk6@det.nsw.edu.au. education.nsw.gov.au/science]

[This video features the song “Little Idea” by Bensound. copyright © 2019 licensed under a Creative Commons License Attribution-NoDerivs (3.0) license. https://www.bensound.com]

[Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus © NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) for and on behalf of the Crown in right of the State of New South Wales, 2017]

[Music]

[End of transcript.]

[Music]

Speaker

The new Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus was released by the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) in 2017. This resource is designed to support teachers' knowledge and understanding of the Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus, in particular, the inclusion of four thinking skills.

These thinking skills are computational thinking, design thinking, scientific thinking and systems thinking. These four thinking skills encompass the productive, purposeful and intentional thinking that underpins effective learning in science and technology. This video will explore the thinking skill scientific thinking and how it is embedded in the new Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus.

As the table shows, scientific thinking skills are embedded within various content strands of the new Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus. Opportunities to embed scientific thinking skills are identified by the SciT abbreviation after individual syllabus dot points. So what is scientific thinking?

Scientific thinking is purposeful thinking that has the objective to enhance knowledge. Scientific thinking is intrinsically linked to the skills of working scientifically. As such, a scientific thinker raises questions and problems, observes and gathers data, draws conclusions based on evidence, tests conclusions, thinks with an open mind and communicates research findings appropriately. It can be helpful to conceptualise scientific thinking as the thinking that students engage in throughout the process of working scientifically.

Students come to school with their own unique understandings of scientific phenomena. These understandings have been shaped through play, casual observation and explanations from others. Many of these early scientific understandings, however, are informal in nature and are not based on data or evidence. This, in turn, can lead to some students having inaccurate or partially developed conceptions about scientific phenomena. Engaging in meaningful scientific thinking, through the process of working scientifically, allows students to shape new conceptual understandings and question misconceptions.

Scientific thinking moves students from wonderings about the world around them to scientific understanding. A team of students in Stage 3 pose the question: We wonder if heavier objects fall faster than lighter objects? The team predict that the heavier objects will fall faster than lighter objects because they weigh more. With the help of their teacher, they decide to conduct an investigation.

The group collect a series of balls of different masses including a basketball, a cricket ball and a table tennis ball. They weigh them and records their masses in a table. They plan on dropping each ball from a balcony, filming the drop and using the footage to record the time each takes to fall.

The team’s teacher prompts them to take some time to think carefully about their investigation before starting. The teacher asks the team to consider what they are actually measuring in this investigation, what is different between each of the objects and what is the same. Their teachers asks the question: Is this a fair test?

The group reflect on their investigation. They note that the balls are different in mass, which relates to their initial question, but they are also different in size. The team realise that their current investigation would not be fair because there are two variables that are different: mass and size. To fix the problem the team find three balls that are the same size but different masses. They use a medicine ball, a basketball and a beach ball. The team successfully conduct the investigation using the three new balls.

After conducting the investigation several times, the team notice that the medicine ball and the basketball fall straight down and hit the ground at virtually the same time. The beach ball, however, takes a slightly longer to hit the ground and seems to sway in the air a little bit when dropped.

The results of the investigation are quite different from the team's initial prediction. Each of the members takes some time to think about their results.

“Maybe the beach ball has more air inside,” suggests Chloe. “Or maybe the air is lighter?”

“I think it has something to do with the materials the balls are made of,” adds Lucy.

“The beach ball was the only one that moved around on the way down,” says Alex. “Perhaps it's something to do with the air surrounding the balls.”

“Maybe if we repeat the investigation with the beach ball and two other balls that have the same mass but are different sizes,” suggests Owen. “That might give us some clues about this investigation.”

Although some of the students’ thinking about their investigation is scientifically inaccurate, they are clearly engaged in the purposeful dialogue of scientific thinking. These students are on a journey toward scientific understanding which will involve further research, investigating, questioning and thinking. Eventually, the team will communicate their findings to their peers and teacher as a way of consolidating this newfound scientific understanding.

At its core, scientific thinking is about using evidence to establish cause and effect relationships. It requires teachers to create an environment in which curiosity, creativity and a desire for scientific understanding is valued and encouraged through the process of working scientifically. Ultimately, it is hoped that the questions, ideas and findings that stem from scientific thinking not only shape student scientific understanding but also feed into and inform the next phase of student wonderings.

The science and technology page on the NSW Department of Education website contains additional syllabus implementation support materials for teachers, including professional development opportunities. If you would like further information about syllabus implementation, please contact the science and technology K-6 curriculum team on the details below.

[Music]

[End of transcript.]

[Music]

Speaker

The new Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus was released by the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) in 2017. This resource is designed to support teachers' knowledge and understanding of the Science and Technology K-6 syllabus, in particular, the inclusion of four thinking skills.

These thinking skills are computational thinking, design thinking, scientific thinking and systems thinking. These four thinking skills encompass the productive, purposeful and intentional thinking that underpins effective learning in science and technology. This video will explore the thinking skill systems thinking and how it is embedded in the new Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus.

As the table shows, systems thinking skills are embedded within various content strands of the new Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus.

[Table cells are coloured to indicate where opportunities to embed systems thinking are found in the Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus across particular stages and content strands.The table shows that systems thinking can be embedded across all stages and content strands except digital technologies in Early Stage 1, Stage 1 and Stage 3]

Opportunities to embed systems thinking skills are identified by the SysT abbreviation after individual syllabus dot points. So what is systems thinking?

Systems thinking is an understanding of how related objects or components interact to influence how a system functions. Understanding the complexity of systems and the interdependence of components is important for scientific research and for the creation of solutions to technical, economic and social issues.

There are five key components of systems thinking which include: big picture - forming a generalised overview of a system, connections - identifying the interdependencies within a system and how they are connected, changes - assessing changes to the system over time, impact - identifying the impact of actions within the system and outcome - assessing the probability, risk and benefits of actions within the system.

Students will already be familiar with a number of complex systems in their everyday lives. Their local transport system, for example, might include trains, buses, trams or ferries all working together to deliver passengers to their destinations on time. Similarly, the human body is another complex system of which students will have some understanding. This system, like many systems, is made up of smaller interdependent components such as the nervous system and digestive system. Like the transport system, however, if one or more of these components is not working well or shuts down, it is very difficult for the system, as a whole, to operate effectively.

Problem-solving is at the core of systems thinking. When working with systems, it is not only important to be able to identify how interdependent components interact but also to anticipate potential problems and, if necessary, define solutions. No system is perfect, and a system that fails to adapt to its surroundings or respond to change will ultimately struggle.

Introducing systems that operate at a school level can be an exciting way for students to engage in systems thinking.

[Big picture – ST1-11DI-T: explore and identify patterns in data]

Students might explore the school’s current merit system and create a flowchart for younger students explaining how the system works.

Similarly, students could explore the systems that operate within their school canteen. Because systems vary in complexity, the depth of exploration of this system can be adjusted according to stage level.

For example, students in Stage 1 might explore how orders are placed at the canteen and delivered to students in their classroom.

[Outcome – ST1-5LW-T: explore the tools, equipment and techniques used to prepare food safely and hygienically for healthy eating]

[The diagram shows a canteen with – order placed, food prepared, collected by canteen monitor, food delivered to classrooms and food eaten – around it.]

Students in Stage 3 might go deeper, looking at a specific product within the canteen and exploring the agricultural, manufacturing and transport systems that operate to deliver food to the canteen.

[Changes – ST3-5LW-T: explore examples of managed environments used to produce food and fibre]

[The diagram shows steps taken to produce the ingredients to make a cheese sandwich in the school canteen using three ingredients: bread, cheese and butter. It moves from a wheat grown interstate, to manufactured by bread company to bread. The diagram then moves from milk produced at local farm, manufactured by diary company to cheese and milk. The bread and cheese icons move to purchased at supermarket and butter moves to delivered by distributor. The purchased at supermarket and delivered by distributor icons both meet at cheese sandwich.]

Students might also consider ways of making this system better by identifying some of the problems that exist in the current context. Are there ways to minimise incorrect orders or missing items? Are there systems in place for students that forget to order or lose their money? Is there potential to digitise the system by ordering online?

In fact, over the past 20 years, the biggest impact on systems has been the significant improvement in our ability to communicate using technology.

[Impact – ST3-11DI-T: identify and explain how existing information systems meet the needs of present and future communities]

Many systems that once required people to be present in-person have been moved online, allowing people to do their banking, go shopping, attend university and even play video games with people on the other side of the world.

Although these digital systems have made things more convenient, they still carry the same potential for problems as their analogue predecessors. Think of a time when your mobile GPS system sent you the wrong way or the WIFI wasn’t working at home or school.

[Wrong way. Go Back]

[Running WIFI check]

[WIFI now connected]

A well-structured system embeds backup plans or develops workarounds for such problems.

It is also important for students to understand how systems operate beyond human contexts. In Stage 2 - living things, for example, the inquiry question; ‘how are environments and living things interdependent?’, lends itself nicely to an exploration of systems thinking.

[Connections – ST2-4LW-S: describe how living things depend on each other and the environment to survive]

Students might explore the system of pollination involving bees and flowers, how food chains and food webs form the basis of ecosystems or the interesting world of symbiosis where organisms work together for mutual benefit. This understanding of environmental systems is an important precursor for the examination of more complex systems, such as the water cycle, which students explore more explicitly in Stage 4.

Systems thinking is an important addition to the new Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus. Systems of varying complexity are operating around us at all times and the ability to identify, problematise and improve these systems is an important skill for students to develop.

The science and technology page on the NSW Department of Education website contains additional syllabus implementation support materials for teachers, including professional development opportunities. If you would like further information about syllabus implementation, please contact the science and technology K-6 curriculum team on the details below.

[Science and technology K-6 curriculum support. scienceandtechnologyk6@det.nsw.edu.au. education.nsw.edu.au/science]

[Music]

[This video features the song “Sunny” by Bensound. copyright © 2019 licensed under a Creative Commons License Attribution-NoDerivs (3.0) license. https://www.bensound.com]

[© 2017 NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) for and on behalf of the Crown in right of the State of New South Wales.]

[End of transcript.]