Thursday 20 August 2020

Keeping my Inquiry going in Level 3...


Level 3 saw our weekly planned group meeting move from face to face to online. We have these meetings to reflect on the challenge from the previous week and set ourselves up for the current week's challenge. 

As I mentioned in previous posts, this term my focus students have created their own blog commenting challenges to help them develop the quality of their comments and strengthen their connections to our learning. Last week's challenge built on from the previous week's challenge of creating a comment thread of three comments, to creating a comment thread of five comments. By increasing the number of interactions my learners are now able to see this is an authentic way of having a learning conversation. 

The content below is an example of the our challenge. I have copied the comments directly form the blog to maintain anonymity but am sharing this will full permission from my learners.
                           

Comment Thread:

Kia ora G2
I liked reading your blog post today. All the information in the blurb and document makes your blog post very informative. I liked that the document consists of the information related to the topic and the blurb consists of the information on what you did in school. Did you find the concept of summarizing the text easy? If yes, than in what way and what are the advantages?
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Kia Ora G5
Thank you for commenting on my blogpost today! I think with alot of information from videos and online sites the concept (science) was quite easy to summarise. Me and my group all collaborated to complete this task. Did you and your group find this concept easy to summarise?
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Thank you for replying to my comment! Me and my group also found watching the video and learning from various sites quite informative and knowledgeable. We thought that the summary table made our work easy as well. I think that using the poster notes as a way of moving the important points ahead was the best strategy as it was new and we could write notes in a more detailed version. What were the three facts (related to science) you found most interesting in the whole task?
                            ___________________________________________________________________

I also think using the poster notes were quite helpful. In my opinion, the 3 most interesting facts about science that I found were:
Science is divided into 3 branches, Physics, Biology, and Chemistry.
Basic science is knowing something and applied science is using what we know.
Science is the knowledge behind every question.

What were the 3 facts you found interesting? Or, what were the 3 most vital information you and your group found using the poster notes?
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I agree with all the interesting facts you have said! In my opinion the three most vital and interesting facts I found were:

1. Applied science is dependent on basic science as the experiment is done first and the conclusions and discussions are done later.
2. Science can be quite dangerous as well as beneficial. It all depend on the way it is used and seen.
3. Science is used in the most basic tasks in life such as making a lime juice. Mixing lemon and sugar results in juice is chemistry, the force through which it is mixed is physics and the benefits we get from drinking it is biology.

Do you know any other experiment which includes all the three branches? (Physics, Chemistry and Biology) If yes, then what is it?
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Your 3 most vital facts look very interesting! I think an experiment using all 3 branches would be making a coffee using coffee beans which comes from biology (nature) then you apply force to grind the the coffee beans together which comes under physics. Then lastly combining the grinded coffee with hot water and milk making hot coffee.

Did you know some points about science before did this task?
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Wow, I never thought that making coffee also includes all the three branches of science. Yes, I knew that science is divided into three branches which are Chemistry, Physics and Biology as I have studied the various topics under it in India. I also knew the steps included in an experiment which is the things needed or requirements, method or hypotheses, experimenting or verification and at the last the conclusion or answer. Did you know that each branch is related to a different occupation? Doctors study biology, Mathematicians study physics and scientists study chemistry! Which branch do you like the most and why?
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I never knew that each branch is related to a different occupation! In my opinion the branch I enjoy learning about has to be Geology and Astronomy. Even though it is not apart of the 3 branches it is still included. I think Geology and Astronomy because I enjoy learning about celestial objects and the terrestrial planet. Which branch do you like/enjoy learning about the most?
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I never knew you liked geology and astronomy. I also love to study about the life outside our planet! I really like all the four branches but I enjoy learning about biology as my desired career is to be a doctor. I think that except of learning about our own body we must also learn about other living and non-living organisms as well. Biology is also my favorite branch because it still has some unsolved mysteries like the fungus and other micro-organisms are still not defined as living or non-living. I really want to find a conclusion to many such unsolved mysteries in life. Can you tell three different topics each in the three branches of science?
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Wow! Becoming a doctor sounds very interesting! Three different topics for the 3 branches would be:

Physics - gravity, light and force

Chemistry - acids, bases and heat
Biology - plants, animals and humans



Thank you for commenting on my blog! It was really nice talking to you and learning about each other's opinions. I hope you feel the same way and you like my other blog posts too.



I am continually amazed with the direction this intervention is taking. The quality and content of these threads is far beyond what I initially hoped for. Our challenge over the next few weeks is to create a collaborative DLO (online) that will show others what a comment thread looks like and how they can create one. The purpose behind this challenge according to my focus students, is to create a learning tool that we can use to help all of our class understand that we can use blog comments to help us strengthen our connections to our learning by asking questions and sharing our thinking. 

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