Life Cycles Unit Evaluation

Thomas Charlton
 Introduction
During my recent placement experience I chose to
conduct a Science unit with year 3/4 students linked to
life cycles. Fortunately, I was able to teach the whole
unit during the 25 day block which included prior
knowledge, exploratory, investigative and evaluative
experiences. Furthermore, the vast majority of students
were engaged throughout the unit and created some
very interesting PowerPoint presentations at the end,
which I used as a summative assessment piece.
 Class Demographic
• 26 year 4 students.
• 16 girls and 10 boys.
• 7 NEPs (Negotiated Education Plans) including
- 6 speech/language.
- 1 student with an intellectual disability.
- 1 ASD (autism).
• 3 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.
• 2 EALD students.
• 5 students with targeted learning difficulties.
• 8 school identified behaviour issues.
 Students’ Prior Knowledge
• Students will often classify spiders and worms as insects, but through to age 11 they
increasingly learn to differentiate.

• Students may forget to add certain stages within an animal lifecycle (e.g. the egg
stage in insect life cycles).

• Students can tend to emphasise the negative features of different animals and do not
necessarily recognise the positive roles they play in keeping the environment efficient
(providing a food source for other animals, making products for human consumption,
etc.).

• Students can interpret animal structures and behaviour in terms of wishes or wants,
instead of adaptive advantages.

• Students may become confused about the meaning of the word ‘adaption’. It can
refer to immediate physiological changes in an individual, to the characteristics of an
organism that fit it for particular environments and also the process by which a
population is modified towards greater fitness for its environment.
Prior Knowledge Experience
 Students Questions for Inquiry
Concluding the prior knowledge experiences, students arranged themselves into
groups of two/three and chose a particular organism to study its life cycle.

The list of organisms included:

• Frog.
• Axolotl.
• Dragon Flies.
• Fish.
• Tiger.
• Crocodile.
• Bat.
• Snake.
• Silk Worm.
• Chicken.
• Kangaroo.
• Leafy Sea Dragon.
 Student Questions for Inquiry
After each group chose their organism they began coming up with
their own key questions that would later fuel their investigations.

Some inquiry questions included:

• Where do Penguins lay their eggs?
• What are baby Penguins called?
• How long do Penguins live for?
• How many eggs do Frogs lay?
• How long does the Tadpole stage last?
• What do Frogs eat?
• Where do Sun Bears live?
• How big are mum and dad Bats?
• How long does it take for Crocodile eggs to hatch?
 Targeted Science Inquiry Skills

• Students identified questions that can be investigated

scientifically.

• Students planned and conducted scientific investigations

to find answers to questions, considering the safe use of
appropriate materials and equipment (digital technologies
including laptops and iPads).

• Students represented and communicate findings using

formal (e.g. PowerPoint) and informal (e.g. verbal
conversations) representations.
 What I Learnt
I learnt a lot about teaching and learning science
through inquiry-led approach. Because it was the first
time I had applied this method of teaching, I did not
know a lot of what to expect. Ultimately, there were
many aspects I enjoyed throughout the experience. For
example, I liked the teacher’s role as the facilitator of
learning, rather than the more teacher-centered role
used in other traditional planning frameworks.
Additionally, I enjoyed observing the students take
responsibility for their own learning through devising
inquiry questions, communicating ideas with one
another and conducting investigations.
 Pedagogical Ideas
I incorporated the inquiry-led method to teaching students this
particular unit, which encompasses students building their own
knowledge and understanding of various scientific topics and
concepts through exploration, investigation and
experimentation. These processes are key to teaching and
learning within science as described by (Faire & Cosgrove 1988).
Additionally, this method of teaching takes on a much more
constructivist approach towards teaching and learning science
and various other subjects within the Australian Curriculum.
Ultimately, a constructivist approach allows students to develop
their knowledge and understanding through active engagement
in key scientific processes (Skamp & Preston 2018). This means
that science learning moves from the more traditional teacher-
initiated system to a more student-centered approach
(Groundwater-Smith, Ewing & Le Cornu 2011).
 References
Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA)
2017, The Australian Curriculum: Science, Australian Curriculum,
viewed 7 April 2018,
<https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/science/>.

Skamp, K & Preston, C 2018, Teaching Primary Science Constructively,

6th edition, Cengage Learning, Victoria.

Faire, J & Cosgrove, M 1988, Teaching Primary Science, Waikato

Education Centre, Hamilton, New Zealand.

Groundwater-Smith, S, Ewing, R & Le Cornu, R 2011, Teaching

challenges and dilemmas, 4th edition, Cengage, Melbourne, VIC.