Concept+Curriculum

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=Explanation:= __//**Conceptual Learning**//__: a focus on macro concepts, through ’big ideas’ and a variety of related contexts. Our Concept idea for 2011 is media type="custom" key="9812319"

Join our wall and add your ideas: [|Wallwisher]

GREAT IDEAS COMING ON TO THE WALL. MICTIONARY HAS GIVEN SOME FOOD FOR THOUGHT. KEEP THEM COMING. media type="custom" key="10052035" Here is a new wall - May 2011 - go and see how many new ideas we can come up with - [|What changes can you think of?]  media type="custom" key="10052037" align="center"

This youtube video is very thought provoking about the shifts and changes in our global environment. If you watch the movie, add your name and a comment to the discussion page (on left under the GPK name) media type="youtube" key="_YoMSl8A12I" height="349" width="425" align="center"

=Term 1= In Term one we will be exploring what we mean by change and will look at ideas common to the theme of change. Check here from time to time and make comments on whether you agree or disagree with our statements.

To get us started, I will throw this statement out:

Change is inevitable. Do you agree or disagree? Add your thoughts to our discussion page (click the "discussion" tag at the top of this page.

Change is...
We have been thinking about and researching about what we think change is so that we may come up with some "debatable truths". These photos show our thoughts so far:



Types of change
We have now looked at the different types of change and represented them in posters:

Bus stop
In a bus stop activity, kindly sent to us by another GKP teacher, the children worked in teams to add their own ideas to 4 questions. In "bus stop" the teams move around the classroom and write on a sheet of paper that has a statement, question or thought on it to get the children thinking about a concept. They then move to the next bus stop and must read what is on the paper in front of them first and then try and add new ideas, not repeating what is already there. One of the bus-stop ideas was - Here are some the children came up with:

Through discussions from our bus stop activity, the children decided that technology over arches all change that has occurred on the earth that has human intervention. We had been talking earlier in the day about inertia and the law of gravity and this fitted in nicely to our discussions about how humans have to have intervened when a change occurs that isn't natural. There were some great "food for thought" moments and this discussion will continue next week.
 * Why does change happen? || Why do we change? || How does change affect people? || How do fish change colour? || How do we affect change? || Will change last forever? ||
 * Does change have to always be negative? || How much will the world change in the future? || Why do humans change things? || Will change affect our future? || Will change mean we will have jobs we don't know about yet? || Does space change more than earth? ||
 * How does the change of age happen? || Why does a plant change and what is evolution? || What is change? || Does everything change? || Can change make you famous? || Is 2010 going to happen (change to the world as we know it)? ||
 * Can change change? || Why do disasters happen? || How does change affect the world? || Does change cause change? || Does everything that moves change in some way? ||  ||

Another week, Another question:
What are some of the details of change, for instance what changes have occurred recently? Here are their thoughts: =Term 2= For this term we looked at Changes in Technology. The technological age is an ever changing one and the debatable truths concepts the kids came up with were certainly prevalent during the studies the kids did in the technology area. They chose a technological product to study and used Kaplan's Tools for Depth and Complexity to further explore the concept behind the design.
 * Changes of nature - Christchurch earthquake || Changes in tectonic plates and place of Japan in the world || Changes in the atmosphere in Japan due to the nuclear plant leaking || Massive changes in the world population with disasters such as Japan's || Changes of schools - again Christchurch, with some kids having their own school at another campus || Changes of daylight ||
 * Changes of the moon || Changes of moods in humans || "Woof Woof" the tui died at the Bird Recovery Centre causing another change in nature || A change occurs when you take something off the shelf in a supermarket and it is replaced || Inventions || Laws ||
 * Language changes to fit new inventions || Environment || Date changes || Weather || Changes to countries as people move from one country to another || Names change ||
 * Pimples || Life Changes || Me being clueless as usually I know what I am talking about! || Body || Olympic Games rules and other games' rule changes || Recipes ||
 * Food || Money as in currency changes || People - eg. Dani having braces || Ocean || Species - dying out || How movies are made - eg. 3D ||
 * Income || Economy || Leadership - world leaders change || History - as scientists discover answers || Years || Time ||

Some conclusions that occurred were:

=Term 3= This term we are looking at Chemical Change and Medical Change. Chemical Change has been fun so far. We have been looking at the difference between physical and chemical changes. Check out this informative youtube clip:
 * Change is inevitable. Without change, nothing will make progress in the world.
 * Change can be positive and negative. Things such as the splitting of the atom has had both negative and positive influences on our lives. Using OPV with these technologies helped the kids to consider how different groups of people may see the development of a certain technology, eg. the cellphone.
 * Change is influenced by people. This is still being debated but it is considered that environmental change is often the result of human intervention in some way

media type="youtube" key="15fSDvyqwFg" height="349" width="425" =Photos= We have had 2 hands on days trying different experiments to understand the difference between physical and chemical change: media type="custom" key="10240287"