Developing science capital through distillation

Toko School Principal Kim Waite celebrates the wide learning opportunities created through an authentic distillation project – collectively summarised as ‘science capital’. She also offers advice for schools thinking about taking on similar projects.

Transcript

KIM WAITE

I think, first of all, the children are learning to be scientists, which is absolutely fabulous. They are learning to be a scientist in maths, they are learning to be a scientist in reading, they are learning to be a scientist in every sense of the curriculum really. What I think the whole distillation is learning in a real, authentic context, so we’re not just doing science because it’s science, we are actually doing this whole process, which encompasses just so much. And it makes it real for the kids, it’s something they can hang their hat on and really understand in an ongoing way because the class have been working on this for so long now and there’s always a new project so they are learning new skills, and then the next time they do it, it’s layering on to more skills and it’s sort of layering their understanding, I suppose, of the process.

I think children are so engaged. The community’s engaged, the school’s engaged with what they are doing – and because they know it so well and they’re leading the learning, there is just such high engagement from the kids, and it’s just so exciting to see, and the wonderful offshoot is they’re learning so much.

The community has been involved in a whole host of ways. We have our enviro blog where we log our journey, you’ve got your class blog where you log the learning. We’ve got an enviro stall and we sell the products. We’ve had open days at school for grandparents and whānau, and we’ve had distillation occurring in the classrooms. We’ve had children marketing their products. There’s been lots of information in our newsletters. I think our parents and our community can see the connect from the distilling to so many other areas of the curriculum. I think that’s why we’ve got such great buy-in from our community, and they’re learning so much.

For other schools embarking on this project, my biggest piece of advice would be to have a mentor. It doesn’t matter what the project is, but actually to have someone that’s got the knowledge and skills that’s passionate about the learning because, you know, we’re learning as well on the journey, so to know you’ve got someone you can ring up and ask the hard questions, the silly questions, the easy questions, I think.

Through the engagement with Curious Minds, there’s been lots of opportunities for our children. So one opportunity was to talk about our story to other people in the wider New Plymouth community. And so at Puke Ariki, four of our children demonstrated what we’d been learning and the process, and I was just so proud of the kids. They got up there and spoke in front of a whole lot of strangers in a place they are not familiar with and talked the pants off distillation. It was fabulous. They were so knowledgeable and the children were passionate and we had loads of feedback – emails from parents and people who were there so impressed with what our children knew.

Acknowledgements
Toko School – the students, staff and Toko School community
Venture Taranaki
Participatory Science Platform, Curious Minds – He Hihiri i te Mahara