Order from Chaos has been really busy over the last few weeks moving into the Patterns and Perspectives Module where we take a deeper look at emerging patterns in the natural world, particularly through a chemical science lens. This means students have been delving into the formation and structures of the periodic table and how this organisation tells us information about the individual elements.
We have been using this knowledge to model and predict arithmetic and geometric patterns mathematically and make predictions about the reactivity of elements across periods and down groups which has helped us to understand how to predict chemical reactions. As part of this we have also been building our science inquiry skills with a strong focus initially on developing a broad knowledge base of the variety of ways that observations and instruments can be utilised to collect qualitative and quantitative data. This feeds into a systematic approach to developing our deconstruction and design skills such that students build their capacities and confidence to be able to deconstruct an inquiry question and design a rigorous scientific investigation in the future.
We are also making use of the skills developed in Module 1, with statistical analysis and persuasive techniques featuring as part of processing and communicating our findings. Our Evidence of Learning (EoL) format pivots slightly for this module to focus more holistically on the ongoing class activities rather than building towards a polished piece (as per Module 1). This has been very deliberately designed to provide multiple opportunities for students to engage with the key knowledge, understandings and skill sets in order for them to exercise their agency by curating evidence that is the best representations of their skills.
This does mean that it is very important for students to be regularly engaging with all the class activities and regularly inputting their work into the EoL in their Google drives as this provides the teachers opportunities to give ongoing feedback, both written and verbal, that adds towards a cycle of improvement.


