In this activity, students are introduced to a shared reading process called newsboard where they are prompted to think scientifically while being actively engaged in building literacy skills.
By the end of this activity, students should be able to:
- make and discuss observations, inferences and predictions
- build their confidence to think like scientists
- develop their understanding of the processes involved in developing scientific ideas.
Download the Word file (see link below) for:
- background information for teachers
- teacher instructions
- student instructions.
The activity is downloadable as a Word document, allowing the content to be edited to alter the strategies and instructions to suit teachers’ planning for students’ needs. The newsboard process modelled in this activity can easily be utilised in different contexts.
Nature of science
Through this activity, students are encouraged to think like scientists – making and discussing observations, inferences and predictions to develop their understanding of the processes involved in developing scientific ideas, whilst developing their own science capabilities. The process of newsboard allows students to develop an understanding about science – specifically how scientists use evidence to support their ideas and to develop theories.
Related content
Several teacher PLD sessions have been recorded exploring aspects of primary science, literacy and observation. They include Get kids excited about science, Science for juniors, Making sense of what we see, Developing an eagle eye and Science and literacy – making connections.
The Hub has several articles exploring the nature of science, including Describing the nature of science, The nature of science as questions, SLH and the science capabilities and Tenets of the nature of science.
Activity idea
Many of the articles on the Hub could be used for the newsboard process or to extend student inquiry. The context of this newsboard article is fungi. Some related articles and activities about fungi include Fungi, Growing fungi on bread, Grow your own fungus, Vegetable caterpillar and Making a case for the 5th kingdom.
Acknowledgement
We thank Anne Barker for sharing the newsboard strategy. Anne is an accredited PLD provider working with Te Whai Toi Tangata – Institute of Professional Learning, University of Waikato.
