In Predict, Observe, Explain: Activities Enhancing Science Understanding, John Haysom and Michael Bowen provide Australian science teachers with more than 100 student activities to prove scientific concepts. Using the powerful, field-tested Predict, Observe, Explain (POE) strategy, Haysom and Bowen make it easy for novice and experienced teachers alike to incorporate a teaching method that helps students understand – and even enjoy – science and learning.
The POE strategy is a proven method of science instruction designed to foster student inquiry and challenge existing conceptions that students bring to the classroom. The strategy allows students to reflect on their experiences with and understanding of a subject before making a prediction about the outcome of an experiment and discussing the prediction with classmates. Following up this discussion with observations and then scientific explanations of the outcome gives students a more in-depth understanding of the subject at hand.
The 15 chapters of Predict, Observe, Explain cover topics such as force and motion, pressure, light, chemical change and living things. Lessons include worksheets, scientific explanations of the concepts being studied, summaries of student responses during the field tests, synopses of research findings and lists of necessary materials. In addition, this revised Australian edition of Predict, Observe, Explain contains a scope and sequence chart showing how each chapter of the book correlates to a learning progression in the Science Understanding strand of the Australian Curriculum: Science for Years F–10.
