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Using Science Journals in Class 7

Using a science journal provides students an opportunity to engage in real science by keeping a record of their observations, ideas, and thoughts about science activities. Science journals allow students to self-assess their learning and see how their ideas have changed and developed. Monitoring students' journals helps teachers identify misconceptions, find evidence of learning, and plan future lessons. The document then provides guidelines for using science journals in the classroom, such as providing students with journals, making time for entries before, during, and after activities, and assessing student learning through their journal entries.

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167 views2 pages

Using Science Journals in Class 7

Using a science journal provides students an opportunity to engage in real science by keeping a record of their observations, ideas, and thoughts about science activities. Science journals allow students to self-assess their learning and see how their ideas have changed and developed. Monitoring students' journals helps teachers identify misconceptions, find evidence of learning, and plan future lessons. The document then provides guidelines for using science journals in the classroom, such as providing students with journals, making time for entries before, during, and after activities, and assessing student learning through their journal entries.

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How to use a science journal

Introduction
A science journal is a record of observations, experiences and reflections. It contains a series of
dated, chronological entries. It can include written text, drawings, labelled diagrams,
photographs, tables and graphs.
Using a science journal provides an opportunity for students to be engaged in a real science
situation as they keep a record of their observations, ideas and thoughts about science activities.
Students can use their science journals as a useful self-assessment tool as they reflect on their
learning and how their ideas have changed and developed during a unit.
Monitoring students journals allows you to identify students alternative conceptions, find
evidence of students learning and plan future learning activities in science and literacy.
Keeping a science journal aligns to descriptions in the Australian Curriculum: Science and
English.
Using a science journal
1. At the start of the year, or before starting a science unit, provide each
student with a notebook or exercise book for their science journal or use an
electronic format. Tailor the type of journal to fit the needs of your classroom.
Explain to students that they will use their journals to keep a record of their
observations, ideas and thoughts about science activities. Emphasise the
importance of including pictorial representations as well as written entries.
2. Use a large project book or A3 paper to make a class science journal. This can
be used at all year levels to model journal entries. With younger students, the
class science journal can be used more frequently than individual journals
and can take the place of individual journals.
3. Make time to use the science journal. Provide opportunities for students to
plan procedures and record predictions, and their reasons for predictions,
before an activity. Use the journal to record observations during an activity
and reflect afterwards, including comparing ideas and findings with initial
predictions and reasons. It is important to encourage students to provide
evidence that supports their ideas, reasons and reflections.
4. Provide guidelines in the form of questions and headings and facilitate
discussion about recording strategies, such as note-making, lists, tables and
concept maps. Use the class science journal to show students how they can
modify and improve their recording strategies.
5. Science journal entries can include narrative, poetry and prose as students
represent their ideas in a range of styles and forms.

6. In science journal work, you can refer students to display charts, pictures,
diagrams, word walls and phrases about the topic displayed around the
classroom. Revisit and revise this material during the unit. Explore the
vocabulary, visual texts and ideas that have developed from the science unit,
and encourage students to use them in their science journals.
7. Combine the use of resource sheets with journal entries. After students have
pasted their completed resource sheets in their journal, they might like to add
their own drawings and reflections.
8. Use the science journal to assess student learning in both science and
literacy.
For example, during the Engage phase, use journal entries for diagnostic
assessment as you determine students prior knowledge.
9. Discuss the importance of entries in the science journal during the Explain
and Evaluate phases. Demonstrate how the information in the journal will
help students develop literacy products, such as posters, brochures, letters
and oral or written presentations.

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