I want to share how the Science team at Narrabeen Sports High School build our digital lessons. If you’re more broadly interested in how we digitised our teaching programs at the school, read my piece, ‘Future proof learning with digital content’. You can access a digital lesson template here.
We borrowed a bit from the scientific method to create our Science lesson plans. This has the added bonus of really instilling in students how to run a science experiment. We did it this way because we knew we’d have parents picking up these lesson plans during Covid lockdowns, and we needed it to be really clear and structured – watch this, do this, look for this etc.
All of our plans follow the same structure, which helps ease cognitive load. Every lesson that every student walks into has learning intentions, success criteria, steps of an activity, and then homework/ notes, if that’s relevant.
Consider where you’re storing the documents – we use Google, because it’s online and synchronous. Whatever you decide, make sure you’ve got a folder structure that’s simple and easy to understand, and that you have a backup.
Teamwork is what makes this shine. Working collaboratively and having the whole team testing out lessons is an effective way of getting fast feedback and refining the plans so they work.
Narrabeen Sports High Schools is located in the Northern Beaches of Sydney, with 1100 students from Years 7 to 12. The school focuses on supporting every student’s individual needs, and supporting them to become capable and confident individuals. Science at Narrabeen runs across all Years 7 to 12 and has a history of producing strong student outcomes as measured in VALID8 & 10 and in the HSC. In Stage 6 the school offers Biology, Chemistry, Earth and Environmental Science, Physics and Science Extension - where students collaborate with research scientists as part of peer-reviewed and published research.
Find out more at the school’s website.
Edrolo’s new Year 7 Maths and Science print and digital resources give you everything you need to teach every lesson, and get students engaged and loving learning. Differentiated activities, clear and concise explanation, fully worked solutions, all so you can set students up to succeed.
