9 ICT
The CD-ROM contains electronic versions of the Notesheets in Word and Adobe Acrobat format so that you can customise these once you are familiar with the teaching methods used to promote cognitive acceleration. Be careful not to remove the cognitive demand of the Notesheets by reducing the reading level difficulty. We find that very few pupils cannot read the Notesheets if they are encouraged to work collaboratively within a group. They rely on context as well as their peers to help them read meaning.
The CD-ROM version of this resource contains spreadsheets as stand-alone Excel files where appropriate and, in some cases, as integrated electronic worksheets with data-logging. The spreadsheets can be used as a separate teaching tool or integrated into the lesson, depending on your available hardware. There are 17 activities where spreadsheets can be used. These are Lessons 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 26, 28 and 30. Lessons 12, 14, 17, 18 and 22 are the best for developing thinking skills in tandem with the use of spreadsheets. Lessons 8, 11, 19, 21 and 30 use spreadsheets as simple calculating tools.
Spreadsheets are useful for a number of reasons:
- As calculators for data processing from results entered by the pupils. The pupils are then able to spend more time looking for and interpreting the meaning of relationships from the data.
- To combine group results for the whole class. This gives more time for trends and emerging patterns to be discussed within a one hour lesson.
- As powerful graphing facilities, allowing data to be plotted quickly for immediate visual effect. Again, this gives pupils more time on interpretation of the data and less on tedious repetitive tasks.
- The use of one computer and a large screen or an interactive whiteboard can show the effects on bar charts and line graphs as more results are entered. Reorganising results in tables using the ‘sort’ facility so that patterns and relationships emerge more easily.
- Arranging data hierarchically is an important organising strategy for data handling.
- Re-calculating and re-plotting data very quickly, so that questions of the ‘what-if’ variety can be asked to test hypotheses.
ICT within the context of Thinking Science should only be used if it enhances pupils’ thinking skills by allowing them to handle data quickly and effectively. It is the discussion and analysis of the data that is critical, rather than the mechanical process of inputting and processing data using a computer.
ICT may be particularly useful for a small group of pupils within a class who have specific difficulties with routine calculations or ranking data.