Communication and creativity

Left this a bit late today, I hope that I can get adequate fodder for these posts once modules get underway. I do have a couple of things to talk about though.

Resisting the urge to coin 'gin and tonic Tuesday'.

Today at HPSS we handed out our module selection booklets. It was an interesting experience to watch my hub students look over the booklet with excitement, in the case of the year 10's, and confusion, in the case of the year 9's. We have a complicated system, and I didn't really realise how complicated it was until I tried to explain it in detail. It required a very long email to all their parents today.

Attached to said email - a picture which captures us all perfectly.

My worry here is that parents will read my email and immediately freak out about it. I realised that I had been expecting complete acceptance of the way we do things from parents, which is obviously not something I should take for granted. Good thing I thought about it today as I was establishing our lines of communication. One set of parents is already on my side. I'm hoping I can get or keep most of them on board. Hopefully this won't be something to worry about.

Going on a tangent now. The #scichatnz today was about creativity in science and its importance. I got there a bit late, so I will write about it here instead. I think creativity is central to the NoS strand Investigating in Science, in that before one can design and carry out an investigation, one must have a question to answer. Coming up with the question requires creativity and curiosity. Coming up with the investigation requires creativity and science knowledge and skills. Using the results of the investigation to inform further questions requires creativity yet again, and shows SOLO extended abstract thinking. Where is the room for this creativity in traditional classrooms, where content trumps skill, and practicals trump open inquiry? For real scientists, doing real science, creativity is central to new developments and discoveries. When can science students experience such a thing? I'm glad that 'creative' is one of our Hobsonville habits, it has a real place in the sciences.