“INDIVIDUALLY WE ARE ONE DROP. TOGETHER WE ARE AN OCEAN”.
The passage above was quotes by RyosonukeSatoro. This definitely sums up the characteristic of a K-12 classroom from teacher to students to activities to test to strategies to student interaction. Science was spiraled when k-12 began meaning lessons become deeper from Junior High School to Senior High School branching out to Earth Science, Chemistry, Physics and Biology tackling each branch for every quarter or it might depend on the planning done by the teacher.
Since we are living in the start-up years of K-12 Curriculum here in the Philippines, how’s the Science classroom today?- Well, looking how Science was spiraled for each level the main idea was students already gained knowledge that can be use to study deeper a particular subject matter like motion is already introduced in Grade 7 and is continued with Force, Energy and Tension in Grade 8. Concepts about Energy is neglected on Grade 9 but deeper study on motion is discussed through Projectile and Freefall Motion. Whereas in Grade 10, Motion is not further discussed but electromagnetic radiations are being tackled with concepts from energy. Inside the Science classroom, if you ask ‘why” questions you will hear partially correct answers, words and phrases from random students until the idea is formed. The challenge is, there are students who couldn’t grasp the concepts from previous years and couldn’t find the connection on different subject matter when asked with “why” question well in fact scientific knowledge remains constant if universally accepted not unless if it is changed by new laws discovered and formed by any scientist. The role of students who easily find the connections on the subject matter and their background knowledge is to help students who couldn’t find the connection understand the new concepts being learned let’s say for example the materials inside the mantle are moving because of heat energy generating convection current since heat energy has kinetic energy carrying rocks on top because their weight becomes lighter as they are heated at the bottom of the mantle while cold rocks sink down because they have greater density. Now the main point lead only to the movement of rocks in the mantle with complete explanation that will make other students say “AAAHHHH!!!”. This will trigger their background knowledge about certain concepts. That’s why they’ll soon realize that on their previous years they already learned that idea and is able to apply it on other events or situations to make connection.
Here’s the thing about spiral curriculum, the what, where and when is not applicable in Science. It is much useful to consider that each child is carrying a background knowledge with him/her whether in chunks or bits. “What is” is not useful if the child cannot use what he/she learned to figure out the “why’s”. Therefore, a drop of knowledge can be an ocean with never-ending connection of knowledge from the teacher and from the students.
By: Ms.Ana Rosette S. Garcia, LPT | Jose Rizal Institute | Orion, Bataan