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Throughout this term, Year 5 and 6 teachers have been working with Deakin University academics to help foster creative mathematical and critical scientific thinking. The Year 5 teachers, together with Dr Gaye Williams, cooperatively plan and implement open ended maths problems which are carefully designed to help students develop 'big ideas' rather than just simple answers. Through group work, discussion, recording, reporting and reflecting, students help each other to develop persistence and optimism when challenged with a difficult task.  

In Science the Year 6 teachers collaborate with Associate Professor Peter Hubber to help develop lessons for their current unit on Energy and Electricity. The teaching method adopted encourages students to explore ideas and hypotheses, therefore fostering critical and scientific thinking while maintaining some steering on the part of the teacher. This is a guided inquiry approach. The students also represent their understanding of science concepts through drawings or diagrams to help construct meaning of the scientific concept being explored.