Using the Key idea of patterns to pique curiosity in science

Authors: Jenny Woodcock, M.Ed STEM - Gawler & Districts College and Dr Katrina Elliott, PhD Science Education

Patterns, order and organisation are one of the 6 Key Ideas of the Australian Curriculum: Science.

The key ideas are designed to:

• provide lenses by which we can make sense of the world,
• support teachers and students to make connections across the interwoven strands of science,
• support the coherence of science understanding within and across year levels throughout Reception to Year 10

What’s important is that the Key ideas and the understanding that sits beneath them are equally relevant to students who want to go on and work in science as it is for those who want to live with an appreciation of science.

Science is about explaining observed patterns

Understanding patterns is central to how scientists make sense of the natural world (Harlen, 2015) – recognising similarities and differences, identifying uncertainties, predicting phenomena and constructing explanations. Pattern seeking is both a scientific habit of mind and a driver of inquiry. Including approaches that prompt students to ask deeper questions, make connections, and engage in evidence-based reasoning.

Pattern seeking can pique students' curiosity in science. Building on students' prior knowledge and experience with enough information, but not too much, creates the “curiosity sweet spot”. The sweet spot has an emotional consequence; it feels like a mental itch, a mosquito bite on the brain. As teachers, we aim to compel our students to discover new knowledge because that’s how they scratch that itch. By intentionally providing opportunities for students to experience curiosity, we provide that physical pull which motivates and stimulates students' information seeking behaviour (Abdelghani et al., 2022). Scientific thinking is intentional information seeking, including asking questions, testing hypotheses, making observations, recognising patterns, and making inferences (Corrigan & Marangio, 2020). 

Why do we teach students to recognise and use patterns in science?

In 2026, the theme for National Science Week is Seeds for Science. As a science teacher (Jenny Woodcock) at Gawler and Districts College, I can think of a term full of pattern seeking fun activities which will pique my students' curiosity in biological sciences.

1. Patterns are the foundation of scientific explanations.

In my thinking and planning for a science unit on seeds. I would begin by answering these questions.  What are seeds?  What is their purpose? What’s inside them? One of my favourite activities is getting my students to split open seeds and investigate their physiological adaptations and functions. Dried beans, soaked overnight, work ok. But my favourite to use is defrosted, frozen broad beans. I personally enjoy listening to the squeals and groans from my students when they first touch the wet, cold and squishy broad beans. I recommend the video; What’s inside a Bean? By SciShow Kids.  The students can follow along with the video to dissect their beans.

2. Patterns are at the heart of scientific practice.

Next, I’d have my students think and work like scientists to plan an investigation into how seeds grow. What do seeds need to successfully grow?  What would happen if we changed the growing variables? Use whatever science inquiry scaffold tool suits your students’ grade and ability as a graphic organiser to communicate their scientific practice. If you are short on time, sprouts germinate and grow very quickly. Bunnings sells a variety of sprout packets. Mr Fothergill’s sprouter jar or kitchen seed sprouter makes it easy to grow, and they look nice in the classroom. While recycled jars and the use of a simple sieve to drain the water could also be used.

If you have more time, growing herbs is fun. But the lack of natural light and the diffused light from overhead fluorescent lights can make it difficult for them to successfully grow. I’ve had success using Mr Fothergill’s hydro garden from Bunnings.

3. Patterns deepen conceptual understandings.

While the plants are germinating, I’d ask my students, where do seeds come from? Pollination is a fascinating process that makes our older students cringe when scientific vocabulary is used to describe the process in flowers. Dissecting flowers is a classic science investigation. But for myself and many of my pollen allergy sufferers, I’ve had to switch to flowers preserved in resin. 

4. Patterns support prediction and model-building.

Around this time in the term, we’d revisit our germination investigation. Are there any patterns or observations that have occurred that support your prediction? Do we still need more data or time before we can write our conclusions?

5. Patterns build appreciation and insight.

Now it’s time to examine seed pods and seed dispersal. I’d provide my students with a bag of a variety of dried seed pods. I’ve purchased my collection from Zart Art and Tea Tree Gully Early Learning Supplies. I’d ask my students to sort the seed pods into categories based on any patterns they observe. This leads to a discussion of some of the fascinating behavioural adaptations plants have to disperse their seeds. 

6. Patterns support working with anomalies to strengthen scientific reasoning.

At the conclusion of the germination investigation. I’d use the Claim, Evidence, Reasoning model to support my students in writing their scientific summaries.  Sentence starters help guide my students’ scientific reasoning in the right direction. Hopefully, there have been some fun growth anomalies backed up by data and observation for students to write about.

As teachers, we need to provide opportunities for students to engage in thinking and acting scientifically, to learn how to detect patterns, how to understand patterns, how to analyse patterns, how to use patterns and how to find new patterns.

How can you help your students to connect the Key Idea of Patterns, order and organisation to the concept and content being taught? What success criteria will you use to gather evidence that they use classification, distribution data, modelling or analysis of relationships and rates of change?

There is a progression of understanding patterns across Year levels from R to Year 10: Australian Curriculum: Science V9.0   

For example:

How would observing these patterns support the inquiry questions?

• How do different pushes and pulls change the motion and shape of objects? What makes playgrounds fun? How do playground designers come up with ideas?
• How do the relative positions of Earth and the sun have an effect on phenomena such as day length? What if Earth were not tilted?
• How have systems of classification changed over time? How do they differ across cultures? Mosquitoes are so annoying! What would the impact be if we got rid of them?

Key ideas about patterns are built across year levels R to Year 10 – further ideas

• Noting patterns as a starting point for asking scientific questions,
• Using statistics to determine the significance of mathematical patterns
• Mathematical representations are needed to recognise some patterns
• Empirical evidence is needed to identify patterns
• Basing arguments “on inductive generalisations of existing patterns”
• Identifying patterns and trends to extrapolate beyond a data set and make predictions. 
• Recognising anomalies in patterns and exploring their origins
• Responding to anomalous pieces of data and determining whether the patterns associated with that data are still valid.
• Distinguishing irrelevant/ discardable data from anomalous data is part of distinguishing patterns from non-patterns
• Developing an understanding of the nature of science and the development of scientific explanations, models, and theories.

Another example of a progression of cross cutting ideas about patterns across grade levels in Next Generation Science Standards (2012), this aligns well with the Australian Curriculum.

* Adapted from: National Research Council (2012). A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas.