NAIGS 2008NAIGS 2008

Breaking out of the Breaking out of the science straight science straight

jacketjacket

NAIGS 2008NAIGS 2008

Breaking out of the Breaking out of the science straight science straight

jacketjacketAnne GoldsworthyAnne Goldsworthy

www.annegoldsworthy.co.ukwww.annegoldsworthy.co.uk

What are the restraints?

What holds us back?• Too much emphasis on the levels

rather than the learning• Not enough teaching of skills and

investigating • Fluffy multiple cross-curricular links• Not enough resources

Levels before Learning or Learning before Levels?

• Can you name a specific instance when knowing a child’s level in science has helped you take their learning forward?

• Can you give me an example where the collection of data has improved your science teaching and/or the children’s learning?

Simon Jenkins Guardian 11.06.08

• A school is not a football team, always to be threatened with relegation. The league table culture demoralises staff and pupils and poisons the well of local support.

• Overseas experience suggests that the most stable school, primary or secondary, is one firmly rooted in its locality …. preferably small in scale. A neighbourhood school answers to people, a national school answers to statistics. People help, statistics merely humiliate.

The skills tool box• Children have to know

what the tools are and how to use them

• Children make progress through adding more advanced tools to their tool kits

• Children must use the tools to carry out their own investigation

Science Enquiry Games

• KS 2 book out already• KS 3 book in progress• KS 1 hopefully on its way

• www.millgatehouse.co.uk

Build a Graph

• Each group has a table• Aim - construct the graph to go with the

table (2 axes with scales, 2 labels for the axes, 1 set of plotted points)

From KS 3 Science Enquiry Games

NAPPY – memory aid re axes

Using skills in your own enquiry

We weighed some crisps on digital scales over several days and

drew a line graph. They got heavier and heavier

and they went soggy

We got some bread and did the same

thing. We all thought it would get heavier like the crisps but it didn’t.

It got lighter

What causes could there be?How could you test out your ideas?

Forthcoming ASE publication from the Primary Committee• Different kinds of science enquiry

(other than the fair test)• Each one illustrated with practical

examples and suggestions• Progression identified in each type• Session at the Annual Conference in

Reading

Liz Lawrence, Jane Turner, Debbie Eccles Kathy Schofield and Anne Goldsworthy

Exploring

Progression through context and content

Pattern Seeking(Survey)

Progression through

skills

Observing and

measuring over time

Progression through

skills

Classifying

Progression through

skills

Fair Testing

Progression through

skills

Problem Solving

Progression through

context and content

Cross Curricular Themes

• Some inspiring stuff going on but ….

It’s great this creative curriculum – I did 8 learning objectives from 3 different

subjects in one lesson

The way we’re doing the curriculum is to take something the child brings in like an egg and develop our learning from it. So that for science you’d roll the egg down a slope and do

friction.

Comments from primary teachers

What is inside a bird’s egg?

How could we find out?

What science have you learnt?

This is a cup nest made by a Blackbird.

The nest has been woven out of stalks of grass.

This is a cup nest made by a Scottish Crossbill

Look how the thickest twigs are on the outsideof the nest. The nest is lined with feathers and animal hairs.

The Reed Warbler makes a deep cup nest.

It is found in reeds near water.

It uses reeds to support the nest.

Nest types – Woven nests

Can you see how carefully the Reed Warblerhas attached its nest to the reeds?

What do birds build nests from?

Sticks and twigs Grass stalks and reeds Mosses and lichens Leaves and down from plants Mud Feathers Hair and fur from other animals Spiders’ silk Man-made materials

What are the materials used for?

Building the nest Holding the nest together Camouflaging the nest Lining the nest to make it soft and warm

Birds use materials with different properties to build their nests

Sticks and twigs are strong

Grass and reeds are flexible

Plant down, feathers, animal hair and fur

are soft and light

Spiders silk is sticky and elastic

Wet mud can be moulded and used for cementing other materials together

Build a nest using newspaper strips and tape.

Can it hold four mini-eggs?And a tennis ball (parent bird)?

Full ppt. available from Full ppt. available from ASAB ASAB

www.www.asab.nottingham.ac.ukasab.nottingham.ac.uk

whilst web site developed available free whilst web site developed available free from Michael Dockery from Michael Dockery M.Dockery@mmu.ac.ukM.Dockery@mmu.ac.uk

Or from www.annegoldsworthy.co.uk Or from www.annegoldsworthy.co.uk

Give them question starters such as..

• Can worms …?• Do worms ….?• Are worms ….?

Investigating their own ideas

http://science.rolls-royce.com/resources/darwin/darwin.php

Register for free resources

Some children’s ideas• Are worms afraid of water?• Do worms lay eggs?• Can worms smell?• Do worms like some colours better than

others?

• Which would we have to look up?• Which can we investigate? (torch,

worms, soil provided)• How would we do it?

Did closed trapcontain fly?

How long did ittake to re-open? (days)

yes 9

no 1

no 2

yes 7

yes 12

no 1

no 1

no 2

yes 10

yes 14

yes 10

Number of trigger hairs

touched

Number of times trigger

hairs were touched

Did trap close?

2 1 yes

1 1 no

0 0 no

2 1 yes

1 1 no

1 2 yes

1 2 yes

3 1 yes

1 1 no

2 1 yes

2 2 yes

Primary Science needs champions to break free of the straight jacket

Under threat • curriculum pressures • time and resources • Rose review

I’m expected to get high standards in

science throughout the school and enthuse

everyone. But I’m not given much time or resources. It’s really hard to make it work.

Science Co-ordinator and AST

Why save primary science?

• A great subject for young children to do – matches their way of learning by doing and trying things out

• Fantastic context for literacy, numeracy and thinking skills

• 3 years running – primary schools have been overall winners Rolls Royce Science Prize – St Anne’s Primary School, NI – water quality

• Science should be core. Children are experiencing science every day of their lives. Every time they discover something new about the world they live. During the primary stages the level of discovery is huge because their world is slowly growing about them

• It is the only subject which allows primary children to try and test out their ideas about the way the world works by collecting their own evidence. It is ideally suited to the way primary children learn as it interweaves both thinking and doing.

From ASE submission to the Primary Review