1. Exploring, investigating and identifying the scientific process (and the value of group work)
School Direct
Shepway Teaching Schools
Canterbury Christ Church University
Primary 2013 – 2014
JUDITH RODEN CSciTeach

2. The Nature of Science Talk to someone next to you
What is ‘science’ in the real world?
share these with others around you – are your ideas similar, or different?
what do scientists do?
Science is both a body of knowledge and a way of working.

3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJOOowG7Cwo View the film
Anything to add?

4. Share your experience of science in school
What is primary school science like?
Write down three key things about teaching science that you have learned from your work in school.
Share these with people next to you.

5. What methods are appropriate?
Science should be enjoyed by learners:
What methods might be appropriate?
What methods have you seen?
Let’s play a quick game!
What does this approach offer to children’s learning?

6. Scientists and Engineers
Draw a picture to show what a scientist does.
Draw another picture to show what an engineer does.
Share your drawings with colleagues
How might children respond?

7. Attitudes Towards Science
Write a few sentences to describe your feelings towards science.
What factors affected your attitude towards science?
See e.g. Silver, A, and Rushton, BS (2008) Primary School children’s attitudes towards science, engineering and technology and their images of scientists Education 3-13, 36:1, 51-67

8. ‘The Squeeze’
Stand up
Form a circle
Join hands

9. Being Scientific Involves
Process Skills
Concepts
Attitudes

10. Process Skills Investigative Skills (National Curriculum)
Planning
Obtaining and presenting evidence
Considering Evidence
Which includes
Observing
Questioning
Hypothesising
Measuring
Recording
Predicting
Drawing conclusions

11. Early Years Foundation Stage
Early Years Foundation Stage: Understanding the World
Indicative behaviour
Shows curiosity and interest by exploring surroundings.
Observes, selects and manipulates objects and materials.
Identifies obvious similarities and differences when exploring and observing.
Investigates...materials and living things by using all the senses as appropriate. Identifies some features and talks about the features.
Asks questions about why things happen and how things work.
Looks closely at similarities and differences patterns and change.

12. 2014 National Curriculum The nature, processes and methods of science
‘Working scientifically’ specifies the understanding of the nature, processes and methods of science…focusing on the key features of scientific enquiry, so that pupils learn to use a variety of approaches to answer relevant scientific questions. These types of scientific enquiry should include: observing over time; pattern seeking; identifying, classifying and grouping; comparative and fair testing (controlled investigations); and researching using secondary sources.
(DfE Science programmes of study: key stages 1 and 2 - National curriculum in England, September 2013, p.4)

13. Science’s contribution to key skills and thinking skills
Communication
Application of Number
Information Technology
Working with others
Improving own learning and performance
Problem solving
Thinking Skills
Information processing skills
Reasoning skills
Enquiry Skills
Creative thinking skills
Evaluative skills

14. Concepts: the ‘ideas’ of science
For example:
Change
Electricity
Movement
Light
Etc.

15. Attitudes
Not attitudes towards science but attitudes towards objects and events studied in science and the use of evidence in making sense of them

16. Attitudes Involved in Learning Science
Curiosity
Respect for evidence
Willingness to tolerate uncertainty
Creativity and inventiveness
Open mindedness
Critical reflection
Cooperation with others
Sensitivity to living and non-living things
Perseverance

17. What methods can we use to find out what children know?
Discuss methods that you have seen or used in school What other methods can you think of to elicit children’s understanding?

18. Concept Cartoons

20. KWHL grids What do you know about the heart and circulation system? K
What questions do you have? W
How will you find out? H
What have you learned? L

21. What I know
What I want to know
How I will find out
What I have learned
The heart pumps blood through the body
The brain pumps electrical vibrations to your spine
There are over 3000 bones in your body
You have 5 senses
You have brain, bones, bladder, blood, heart, lungs – they are for breathing and smoking burns your lungs
Pendix
The blood circulates to keep you alive
When you run fast and when you are exhausted the heart beats faster
When someone jumps out at you it beats faster
In the bones there is marrow. It stops the bones from rotting and is a bit like jelly
We have eardrums – they help us to ear
How do the kidneys work?
Are there 3000 bones in your body?
What do your bones do?
Why does the heart beat?
Do all animals have hearts?
How do the lungs work?
Are everybody’s lungs the same size?
Is there a pipe between your lungs and your heart to pump the air round our body?
What is an appendix for?
Why does the blood circulate?
How many times does the heart beat?
Does the heart beat 106 times a minute?
How does the bladder work?
How can the heart keep us alive?
Why do the veins stick out when you stretch?
How do we grow at night?
Why have we got eyebrows?
Why is there marrow in the bones?
Why does the blood go around?
Look in a book
Use skeleton
Internet/CD-ROM
(Practical work and use of models)
Test it
Models of torsos and secondary sources
Kinaesthetic activity in the hall. Test it/ investigate
Survey across the school
Videos and books
Observation
Test/look in books
There are 106 bones in the body they are not all the same size and some – like the ones in the ear are tiny
The heart is a muscle and it beats to push/pump blood around the body
Not everyone’s lungs are the same size but the tallest person did not have the biggest lungs.
Your lungs grow with you as our teachers’ lungs were bigger than ours.
In the hall we acted out what happens in the body.
The muscles need food and air to move, and the blood gets it to them. If the muscles are working hard they need more food and air so the heart has to work faster,
I like it, it was fun.
I still am not sure that we don’t grow at night. I think that we do although there were some books that said we grow
slowly all the time until the end of teenage years, but I don’t feel myself grow.
Too small to read but key points can be read out. Also – the way that teacher’s can use the first two columns to help their planning can be discussed. Similarly, discussion about the assessment value of the final two columns is useful. There should be approx 15 handouts of this grid but past experience suggests that there may not be a great deal of time for paired analysis followed by whole group discussion. This slide is useful if this is the case.

22. Children’s Drawings
Look at the examples of children’s drawings from KS1 and KS2:
What do they tell us about the ideas that children hold?
Where do you think these ideas came from?
What misconceptions are represented?
What teaching have the children had so far?

26. Practical Workshop: Survey Investigations
Learning Outcome: To make comparative statements.
Undertake a survey of your professional studies group:
Does the person with the widest span have the biggest grab?
Is there a relationship between chest size and lung capacity?
Can the person with the longest legs jump the furthest?
Does the tallest person have the longest arms (or legs)?
Choose one then plan and carry out a simple survey to find out.
What equipment will you need?
How will you collect your information?
Hook – Video clip from ‘How we change as we get older’

27. Reflect on and identify
the processes and
The group skills
involved in the activity

28. Group Work Was it useful to work in groups rather than alone?
What advantages were there in working within a group?
Be ready to report back

29. RISK ASSESSMENT
Think about the ‘risks’ i.e. hazards or dangers associated with the activities undertaken
Would you undertake this activity in the primary classroom?
What related tasks would you provide?
How would you minimise the risk involved in these activities?
Be ready to report back!

30. Reflection What have you learned today?
How will this inform your future practice in science?