Evolution in the National Curriculum 2014 Primary Partnership conference 2014 Russ Shalofsky University of Gloucestershire

Evolution ….. Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape- descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea. Lots of the people were mean, and most of them were miserable, even the ones with the digital watches. Many were increasingly of the opinion that they ’ d all made a big mistake coming down from the trees in the first place. And some said that even the trees had been a bad move, and that no-one should ever have left the oceans.

Current NC science 2014 NC science KS1 / KS2 Four strands Sc1- Ideas & Evidence Sc1 – Scientific Enquiry Examples from topics Sc2/3/4– 45%/23%/34% ATs: taught to = skills taught that = concepts KS1 / LKS2 / UKS2 Two elements Working Scientifically Examples for each age phase and each topic Topics – 50%/18%/32% ATs: describe / recognise / identify etc = all skills & use the idea that… to explain… = concepts No Science Biographies!

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NC science 1999 vs 2014 First – review changes to Variation, Classification & Inheritance (see sheet) - evolution is a new element but which builds naturally on existing / new topics Pupils should be taught to: recognise that living things have changed over time and that fossils provide information about living things that inhabited the Earth millions of years ago recognise that living things produce offspring of the same kind, but normally offspring vary and are not identical to their parents identify how animals and plants are adapted to suit their environment in different ways and that adaptation may lead to evolution.

Current common activities lining up in order of shoe size and height photographs of themselves when young and now - sort the photographs into groups - write a description of a member of the class - comparison of two individuals photographs of parents/grandparents – guess who belongs to who change the way people look and explore if they could still be recognised compare the sizes of eg their hand study pictures of different animal skeletons ask children to predict where a particular organism will be found eg woodlice, snail, butterfly, bee Design a critter – show how it is adapted Any others?

Ideas for new activities (ASE etc) Selection of different organisms of the same type/species (possibly pictures but ideally using the real thing):  Look at pets kept in the classroom or at home  Visit a local zoo, farm or nature reserve Observing plants and animals in the school grounds, for example snails and woodlice Look at a collection of fruits and vegetables which show variation: green beans and carrots are a good starting point. Investigate the relationship between one variation and another – e.g. do the longest pods have the greatest number of seeds in them? Think of an animal equivalent to this exercise (snails or worms, birds, pet dogs …) Look at skulls & teeth for carnivores / herbivores Any others?

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