Primary Science Curriculum Guide

John Stringer, Hilary Atkinson

• Publisher: David Fulton Publishers
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781853468827
• eBook ISBN: 9781136765872
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This guide provides trainee teachers with an insight into the nature and teaching of primary science. It aims to introduce you to the ways in which children learn science, and to the science itself. Each Unit can be studied independently or used to support/prepare for school experiences. You will be directed towards additional reading, which will develop or confirm the subject knowledge you will need to achieve QTS.

the curriculum guide is up-to-date, revised to take account of Curriculum 2000 and accepted 'good practice' in primary science teaching and learning. It is also flexible - many of the Units are stand-alone. They can be undertaken in any order, at your own pace, to complement school experiences. The Units are practical and feasible: the activities suggested can be undertaken by the non-specialist; in many cases without specialized equipment or access to large numbers of pupils. The guide is comprehensive, covering all the primary science elements in Curriculum 2000 and giving background information into other aspects of primary science teaching. It is also supportive - the guide suggests further texts to support trainees' own understanding of the scientific and pedagogical concepts involved. Additional reading draws on the TTA's list of approved key texts.

The original text was piloted by students following a distance-learning PGCE course. It has been revised and updated in line with their comments and to meet Curriculum 2000 and Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage. The text was initially developed as a core text for the part-time distance-learning course at Liverpool Hope and is designed for trainee teachers on distance learning and flexible routes, returning, converting or overseas teachers.

Chapter 1

What is Primary School Science?

What this chapter is about

Primary school science has a long history. Recent curriculum developments have established the subject. It is distinguishable from primary technology and is practical and exciting.

What you need to know

Children have always had science experiences in (and out of) primary school. Whether it was through the nature table, through natural history, observation of the seasons, or ‘surveying’ – which was a curriculum topic earlier this century – children have been encouraged to look more closely at the world around them and to find ways of making sense of it.

It was the Nuffield Junior Science Project of the 1960s that first began to structure early science education. Following the success of the secondary projects, the Nuffield Foundation funded a project for Junior School (Key Stage 2) materials, that resulted in some exciting resources. One of the keen young teachers of primary science who contributed to it became Her Majesty’s Senior Primary Schools Inspector. Other projects followed – notably Science 5–13 from the Schools Council, and its later pupil resources, Learning Through Science. But it was the introduction of the National Curriculum (page 3), and the work of the Education Support Grant that funded advisory teachers in the late eighties that really put primary science on the map.

There can be some confusion between primary science and primary technology – and indeed, projects like the construction of a working machine can combine the two-technology as the ‘appliance of science’. The two can be distinguished by remembering that science is about understanding more about the known world – using tried and tested methods to find out more. Technology is about creating things that didn’t exist before they were imagined or visualised. Because you have to understand the former well to make the latter work, science and technology can be closely related.

Science in primary schools is about practical activity. There are facts to learn, and there is information to be researched, but the great strength of primary school science is in the doing. The Nuffield Mathematics Project was launched on an ‘ancient Chinese proverb’: ‘I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I do and I understand’. No ancient Chinese has stepped forward to claim authorship; but the sentiment is a good one. You will find that children will warm to the practical experience of handling concrete objects; and of discovering by activity. This can be challenging for you, and sometimes tiring; but the enthusiasm and delight of motivated young scientists is hugely rewarding.

Now try this

Science is a core subject in the National Curriculum, together with English and Mathematics. Young children have an entitlement to science education. List some reasons why this might be. Chapter 10 will help you.

Science is not about absolute truth. Science is a way of working towards truth; but we should not be surprised when science surprises us and causes us to change our ways of thinking. This can be hard to grasp; there would seem to be immutable laws in science; and indeed much old-fashioned science teaching was aimed at teaching us these immutable laws and proving them to us by experiment. But the old days of proving the statement at the top of the chalk board by experiment have gone. This can lead to a sense of uncertainty; and you may find children making discoveries that do not fit in with your ideas of how science should work. Such uncertainties can be hard to live with.

Additional reading throughout the Guide

At the end of the Guide you will find a list of books, articles and websites to which you have been referred in the separate chapters. Some of these are recommended as ‘Essential reading’ which you may wish to purchase. These will supplement and support your own understanding of pedagogical and subject-based issues.

Further reading

ASE GPSE Chapter 1.4 ‘Science for All’ by Michael J. Reiss.

Chapter 2

What is National Curriculum Science?

What this chapter is about

The advent of a National Curriculum for primary school science has established it as a core curriculum area. While recent initiatives in English and mathematics have left science in third place, its position as a core curriculum subject is unchallenged.

What you need to know

The National Curriculum was intended to be the minimum entitlement for children in the main curriculum areas. It was expected that English and mathematics would have a high profile, but it was a general surprise when science was elevated to the status of ‘core subject’ alongside them. One of the reasons may have been a perceived expectation that scientists were wealth-creators.

When the then Minister for Education, Kenneth Baker, set up the working parties to produce a National Curriculum at the end of the eighties, he selected a committee to plan a science curriculum across the years of statutory education and included in their initial brief, primary school technology. Only later was primary technology moved to join its secondary counterpart.

The science working party was the first to report, proposing 17 attainment targets to which children would be expected to work. As new versions of the curriculum developed, the original targets were very quickly trimmed. (See Chapter 9, pages 21–24)

Children’s progress through the curriculum would be measured against ten target levels in each curriculum area. These Attainment Targets were devised to demonstrate a progression in skills, knowledge and understanding, and children at the end of Key Stage 1 would be expected to achieve Level 2, while children at the end of Key Stage 2 would be expected to achieve Level 4. These levels were to be measured with tests – Standard Attainment Tasks – at the end of each Key Stage. These test results would be compared with teacher assessments. Later, science SATS at Key Stage 1 were dropped.

The content of the curriculum – children’s entitlement to science – is outlined in the Programmes of Study (PoS) and for pre-Key Stage 1 children in the ‘Early Learning Goals’ set out in Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage (QCA 2000). Science planning (see page 5) should be done with these PoS and goals in mind.

The National Curriculum is still developing. A new curriculum came into use at the beginning of the school year 2000. The emphasis changed slightly, but the key idea that primary-aged children are entitled to a science education is firmly established.

Task

Read the National Curriculum for England and Wales, Key Stages 1 and 2, for science, and use Chapter 9 to help you to understand its structure and purpose. Make your own notes. Take the topic of ‘Electricity’ as an example and see how work on this continues and develops from Key Stage 1 onwards. Read also, in Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage – Knowledge and Understanding of the World (pages 82–99) to see how work on ‘Electricity’ might begin before Key Stage 1.

Further reading

Science – A Scheme of Work for Key Stages 1 and 2, published by QCA, should be in every school. You will find brief booklets on every primary science topic, together with learning outcomes, relevant language and other useful information. (Ref QCA/98/211 – ISBN 185838 3331). Some of the units were revised in the light of the new curriculum, but these should be present in all packs. To check that you have the current version visit the QCA website from where units can be downloaded. Again, using ‘Electricity’ as an example find the units in which it is presented from Year 1 to Year 6 and compare this with the PoS set out in the National Curriculum.

Chapter 3

How do I plan for Science?

What this chapter is about

Primary schools have well-developed plans for the teaching and assessment of science. School policies, long and medium term plans, schemes of work and lesson plans all help to structure the children’s experiences.

What you need to know

Planning for primary science has much in common with planning for other curriculum subjects; but there are some important differences that arise from the subject’s practical nature.

Schools will have in place a whole-school plan for science teaching. This plan may be called the school’s science policy, and may run from a few pages in length to a much longer document. The school’s science policy will take account of the National Curriculum, the philosophy of the school, special circumstances (the number of children for whom English is not a first language, for example) and local circumstances (the possession of a school pond or nature area, perhaps).

From the whole school policy, the school will have developed a programme for the teaching of science. Commonly, this long-term plan is in the form of a two-year rolling programme – each topic is returned to every two years; three times during the six years of primary education, not counting the Reception or Foundation year. Thus a child may be studying the effects of Forces at Key Stage 1, again during Years 3 and 4 and once more in Years 5 and 6 each time at a higher conceptual level, of course.

From the long-term plan, class teachers will be making medium term plans for the year or term. They may decide that their given topics, light or sound, perhaps, will be a focus for the science work of a half term. Less commonly they may, depending on how the school is organised, plan for a science week in each term, or stretch the topic over a longer time to allow for access to specialist rooms or equipment.

These medium term plans can be called schemes of work. These are valuable documents, because they determine what the learning outcomes will be, and how they will be taught and measured.

A learning outcome is an expected development in children’s skills, knowledge or understanding resulting from teaching. This is what the teacher expects the child to take through the classroom door: an ability to design a fair test; knowledge of the organs of the digestive system; or an understanding of the relative sizes and movement of the Sun, Earth and Moon. First determine a learning outcome; then plan the ways to achieve it.

Next to the learning outcome is the approach that will achieve that outcome; it might be one of many experiences including a taught lesson, use of secondary sources like books, sheets, video or CD-ROM, or a practical activity. Your choice is determined by the learning outcome. In the examples above, carrying out a fair test is likely to be a well-supported practical; but you are unlikely to be investigating the organs of the body practically, and you cannot give children first-hand experience of outer space. You will choose the most effective ways you can of teaching these topics.

Whatever you choose, there will be resource implications. You might need practical resources; books; work sheets; a model or a video. You might need all of these. You will need to think of methods of organisation that make the best use of these resources; and of any safety implications involved. Lastly, you will need to think of ways of assessment – measuring that your aims have been achieved, and to what level. For this purpose, the methods suggested in Chapter 15 are well-tried and effective.

Task

Based on their school’s scheme of work, teachers write lesson plans which focus on the particular needs and strengths of their own pupils. Use the headings in the blank lesson plan to try to plan a lesson for a class and t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Content
• Preface
• Chapter 1: What is Primary School Science?
• Chapter 2: What is National Curriculum Science?
• Chapter 3: How do I plan for Science?
• Chapter 4: Differentiation and progression
• Chapter 5: Organising your class
• Chapter 6: Science and ICT
• Chapter 7: Choosing published resources
• Chapter 8: How to use this guide
• Chapter 9: The Primary Science curriculum
• Chapter 10: Science and language
• Chapter 11: Children’s prior ideas
• Chapter 12: Science investigations: Plan, do, review
• Chapter 13: Investigating in practice: Identifying factors
• Chapter 14: Investigations and knowledge
• Chapter 15: Assessing children’s progress in science
• Chapter 16: Teaching the content of science
• Chapter 17: Materials and their uses
• Chapter 18: Light and sound
• Chapter 19: Earth and beyond
• Chapter 20: Forces
• Chapter 21: Humans and other animals
• Chapter 22: Plants and other living things
• Chapter 23: Electricity (and magnetism)
• Additional reading
• Index