Seeing things magnified 30 times and 100 times is novel for primary school students, and they love it. These instruments are surprisingly affordable and accessible to primary schools.
The engagement of this activity is phenomenal as students typically become lost in a world with a much smaller scale, and one which looks quite different to their everyday world. A flea looks like a monster, a flower looks like a forest, a sand grain looks like a mountain. This sets the stage for the concept that an 1 million x electron microscope is powerful enough to “see” the actual building blocks of matter- ATOMS! They are fascinated that this invisibly tiny world exists, and it gives them a sense of wonder.
The importance of good science education in the primary years is now well understood. As well as laying the foundations of conceptual knowledge and the methods and applications of science, good primary science develops positive attitudes that inform students’ choices beyond the primary years.
Over 500 schools a year achieve a Primary Science Quality Mark by developing and implementing a vision for science that is based on the best evidence available of what works in primary science. As Director of PSQM I am privileged, through our UK wide network, to work each year with 100’s of dedicated, effective subject leaders who have each significantly raised the profile and quality of science teaching and learning in their schools.
In this session I will share some of what we have learned about great primary science practice from the 3500 schools that have achieved PSQM so far, including International Schools in SE Asia, in the light of the recommendations in the EEF Science Guidance report.
Most primary science lessons confine students to observing and recording sense data, like a melting ice cube, bending plastic, or fizzing baking soda. This is because national curricula have influenced by the theories of Piaget, who believed that children are not capable of abstract thought until approximately 11 years of age.
But what if 7-year old primary students can easily form mental models that explain these observations in atomic and molecular terms?
Ian will show that primary students are capable of visualising the Universe as made of invisibly tiny, moving, bouncing, joining and separating atoms that make all its substances, and are responsible for all its great events- from the subtle metabolism of our own bodies to gross explosions of dynamite. They can also grasp that atoms themselves are made of smaller particles- protons, electrons and neutrons- that explain both electricity and the atomic bomb.
This keynote briefly covers the University of Southern Queensland research showing that primary school children not only understand Atomic Theory, but that they love it. Children immediately recognise that this is modern science.
Further, we will explain how the Periodic Table is Atomic Theory’s alphabet; its letters standing for the all basic building blocks of the Universe. It is the natural starting point of Atomic Theory. What if we gave our children the benefit of teaching the Periodic Table to our kids as early as we teach them the ABC alphabet?
The elegant simplicity of Atomic Theory is demonstrated, along with some spectacular experiments that engage children and adults alike.
Ian Stuart’s discovery that primary school students can understand Atomic Theory at a high school level does not instantly translate into an upgrade of our primary science education. Crucially, primary school teachers also need to be able to teach it. Historically, many primary teachers are averse to teaching modern science because they don’t have a science background, and because they themselves have been taught science poorly. Tragically, many avoid teaching one of the most exciting fields of our modern era.
The great news is that, along with primary students, primary teachers can also understand Atomic Theory, as well as easily teach it to their classes. Indeed, given the right resources, they can teach it better than could a high school science specialist helicoptered into to do the job, because young primary minds are their specialty. Ian experienced this directly!
This keynote covers various resources that Ian has developed specifically for primary classrooms. His approach assumes that both students and teachers co-learn new concepts that are carefully unfolded in a language of utmost clarity; that it, in terms of concepts that they are already familiar with. His novel learning sequence also helps students and teachers grasp the big ideas of science in an effortless way.
Ian will show Innovative hands-on classroom materials designed for the primary classroom, along with an interactive, narrated animations that remove much of the instructional load for first-time teachers. This can be thought of as “scaffolding for teachers”.
Over time primary teachers implementing the program become more confident with modern scientific concepts, and progress to teaching more independently. Schools can build science-teaching capacity within their staff, and build their intellectual and pedagogical capital. Primary science education can the move into the modern era.
‘How do we develop scientific enquiry in Foundation Stage through ‘Understanding the World?’
This is an interactive workshop, sharing ideas and strategies of how, following children’s interests, we encourage and develop scientific enquiry and understanding through exploration, investigation and discovery, in an enabling play-based learning environment.
The intended outcomes of this session are for participants to develop a greater understanding of how we may develop scientific enquiry in Foundation Stage through ‘Understanding the World’, in an enabling learning environment, using a range of strategies.
During this session we will be looking at the formative assessment techniques you can apply with the online quiz website; socrative.com.
We have been using it across all subjects in the science department at Patana for around 2 years and have found it to be an incredibly powerful tool for checking student understanding and giving quick feedback.
We have done a large online survey with the students to get their feedback on socrative and I will also share the results during the session.
I will also be sharing a google doc with share codes for over 100 socrative quizzes to get you started.
Our intended outcomes are:
How to design your own quizzes.
How to run quizzes in class and at home.
How to share information with your classes.
