Creative ideas to teach primary physics: Stars and space

The new science curriculum for Key Stages 1 and 2 encourages a variety of approaches to pupils’ scientific investigations – but how creative can you be in a subject where the boundaries are so fixed? Ed Walsh examines the power of creativity within constraints, and gives a range of example activities to teach the physics-based topic, stars and space.

It is true that in science, especially primary science, the outcomes of activities are often set and closed. Pupils are expected to get the ‘right’ answer, and if they do so, their experiment is deemed to have succeeded. Unfortunately, this may result in children developing the idea that science is a set body of knowledge, and as such, exploration is pointless, since it’ll simply take them to the same conclusions other people have already found – an attitude which is the complete antithesis of scientific thinking!

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      string(342) "Introducing children to notions of environmental citizenship and instilling a love of nature is essential, not only for the future of our planet, but for our children’s physical and mental wellbeing. Richard Harvey provides some practical ideas for integrating the natural world into all aspects of the primary curriculum."
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      string(5643) "should ensure thatthe staff and pupils work together to plan anddesign it. When children get involved in thedesign process, they develop a sense of prideand empowerment. Teachers should be trainedto guide the children throughout all stages ofthe build and ensure they know all the detailsabout the materials used, the building processand the impact their new space has on theenvironment.Making links across thecurriculumAs mentioned earlier, it is important that schoolsdo not separate environmental citizenship fromthe rest of the curriculum. Some schoolsmay choose to teach specific environmentalawareness lessons, but teachers should alsoensure that the concept is embedded in allareas of academic study. There are a numberof ways teachers can link environmentalcitizenship with the different areas of thecurriculum:EnglishTo incorporate environmental citizenship intoEnglish lessons, teachers need to find waysto get creative. Natural surroundings can beused as inspiration for a tale or poem, and ideasabout the environment and how our actionsnow could affect the future can inspire somevery interesting fictional pieces. Could pupilsimagine a dystopian future where the earthhasn’t been protected as it should? And don’tforget the opportunities for non-fiction writing.Could pupils write an information or explanationtext about the plants and animals they seeon their school grounds? Alternatively, havethem imagine that the local council wants tobuild houses on their school field. Tasks couldinclude writing a letter to persuade the councilto change their plan, or creating emotivecampaign posters and leaflets.The natural world can also be a usefulvehicle to develop speaking and listeningskills. Role-play is a useful way to developchildren’s empathy and understanding. Whynot hot-seat the animals living in your localarea? Ask them: How are their lives affectedby irresponsible and thoughtless humanbehaviour? What would they like the class todo about it? Outdoor classrooms and canopiescan also be the perfect stage for storytellingand performances.ScienceExperiments and discoveries are much moreinteresting when they’re hands-on. Teachersand pupils can take science lessons outsideand learn about nature first-hand. Create aliving garden and give children the opportunityto learn about the water cycle, pollination,composting and how plants interact with otherareas of the natural world such as minibeastsand birds. Can the pupils create a food webbased on the plants and animals in their classgarden?Biology isn’t the only science relevant tothe environment. Combine it with chemistryfor an investigation into the properties ofplastic, metal, cardboard and other man-madematerials. What impact do these have on theenvironment when we throw them away?Which materials can be recycled? Take yourclass out into the school grounds to make a listof the litter and debris they see on the floor.How much of the litter is biodegradable? Whathappens when materials rot?Physics-based topics can be explored outsidetoo. Let pupils experience the weather and theseasons for themselves. Measure the shadowscast by trees on the playground at various timesof the day. Have children and parents chart thestars in the sky together – can they see theimpact of light pollution?MathsMaths lessons are the most typically associatedwith the classroom, but it is possible forteachers to move away from the whiteboardand use classes for more natural interaction.The natural world creates plenty of opportunityfor data collection – could your pupils record datarelated to cloud cover, rainfall or temperature?An extension to this would be to compare theBritish climate with others around the world.For younger children, counting rings on tree-stumps, identifying shapes on minibeasts andmeasuring angles on leaf veins are other uniqueways to bring the environment and numeracytogether.Other subject areasWorking with nature in all the core subjects will15Volume5.4nCreativeTeaching&LearningCurriculumInnovationinspire children to think about how importantthe environment is to everyday activities.However, there are a number of subjectsoutside the core areas of the curriculumthat can also benefit from the inclusion ofenvironmental citizenship.The natural world, for example, is acornerstone of geography. 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Creative Teaching & Learning

An education from the earth

23 Jul 2015

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      string(5681) "opportunities.“”http://www.sexeducationforum.org.uk/resources/curriculum-design.aspxhttp://www.sexeducationforum.org.uk/resources/curriculum-design.aspxhttp://www.jkp.com/laying-the-foundations-second-edition.html92Vol 7.6School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comPrimaryFileEducatingchildrenthen be built on in Years 5 and 6. Remember that children will have noticed visiblechanges amongst older peers or siblings, but may not have had any discussion withan adult about the more and less visible body changes. The key is not to save it all upfor one big puberty talk at the end of primary school, but to talk about change andpuberty as something that is normal.Ten tips from young people for good quality pubertyeducation1. Include more detail about body ,changes such as pubic hair growth, vaginal discharge and wet dreams.2. Show a diverse range of body shapes in teaching resources.3. 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Art creates space to look at the diversity of humanbodies, which may contrast with text book diagrams that depict a labelled slice throughthe reproductive system.Art is also ideal for expressing the emotional and psychological dimensions ofpuberty. Ideas about how to take a creative approach to puberty education are set outin The Puberty Issue, a free resource for teachers with lesson ideas for all Key Stages.It is also worth reflecting on how puberty education reinforces or addresses genderstereotypes. Are girls and boys split for lessons about puberty? If so, are they broughtback together to share learning? And what is the rationale for separate lessons? Boyshttp://www.sexeducationforum.org.uk/resources/sex-educational-supplement.aspx93Vol 7.6School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comPrimaryFileEducatingchildrenand girls alike say they want to learn about periods and wet dreams, and tools suchas anonymous question boxes can help overcome embarrassment to ask questions infront of peers. Young people identifying as transgender, non-binary or other gendersare most likely to rate their puberty education as inadequate, and unnecessarilysplitting the class into girls and boys can create an artificial divide.Pupils will enjoy handling puberty products such as menstrual pads, menstrualcups, tampons, deodorant, razors and shaving cream. To encourage critical reflectionabout how we make choices about the products we ,use try the following activitywith top primary or lower secondary pupils. Collect a selection of products and laythem out on a table. 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This isbacked up by survey findings, with more than ourf in tenGovernment guidanceon SRE (DfEE, 2000)emphasises thatteaching must focus onboys as much as girlsand should aim to buildself-esteem.“”http://www.sexeducationforum.org.uk/resources/sex-educational-supplement.aspx94Vol 7.6School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comPrimaryFileEducatingchildrenReferencesSex Education For .um .(2016) Heads or Tails? What young people tell us aboutSREyoung people reporting that they had not learnt about how to tell when a relationshipis healthy (46%) or abusive (44%). Half (50%) of young people had not discussed"
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Leadership

SLT 7.6 Preparing children for puberty

13 Mar 2017

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      string(5635) "Earlier this year, with my colleagues at the universities of Winchester and Manchester, I published the results of a two-year research project, which we believe has profound implications for the curriculum at all levels within the education system. Although it addressed a particular problem, our inability to create, as a nation, enough high-powered engineers, the report  Learning to be an Engineer: implications for the education system,  found that  a new reframing of the curriculum in terms of set of problem-solving  habits of mind typically found in top engineers was more important to prioritise than the set of subjects typically associated with engineering, such as maths, physics and design and technology. One of the most effective ways of developing young engineers in schools is a playful experimentation with the use of authentic design processes, a kind of problem-based learning. For the teachers involved, it became obvious that, not only could they deepen their pupils’ knowledge, they could also teach in a way that was engaging, creative and likely to develop young engineers.  Rethinking pedagogyCentre for Real-World Learning’s Model of Engineering Habits of MindThe teachers taking part in our research realised that teaching engineering, like developing creativity, depends at least as much on experimentation and imagination as it does on subject knowledge. They drew on three ‘signature pedagogies’2 – the engineering design process, playful experimentation and authentic engagement with engineers. The signature pedagogies – teaching and learning methods – were selected as those most likely to help pupils think like engineers.Gomer Junior School in Hampshire, for example, introduced engineering sessions in every year group each Thursday  morning from 09.00-12.00. The sessions integrated maths, literacy, science and IT with the aim of motivating learners and fostering understanding of real-world applications of STEM subjects by experiencing hands-on activities, such as The Space Race project featuring Tim Peake’s Principia Mission3,  and involved programming Crumble-controlled moon buggies.  Underpinning their teaching and learning was a version of the engineering design process, the STEM Wheel. STEM WheelBy contrast, Medway University Technical College (UTC) in Kent focused on raising awareness among staff and students about the six engineering habits of mind, their usefulness and ways of integrating them into the curriculum. Whole-school assemblies were organised around each habit of mind and icons for use on posters and rewards postcards were created. The systems thinking one is shown  below.The popular ‘Be Like Bill’ social media meme (above) was also adapted to explain the meaning of each engineering habit of mind, in this case problem-finding.Medway UTC’s strategies to cultivate awareness of EHoM had an important impact on those teachers in subjects such as art and English, who felt much more included in the overall engineering mission of the school.Some possible problems with problem-based learningThe teachers were, in essence, using a set of approaches associated with the approach known as problem-based learning (PBL). PBL is a hands-on method of teaching which focuses on messy, real-world problems and encourages students to explore these in depth and over time. Interestingly, PBL produces negative reactions from some researchers and, in the second part of this article, I explore some of these and offer some counter arguments.1. Constructivist teaching which allows pupils to explore problems in less structured ways is not as effective as direct instruction.An example of such a critique is a paper by Paul Kirschner, John Sweller and Richard Clark. The first part of the title of the article suggests their line of argument – Why minimal guidance during instruction does not work: An analysis of the failure of constructivist, discovery, problem-based, experiential, and inquiry-based teaching4 Kirschner and his colleagues draw on thinking about working memory and about the acquisition of expertise. They are right to remind us that novices and intermediate learners often need specific instruction to master core concepts and key skills, but they fail to ask a more fundamental question  about the learning outcomes which are desired by teachers. Obviously, young engineers, for example, need to have some mathematical and scientific knowledge, but they also need to be able to apply this in the real world. PBL was invented by those training doctors who had become concerned that trainees had good knowledge, but little ability to put this into practice with patients. There is now a journal devoted to understanding PBL with rigour and subtlety5 and, from meta-analytical research, it is possible to understand its application a much more nuanced way. PBL does not have to be a binary alternative to direct instruction, nor was it in our engineering research. Rather, it can be combined with moments of didactic input as required. By the same token, the idea of ‘minimal instruction’ forces some unhelpful binary thinking about the nature of learning when, in reality, structures such as the engineering design process, when well used, bring structure to pupils’ enquiries.2. The concept of PBL is unhelpful An extension of the previous argument, this one is easy to deal with for it assumes that there is a common understanding of what PBL is when there is not. Johannes Strobel and Angela van Barneveld"
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Leadership

Engineering a new curriculum

26 Sep 2017

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      string(337) "... kinesthetic typography. If you project this onto the whiteboard you can have a stream of tweets and images about the learning inspiring further questioning and ideas as the lesson continues. I have also found that once children start sharing their work, it creates a culture of more reflective learning – they ..."
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      string(5669) "with mature students have found using Facebook particularly effective, but those of us working secondary school age pupils have found that many of our students no longer routinely check it as their parents use it extensively. You need to make a judgement call here. Facebook has excellent privacy settings, and learners can share their work, ideas and comment on articles/others work in a private group however, Facebook prefers teachers to use one account. I have a personal Facebook account full of photographs of my children which I would not want to share with my learners. I have set up a ‘teacher’ account, which I do use. This is a judgement for other professionals to make. My school, like many others, had Facebook banned for a long time – which is done through filtered Wi-Fi. However, we have been trialling its use for school groups such as the public speaking society and digital leaders. Uptake in this respect has not been as high as I might have expected. I think that on the most part the current cohort in secondary schools may well have Facebook accounts, but do not use them as their primary social media outlet.The second social media platform I would like to consider is Twitter. For teachers there are obvious benefits of using Twitter to connect with other professionals from around the world. I was surprised when I first joined, how freely educators on Twitter shared ideas and resources, and also at how fervent some of the educational discussion could be. My advice for new teacher joining twitter would be to change their avatar away from the ‘twitter egg’ and to make sure that their bio says ‘teacher’ in there somewhere. You are of course very welcome to lurk and simply follow conversations, which you can do by following people. I think that the real benefit to educators comes from becoming engaged with those discussions and reading the numerous education blogs that are shared there. A good place to start would be look at this list of 101 teachers to follow on Twitter, compiled by @teachertoolkit. I would also recommend you follow @Pedagoo, a wonderful organisation which has a blog, where teachers can use. Alongside this @staffrm also gives teachers a free blogging platform. Both have very welcoming communities, and they are keen to embrace teachers who have just started using social media to connect with others. Another must follow for me is @UkEdChat who produce masses of useful information and resources. They also host a webchat on a Thursday, which you can following using #UKEdChat. For newcomers to Twitter, following a hashtag can be a fantastic way to find others interested in the same topics as you, and a good guide to frequently used hashtags can be found here. Bear in mind that the same rules we teach the children in our classroom apply to adults using social media, so please be polite and respectful when discussing (even the most hotly contested) views with others.Schools as institutions can also make use of Twitter. There are now many schools that have a whole school Twitter account, and use this to connect with parents and to share good news. This can be excellent marketing for the school, and a Twitter account can be easily run from your school’s news RSS feed so that it is being kept up to date. More recently there has also been a rise of departmental Twitter use, primarily used to encourage students to interact with useful information. So for example, my school department Maths account, retweets maths exam advice, maths puzzles and other things of interest to maths students. This is another way of reaching the children and engaging with them outside the classroom. I consider this as taking the learning to the children, in a social media space that they already inhabit and are likely to see.Anecdotal evidence certainly seems to support that children are more likely to engage with resources they can easily access on their phones, on a platform that doesn’t require logging in such as a VLE. I would advise teachers to make use of whatever means they have of potentially having an impact on the learning of the children in our classrooms, and for example, tweeting a morning revision Podcast is more likely to reach an audience than depositing it on a VLE.Alongside using Twitter to connect with other professionals, and as a whole school, you can also make excellent use of it in the classroom as a learning tool. Remember, children have to be 13 to have a Twitter account and you should not follow them back. I think in this respect, it is a sensible thing to ensure professional separation from your personal Twitter account if you have one. Many teachers have a teacher account which they use to interact with the children in their classrooms. Hands down the best activity I have found for using Twitter in the classroom was to ask the children to live tweet the lesson. That is, they took photographs of the work and tweeted these, alongside any questions or ideas that they had. When they tweet they must also include a unique hashtag (such as #missjonesIT) so that the tweets can be followed using that hashtag. You can then use an app call Spout on an iPad, or tablet, which follows the tweets and curates them into beautiful kinesthetic typography. If you project this onto the whiteboard you can have a stream of tweets and images about the learning inspiring further questioning and ideas as the lesson continues. I have also found that once children start sharing their work, it creates a culture of more reflective learning – they are happy to revise their diagram as"
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Creative Teaching & Learning

Snapchat, selfies, and teaching

20 Jun 2017

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