Creative Teaching and Learning

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!

The key is to remember that working creatively isn’t – and shouldn’t be – counterposed to working under constraints. In fact, some of the most creative responses that society has produced has been in response to some very challenging constraints. The original brief for the Citroen 2CV car, for example, included being able to safely transport a basket of eggs across a ploughed field.

Likewise, in science, there are constraints. Some of these are absolute, whereas others arise from what’s safe, practical and affordable in a primary school. Creativity can be a response to these.

Activities to foster creativity in science

Below are a selection of activities and ideas to promote creative thinking in primary science. I have chosen the topic of ‘Stars and Space’, because the physics area of the KS1 and 2 curriculum is sometimes the part that teachers feel less confident with. (For creative ideas to teach other physics topics, see my full article here).

A careful reading of the programme of study for this topic reveals that it is less about collating information on stars, planets etc. and more about using models to produce explanations – such as how ideas about the Solar System have changed over the years, and the factors that cause day and night and determine its length. Therefore, the activities presented here focus less on imparting knowledge and more on exploring ideas and developing pupils as scientists.

Naming constellations

Having recently moved out into the countryside and to an area with very little light pollution, the night sky truly is a wonder to behold. People of ancient civilisations named constellations because they recognised the regular pattern of stars and, within that, certain arrangements. The constellations are a way of navigating the night sky, and naming them is a clever way of learning your way around. Our modern constellation system comes from the ancient Greeks, who named them after characters from their stories and fables – characters that were familiar to their culture.

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