Primary science handbook

Further reading in Science

• 
  Be Safe! [3^rd Edn] (Association for Science Education)
  

• 
  Cross, A. & Bowden, A. (2009) Essential primary science (London: Open University Press)
  
• 
  Loxley, P., Dawes, L., Nicholls, L. & Dore, B. (2010) Teaching primary science (London: Pearson)
  
• 
  Haigh, A. (2010) The art of creative teaching: primary science (London: Pearson)
  
• 
  Allen, M. (2010) Misconceptions in primary science (London: Open University Press)
  

Online Resources

• 
  BBC Bitesize Website:
  
  • 
    Key Stage 1: http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/subjects/z6svr82
    
  • 
    Key Stage 2: http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/subjects/z2pfb9q
    
  • 
    Key Stage 3: http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/subjects/zng4d2p
    
• 
  Association For Science Education: http://www.ase.org.uk/journals/primary-science
  
• 
  Primary Science Teaching Trust: http://www.pstt.org.uk/
  
• 
  Getting Practical: http://www.gettingpractical.org.uk/m3-2.php
  
• 
  National STEM Centre: http://www.nationalstemcentre.org.uk/primaryscience
  
• 
  Birmingham Grid For Learning – Interactive Whiteboard Activities: http://www.bgfl.org/15.cfm?p=249
  

School-based support Of your teaching and learning of science

There are three key areas in which schools offer support:

• 
  developing your background scientific knowledge up to Key Stage 3 or beyond which will enable you to teach science effectively.
  
• 
  helping you plan, manage, teach and assess science in the classroom.
  
• 
  by enabling you to observe science taught by teachers in the school.
  

This might be done in various ways:

• 
  Information about how science is taught in school: giving students access to planning and assessment documents; the school’s science scheme.
  
• 
  Observation of your own science lesson(s) and those of other teachers in the school.
  
• 
  Contribution where possible to addressing areas for development in your Learning Journal in terms of extending / reinforcing both your subject knowledge and experience of teaching science. This might be done in conversation with the teacher and access to background teachers’ materials for specific science topics.
  

Teaching science during your school placement

Underpinning good science teaching and the Teachers’ Standards are constructivist approaches to teaching and learning. Constructivism emphasises the child’s prior knowledge and understanding as the starting point. An excellent resource for eliciting and using children’s prior knowledge to help you plan your science teaching for either Key Stage 1 or Key Stage 2 during your school Placement is the Nuffield Primary Science (Collins) scheme of work found in the Resource Centre. Titles include: Materials; Rocks and Soils; Living Things in their Environment; Forces and Movement; Sound and Music; Electricity and Magnetism; The Earth in Space; Light.

Possible Contributions from other areas of the PGCE course

D&T:

The Design and Technology course takes concepts in science and develops and applies them in a number of practical contexts. These relate to the Properties of Materials, the Use of Simple Electrical Circuits, the Application of Forces, The Control of Energy, Machines, Pneumatics and Hydraulics.

ICT: The contribution of your ICT work

Amongst other things, the ICT course proper introduces you to such skills as searching the Internet for materials useful in lesson planning and to ways of using ICT with the children (data bases, spreadsheets and modelling).

Mathematics and Literacy:

Amongst other things, the mathematics course introduces you to the use of standard and non-standard units in measurement and to children communicating with mathematics, drawing and completing tables and drawing and interpreting graphical presentation of data. The English course introduces you to the Literacy Strategy. This provides a context for developing children’s understanding in science, in particular the development forms of writing in science for different purposes. Science often provides a practical context for developing children’s skills in these areas.

Generic Skills: The contribution of your Professional Studies/Generic Skills sessions to your training in Science

These sessions will apply to skills and practices that apply to several areas of teaching (e.g. lesson planning and cross-curriculum planning). You should interpret and apply them in the context of science.

SELF-STUDY SESSIONS (SSS) and TASKS

Self-Study Sessions (SSS) are a vital part of the science day and one you must take full advantage of.

SSS sessions have four principal aims:

• 
  To give you an opportunity to reflect on what you have learned and further develop your knowledge of teaching and learning in science.
  
• 
  To link the university science component of your training with your own experience of teaching and learning science during your school placements.
  
• 
  To enable you to develop your personal subject knowledge in science.
  
• 
  To help you form appropriate questions to address science knowledge and pedagogy issues both while on placement and during the taught sessions.
  

There are 2 key elements to the SSS tasks:

1. 
   Developing your pedagogic knowledge of teaching and learning in science.
   
2. 
   Developing your own subject knowledge.
   

Please note that all readings for SSS are essential. It is very important you use the sessions to complete each task, not only to make your workload more manageable during the PGCE year, but these tasks will be used to help evidence the Teachers’ Standard and for monitoring of your subject knowledge progress. If your completion of the SSS tasks is unsatisfactory you risk failing to meet the Teachers’ Standards related to the PGCE course.

THE WORKBOOK

SECTION 1: Keeping Track of Your Progress

In addition to completing the tasks within this workbook and taking part in the science workshops and activities your Learning Journal will be used to record your areas and means of development. This will build upon your individual needs initially identified in your Pre-course Action Plan: Improving Knowledge and Understanding of Science which you completed before the beginning of the course. It is vital that you share your Learning Journal with the teacher-mentor in your placement schools. Progress in realising your targets is monitored through a system of tutorials.

Given that your needs change as your knowledge and understanding of teaching and learning in primary science develops during the year it is very important that you update your Learning Journal at least once a term to indicate how your subject knowledge and ability to teach science is developing.

Self-Study Session – Teaching Science

Read the Introduction in the course text “Meeting The Standards In Primary Science” by Lynn Newton (also available as an e-reader from the University library: http://NCL.eblib.com/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=168523 ) and complete the following tables / tasks based on your own thinking and experiences:

Your Feelings About Science (place an “x” on the scale):

(This is a table with 7 columns, column 1 and 7 are descriptions (the first row has “Easy” in column 1, “Hard” in column 7, columns 2-6 are where you indicate your choice with an “x”):

	Science is…
Easy						Hard
Boring						Fun
Theoretical						Practical
Relevant						Irrelevant
Concrete						Abstract
Masculine						Feminine
Facts						Procedures
Problems						Solutions
Words						Calculations
Good						Evil

Memories Of Science (List 20 experiences in total from your own memories of school Science):

Positive Experiences	Negative Experiences

What do the two tables you have just completed tell you about what you will have to think about as a teacher of science? Summarise your thoughts below:

Things I should do:	Things I shouldn’t do:

Directory: media
media -> Applications to Drill
media -> Unicef voices of Youth Chat Theme: Children and aids nigeria and Zimbabwe 13 October 2006 Background
media -> Tsunami Terror Alert: Voices of Youth
media -> Biblical Eschatology Presentation by: D. Paul Beck May 4, 2016 Ground Rules
media -> Guide to completing the collection using the Omnibus system
media -> The milk carton kids
media -> Events Date and Location
media -> The Gilded Age: The First Generation of Historians by H. Wayne Morgan University of Oklahoma, April 18, 1997
media -> Analysis of Law in the United Kingdom pertaining to Cross-Border Disaster Relief Prepared by: For the 30 June 2010 Foreword
media -> Cuba fieldcourse 2010

Download 2.04 Mb.

Share with your friends: