Transcript Creative science – a new idea?

Creative Science
Is it okay to be creative in science?
“Ofsted reports show that the best primary
schools combine high standards with a
broad and rich curriculum. We want all
schools to have this aspiration and to:
Take ownership of the curriculum
shaping it and making it their own.
Teachers have much more freedom than
they often realise to design the timetable
and decide what and how they teacher.
 Be creative and innovative in how they
teach and run the school.”

Excellence and Enjoyment DES 2003,
extracts from Foreword and Executive
Summary.
What do the powers that be say
about creativity?
The National Advisory Committee on Creativity and
Culture in Education (1999) (NACCCE) suggest
creativity relies on:
 thinking boldly or behaving imaginatively
 the imaginative activity being purposeful
(linked to a context)
 the imaginative activity generating something
original (relative to the child – is it new to
them?)
 the outcome has value to the original objective.
Creativity is not an add-on to the
curriculum but an integral part of
thinking and planning for teaching
and learning. As stated by the
NACCCE it is “the general function
of education”.
Creative science is good science.
Creative teaching is good
teaching.
Imagination is more important than
knowledge. For while knowledge
often defines all we currently know
and understand, imaginations points
to all we might yet discover and
create.
The science curriculum is not somewhere a
teacher might think of as a place where
imagination can be allowed to run wild.
Science might be thought of as more staid; an
area that relies on exact measurements and
careful, logical thinking.
Discussing ‘big ideas’, being imaginative, ‘fooling
around’ with science ideas, is a concept that is
difficult for many teachers who are looking for
right answers in science and who lack confidence
in encouraging children to share ideas, pose
questions and problems, often due to a lack of
confidence in their own scientific understanding.
Creativity within a focussed
framework
What children learn about.
 What children learn to do.

Science Overview
Target posters
Keep the science focus – be aware of time.
Choose enhancements to suit interests of
you and children.
The Creative Classroom
The Oxford Brookes University/Astra Zeneca
Science Teaching Trust Project identified
 more practical activity
 more questioning
 more discussion
 less writing
 deeper thinking
as characteristics which linked creative science to
challenge.
VAK opportunities in the Primary
Science Curriculum
Effective teachers employ a range of strategies to support learning. They
appreciate that some children benefit from certain learning styles or
contexts, so plan for a multi-sensory approach in science.
Visual
 Modelling
 Drawing
 Real objects
 Good visuals (pictures, videos, animations)
Auditory
 Listening to others describe and explain
 Listening to stories
 Role play
 Songs
Kinaesthetic
 Practical activities
 Sorting/grouping things
 Sequencing pictures
 Modelling
VAK approaches to science
Visual science
Espresso
 www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone science clips
 Youtube – e.g. War of the Worlds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyWReM
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DVD’s – e.g. Robots Chp 7
Pictures as a stimulus for the topic
Year 5
Earth in
Space
Year 6
Micro-organisms
Philosophy for children
The Big Issues
The Wobbling Rainbow – Pie Corbett
Why don’t rainbows wobble in the wind?
How can tuna end up tinned?
Why do airwaves not make a sound?
How can a mole make a hole underground?
Why don’t we drop off the face of the earth?
Why does difference cause such mirth?
Why do magnets stick together?
Why do snails like rainy weather?
Why would an eel give a nasty shock?
Why does water turn hard as a rock?
Why does my mind keep wondering why?
Where do we begin, and what happens when we
die?
What if gravity was switched off
for a different hour each day?
What would be the advantages,
and disadvantages?
What questions would you
have?
What if our hearing was switched off for a
different hour each day?
Wasps – what is the point?
Is there life on Mars?
What if clothes were made of wood and
bricks were made of marshmallow?
What if our fingers were magnets?
Investigations
Exciting context – Soil. Tights. Melting ice - The
Ice Man cometh!
 Proformas – Science investigation format
 Group labels and roles – similar to First steps
discussion groups.
 Database of science experiments - includes ideas
for Takeover day! Planet Science – provides lots
of meaningful contexts for science
investigations.
http://www.planet-science.com/sciteach/start.html
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The Ice Man Cometh!
I opened my door this morning on my way to school,
to find an ice man standing at the bottom of my
path blocking the way. I asked him politely to let
me pass, but he threw icicles at me and froze all the
plants in my garden.
I grabbed hold of his arm to stop him shooting out
more icicles and it snapped off in my hand! The ice
man ran off, leaving a trail of frost behind him.
I put the hand in a cool box and brought it to
school. I’m going to take it to the police station
later. The freezer in the staffroom is broken. How
can I stop it from melting?
Rocks and Soils
When we went on our trip to the beach this
year, I tried to build a sandcastle, but it
was a disaster. What was I doing wrong?
Which is the best part of the beach to
build them? Why? How can I test this?
An investigation to find out which
tights stretch the most.
Who cares?
Making science relevant and purposeful
Concept cartoons
Link
Concept cartoons map
Putting people back into science
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http://www.planetscience.com/outthere/index.html?page=/o
utthere/primary/index.html
How many scientists can your children
name?
 How many of them are women,
black, young, cool etc.
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Drama
KS2 Science through Drama and Play
ISBN 0 953 23414 2
Y3 – Material madness
Y6 – Operations
Music
Science songs – Key Stage One and Two
(Don’t forget the actions!)
You’ve got the force
That’s Science (Key Stage 2) ISBN 978-185539-170-3
This is Science (Key Stage 1) ISBN 978-185539-170-3
 You tube
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Poetry
The Works 2
 Star * Poems
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Kitchen sounds
Porridge gloops
A sausage sizzles
The toaster clangs
The kettle whistles
Washing spins
People chatter
Knives chop
Dishes clatter
Taps gush
Pans clink
Water gurgles
In the sink.
The light clicks off
Night time comes
And in the dark
The freezer hums.
Richard James
Cats & Violins
Hey diddle diddle the cat and the fiddle
There’s a cow that lives on the Moon
Who can jump so high, right into the sky
‘Cos gravity’s less on the moon.
Gill Russell
Gravity is the force that pulls all objects towards the Earth. The bigger
the planet the stronger the force of gravity. The moon is much
smaller than the Earth and so its gravitational field is much weaker.
Story
“The advantage of using story in science is
that storytelling and story writing are a
natural part of the work of the primary
school. Using them to stimulate thinking
and language development in science
is….a strategy that fits into the normal
rhythm of the classroom.”
(Grudgeon and Gardner, 2002)
Pictures and art
Art and science
ITP’s
Interactive teaching programs which can be
useful for teaching Sc1 skills.
Click here for Thermometer
Click here for Line Graph
Click here for Data Handling
Click here for Measuring Cylinder
ICT - weblinks
Southwark Science resources and links
 Haringey - Science ks1 & ks2 teaching
resources
 Woodlands Junior School
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/science
 Planet Science
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ICT
Data logging
 Digital microscope
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Science displays
Science investigation plan
 Concept cartoons
 Vocab – knowledge and skills.
 Interactivity
 Items – see Southwark
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•http://www.thegrid.org.uk/learning/science/
ks1-2/resources/index.shtml
Gifted and talented
Broader, deeper, more independent and
reflective.
 Supporting gifted and talented children in
science leaflet. www.ase.org.uk
 Haringey G&T science Links to sites for
teachers and pupils (includes to including
Guiness World records, Amazing facts
about our bodies).
 Use of questions and time to find answers.
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Thinking skills in science
Haringey science site
Problem solving and thinking skills
Homework
Kitchen chemistry
http://www.planetscience.com/outthere/index.html?page=/o
utthere/primary/index.html
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Useful web links
Southwark Council, Primary Science resources
 http://www.lgfl.net/lgfl/leas/southwark/accounts/subject
s/science/web/Resources/menu/
This site links to the Haringey resources too.
Find ideas for creativity in science – and other curriculum
areas – at: http://curriculum/qca/org.uk/key-stages1and-2/learning-across-the-curriculum/creativity/.
For classroom ideas, visit:
 www.uea.ac.uk/edu/creativepartnerships/primary/intro.h
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