Teaching ScienceIdeas and help for trainee Science teachers

This is Ricky. Ricky is very lucky in that he will soon be going on an expedition to Antarctica alongside a teacher called Lisa Woods, sponsored by the Fuchs Foundation.

You can follow Ricky’s adventures via his blog : http://antarcticapuppet.primaryblogger.co.uk/

Teachers could use Ricky’s problems as a stimulus for talk and investigations, as well as to encourage children to raise questions.

There are two main sections to the blog – both of which will of interest to teachers who want to use Ricky in their lessons.

“Ricky’s Diary” – this is Ricky’s record of his preparation and his trip. He started writing his blog entries over the summer holiday and will add to these when he gets responses to his problems or new things happen to him. You can help to solve the problems in whatever order you wish, either by following Ricky’s posts in date order, or dipping into them as you choose. You might decide to focus on one issue such as what Ricky should eat or how to keeping warm. You might choose something that could help Ricky even though he hasn’t yet thought about it.

You can post questions for Ricky, and ideas for investigations to be carried out before he goes or during his Antarctic adventure. He will try to respond to most ideas or questions. He will also choose some of the interesting ideas and questions from children to explore when he goes on his adventure in November.

“How can you help Ricky?” – this section contains idea for how to solve Ricky’s problems linked directly to the posts in Ricky’s Diary. There are also links to other support materials where relevant.

The Fuchs Foundation arranges for young teachers of science and geography to undertake scientific expeditions to the Antarctic and Arctic. The charity was re-launched in 2005 to coincide with the 50th Anniversary of Sir Vivian Fuchs’ Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1956-58, There is more information about the Fuchs Foundation expeditions on the Fuchs Foundation website. www.fuchsfoundation.org and you can watch teachers on the 2007 expedition recorded by Teacher’s TV – click here to watch the video.

If you’re looking for a way to make Primary Science a little more fun and interesting then you might like to incorporate Ricky and his antarctic adventures into your curriculum. It would be a nice way to introduce investigative work and become a stimulus for talk, as well as to encourage children to raise questions. It would also have some fun cross curricular activities such as creative writing.

Good Luck to Ricky and Lisa on their expedition. I look forward to reading more about it.

http://antarcticapuppet.primaryblogger.co.uk/

This week, BBC One launches Bang Goes The Theory, a brand new series with a hands-on approach to science.

Presenters Jem Stansfield, Liz Bonnin, Dallas Campbell and Dr Yan Wong will pool their knowledge and curiosity to challenge the scientific principles that shape our world. It will include a series of experiments, one of which will see one of the show’s presenters, Dr Yan, being dramatically transported across a 2.5m void via magnetism: a method selected by the general public.

The series, co-produced with The Open University (OU), will be supported by free events and an interactive website. You too can do real science online and at home. It aims to bring all ages together with accessible science that encourages everyone to get their hands dirty. The Bang Goes The Theory blog, which is updated daily, will slowly establish the show — with a series of videos and exclusive pictures that follow the progress of the conception, testing, building and trialling of the contraption. A number of explanatory videos are already online.

Sounds like it could be a fun programme – a slight shame it’s going out right at the start of the school holidays so teachers can’t follow up on it immediately in the classroom.

Keep an eye on the show, and hopefully there will be clips you will be able to use after the Summer break which could be used to spark off exciting science investigations.

Here’s a fantastic set of ideas for teaching Science with fun, engaging practical lessons.

These resources are designed to make primary science teaching fun for everyone, including the teacher! They are easy to download and free to copy for use in the classroom. No special equipment or skills are required for any of the lesson plans or demonstrations. New stuff is added regularly.

Some great ideas here for whole lessons and teacher demonstrations.

Head along to the Surfing Scientist and find out more!

If you want advice and ideas for using Plants in the classroom, then the SAPS website is well worth bookmarking. (Science and Plants in Schools)

You can download a pdf version of their booklet – Living Processes and What Plants Need to Grow from this page. (download each section separately)

Also look out for

Plants for Primary Schools – a series of booklets

Parts of a Plant and their functions

Reproduction and Life Cycles 1

Reproduction and Life Cycles 2

Some useful links for Day 3 – Materials

A good source of lesson ideas for all subjects (including materials) can be found at the Ictopus website. You need to register to download lessons, but it’s free to join.

There are some good Solids/Liquids/Gases resources on the ABPI website here. Here’s a direct link to the worksheets page.

Investigations

Scientific Enquiry Planning Poster can be found on this page (along with some other handy links) Direct link to the planning poster here.

Misconceptions and Science

Students Misconceptions in Science

Children’s understanding of scientific concepts : The role of misconceptions in planning for learning

Some research about transforming childrens ideas about science from the GTC.

Another term starts and so I’d like to say a big Hello to a new group of Scitt students. I’m looking forward to helping you find out more about science teaching over the next 10 months or so.

Here are a few links that were mentioned during the session today:

To get an online version of the Primary Science schemes of work, go here: http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes2/science/?view=get

To get online versions of the National Curriculum folders, go to: http://curriculum.qca.org.uk/key-stages-1-and-2/subjects/index.aspx

The countdown timer for the timed tasks, came from here: http://www.classtools.net/

The Science materials for Self-Study produced by SCicentre can be found here: http://www.le.ac.uk/se/centres/sci/selfstudy/selfstudy.html

The “Welcome to Science” document written by Phil Plait of BadAstronomy.com doesn’t seem to be on his site anymore, but it can be found online here: http://www.mysteryinvestigators.com/archive0805.htm

We didn’t do a VAK (Visual, Auditory, Kinaesthetic) test, but if you’d like to try an online one, I’ve found one here you can try out: http://www.brainboxx.co.uk/A3_ASPECTS/pages/VAK_quest.htm

The Diet Coke and Mentos experts are Eepy Bird and they can be found at: http://www.eepybird.com, and if you want to see the Mythbusters explore what is going on with the coke and the mentos (which we didn’t discuss today, but will do in day 3) then you can see the video here: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=kMXPOqovSBs

For an explaination of what is going in with the coke and the Mentos, here are three websites that may help

http://www.eepybird.com/science.html

http://www.sciencebuddies.com/science-fair-projects/project_ideas/MatlSci_p023.shtml?from=Home

http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101/consumer/faq/mentos.shtml

These chemists are saying that the primary cause is physical, not chemical.  Their explanation: nucleation sites. If you have a liquid that is supersaturated with gas (like soda, which is pumped full of carbon dioxide), a nucleation site is a place where the gas is able to form bubbles. Nucleation sites can be scratches on a surface or specks of dust – anywhere that you have a high surface area in a very small volume. That’s where bubbles can form.

Mentos seem to be loaded with nucleation sites. In other words, there are so many microscopic nooks and crannies on the surface of a Mento that an incredible number of bubbles will form when you drop it in a bottle of soda.  Since the Mentos are also heavy enough to sink, they react with the soda all the way to the bottom. The escaping bubbles quickly turn into a raging foam, and the pressure builds dramatically. Before you know it, you’ve got a big geyser happening!

From Eepybird website

Eepybird also has a link to a pdf file which gives a different launch mechanism for the Mentos mints. Worth a look.

The full video in all its glory

Diet coke and mentos from Danny Nicholson on Vimeo.

As streamed live onto the Internet via Qik.com

If you want to do your own Diet Coke and Mentos experiment, then you will need some kind of mechanism to allow you to release the mentos into the Coke from a safe distance.

You could probably cobble something together yourself, but one thing that you can buy is the Geyser Tube, which is available from gadget stores such as Firebox for about a fiver.

Put the mentos in the tube, then pull the string and stand back. The pin will pull out and release the mints into the Coke.

Try this as part of a Sc1 investigation – test different brands of cola, types of fizzy drink etc.