Teaching ScienceHelp for trainee Science teachers

To mark the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, commissioned and funded by the Wellcome Trust, has created The Great Plant Hunt. This project will encourage Primary school children to explore the natural world around them and join other schools in the biggest ever school science project.

The Great Plant Hunt invites primary school children to follow in the footsteps of Darwin by going on nature walks in and around their school grounds. They’ll find out more about plants and in the process learn key scientific skills. There is a lot more information, and links to resources in the Teacher Area of the site.

In addition to the activity ideas, there are also interactive resources to use on an IWB such as Plant or Not?, Herby Havoc and Sunflower Survival.

All teaching materials and resources are available to download – so you can make your own Treasure Chest of resources to run The Great Plant Hunt completely free.

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

The BBC have launched an area of their gardening website aimed at children. There’s some nice ideas for gardening projects both indoors and outdoors. Take a look and see if any could be used with your class.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/gardening_with_children/homegrownprojects_index.shtml