200 Science Investigations for Young Students: Practical Activities for Science 5–11

The aim of this book is to help teachers develop a basic repertoire of science activities for children: first-hand experiences of the world through which they can learn to observe, investigate and interpret in a scientific way. Two basic assumptions have guided the selection, invention and presentation of activities. The first is that children are most likely to develop scientific knowledge ifthey can use concepts, theories and ways of working to investigate, predict, interpret and communicate their own, first-hand experience.

The second assumption is that only a teacher who knows a class well can decide how a particular activity can be used most effectively to meet the needs and develop the abilities of the children. With this in mind, activities have been presented, even when quite highly-structured, in a ‘generic’ form. This means that they have not been devised or written for a particular age-group, though indications of aspects particularly suited to younger or older children are given on occasion. The intention is that teachers should select, adapt and modify these activities to meet the needs of their particular classes, in the context of their ongoing programme of science education.

The overall plan and numbering of sections follows that of my Understanding Primary Science (Paul Chapman Publishing, 1995), which provides more extended discussion of the scientific background to the activities in each section. References with an asterisk, thus: (∗12.2) are to that book; other references, to particular chapters, sections and activities, are cross-references within this volume.

The structure and presentation of the activities are varied. Where standardized materials and equipment can be specified and a particular sequence of activity and questioning is helpful, a detailed and structured approach is adopted. Where resources are likely to vary widely according to locality or availability, or where a more highly-structured approach is not needed, the activity is discussed more generally rather than being set out as a detailed procedure (compare, for example, Activities 6.1.2 and 6.1.3). Where a particular procedure is suggested, things to do are shown by bullet-points (•) and questions by bold question-marks (?). Short answers to questions, including the expected results of observations or measurements, follow each question in brackets. Where a more extended discussion is needed, this is given in a separate paragraph.

Particular attention has been paid to devising activities which use commonly-available materials, and to reducing the need for expensive and specialized [Page x]equipment to a minimum. There are two reasons for this. The first is to increase access to science education: to ensure, as far as possible, that teachers and classes are not held back for lack of resources. The second is less obvious, but no less important: to help children and teachers see the role that scientific knowledge and modes of enquiry can play in their everyday lives and activities. Science does not have to be high-tech to be relevant, interesting and significant: the most fundamental ideas are often shown very clearly by objects and events so familiar that usually we do not think much about them. Children have as much to learn from a loaf of bread, a bicycle or the feeding of birds in a garden as from the Hubble space telescope or genetic engineering.

In researching and writing this book it has been my hope that teachers will (as I have done) work through the activities for themselves before attempting to decide how they might be used in the classroom. Only in this way can the potential of any activity to promote children's learning in science be properly assessed and any necessary modifications be made. This kind of hands-on preparatory work has the added advantage that potential problems of execution, management or understanding are much more likely to become evident, so that they can be resolved in advance.