Horton Kirby Horton Kirby Environmental Environmental

Education Education CentreCentre

How can environmental projects enhance pupils scientific

understanding ?

Which scientific skills and

understanding can be developed using

the outdoors?

Observational skills

• An opportunity for children to use all their senses to find out more about the natural world

Identifying different organisms

Understanding the relationship between animals and plants

Understanding the needs of animals

Understanding what plants need to grow

Understand the lifecycle of plants

Understanding habitats

Understanding adaptation

Understand food chains

Understanding animal behaviour

Understanding properties of rocks Understand

energy

PlantsPlants - - IdentificationIdentification

• Gatekeeper• OPAL• Woodland Trust• Field Studies Council

Science

Animal Identification Animal Identification chartscharts -

Science

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Nature TrailNature Trail

• Could you develop a route around your habitats?

• Can a plaque be placed in the different habitats?

• Can you gather information at different times of the year from the different places?

Science

Being a Camera!Being a Camera!

• Establish a field of vision by extending your arms in front of you, hands in a fist with the thumbs pointing straight up. Look carefully at the “picture” framed by your thumbs. Keep your head still and move your eyes from left to right and vice-versa as a wide angled lens. Observe carefully your “picture”. Look away and sketch what you saw.

• Zoom lens – use both hands to form a tube [or use a card/wooden disc with a hole in the centre or cardboard tubes of varying diameters] and focus on something in the distance, particularly concentrating on shape and colour.

• Close-up lens – zoom in to the ground at your feet with your zoom lens. Find something to look at closely.

• Rose tinted spectacles. Look at your surroundings through coloured acetate sheets either taped on to cardboard tubes or in picture frames

Science

Touchy egg boxes

• Words of opposite meaning written on the bottom of the boxes – wet/dry, rough/smooth, dead/alive, shiny/dull etc.

• Find three pairs of things that match your opposites and place in adjacent pairs of holders in the egg box.

• Swap boxes and guess the words from the contents.

Science

Coloured Worms - camouflageColoured Worms - camouflage

Coloured worms. Use coloured pieces of wool about 7cms long in groups of ten pieces per colour. Hang them on bushes, trees, shrubs, on the ground. Story about a local farmer and his worm farm, growing them for fishermen/scientists/restaurants/good EU subsidy. They’re very valuable because of the wonderful colours they’re bred in and some have escaped. They’re kept in groups of 3/5/10 and X number of these groups have escaped. Help him find them. Embellish the story as required and depending on location

Pastry worms for gulls!

Science

Pitfall trapsPitfall trapsScience

Collecting minibeastsCollecting minibeastsScience

Use of ICTUse of ICTICT

Blindfold TrailBlindfold TrailScience

Magic Water!Magic Water!

• Pick up small interesting things – leaves, grass, flowers, twigs, [care needed] – and smell them. [Beware of allergies.]

• Crush them and put into a plastic cup of “magic water”. Smell them. Make a cocktail and see who has the nicest/worst smelling cup.

Science

Woodland Concert and Woodland Concert and Animal EarsAnimal Ears

• Sit in a secluded place with a “magic” crystal held tight in your hands. Close your eyes and the “magic” crystal helps you to hear the woodland concert.

• Cup hands around ears to imitate animal ears.

Science

A Sound MapA Sound MapScience

Canopy gazingCanopy gazing

• Study the tree canopy by holding a mirror horizontally on the nose just below the eyes. Look down into the mirror to see the tree canopy.

Science

Nature’s PaletteNature’s Palette

• Artist palette shaped piece of card with pieces of double sided sticky tape stuck on. Each person/pair/group collect things to remind them of the walk and to show nature’s variety.

• Could also stick paint chart samples on and ask children to match what they find to colours. BUT discourage too much picking. Good to use as part of a display.

Science

A Journey StickA Journey StickScience

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Meadow 1Meadow 1

Meadow 2Meadow 2

PatioPatio

hayrattle

Plants for Invertebrates

ShelterShelter

foxglove

geranium

Comfrey (purple)

Comfrey (white)

primroses

bluebells

Wood anenome

bugle

rose of sharon

cotoneaster

budlea

As of October 24th 2012

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What animals need to What animals need to stay alivestay alive

Which animals can we provide with food/water and shelter?

Invertebrates – a place to hibernate

Birds – tables, feeders, nests, nesting materials hanging up

Small mammals – a place to hibernate

Amphibians – a place to spend the winetr

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What helps plants to growWhat helps plants to grow

• Investigation over time – cover up areas of grass – measure the grass over time and make observations.

• Investigation over time – grow plants in pot plants; add different amounts of water and measure over time. Place some in greehouse.

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Lifecycle of plantsLifecycle of plants

• A metre square garden – children can plant a couple of seedlings of different plants. Take photos over time.

PlantsPlants - Estimating age of living tree - Estimating age of living tree

If you have chosen a tree in woodland, divide thecircumference in centimetres by 1.25.If you have chosen a tree in an open space, dividethe circumference in centimetres by 2.5.

Science

Height of placesHeight of places

Place Distance from place (m)

Degrees of elevation

Height of the place (m)

E. Fir tree in garden

F. Oak tree at back of classroom

G. Cherry tree by hibernation area

H. Holy tree by logs

I. Fir tree at bottom of wildlife area

Maths

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Understanding habitatsUnderstanding habitats

Which types of habitats can you create at school?

1. Rockeries/log/hot spots piles/pit-fall traps for mini beasts2. Composters3. Grasslands/Meadows4. Hedgerows5. Herb Gardens6. Marshlands7. Trees8. Vegetable plots9. Butterfly/bee garden10. Ponds11. Hibernating areas (minibeast hotel)

What type of pond?Science

Hibernating AreasHibernating Areas

Build a nest using newspaper strips and tape.

Can it hold four mini-eggs?And a tennis ball (parent bird)?

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Pattern-seekingPattern-seeking

• What sort of information/data could you collect from different habitats throughout the year?

Science

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AdaptationAdaptation

• Create their animal for a particular environment.

• Provide the children with lots of props (e.g. snorkel, flippers, wings, etc) – can they become the animal and explain how it is suited to where it lives.

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Food chain headbandsFood chain headbands

• Children choose a headband.• They must arrange themselves into a food

chain without saying what they are.• They can pass along an arrow to show the

passage of energy.

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Animal behaviourAnimal behaviour - Being a minibeast! - Being a minibeast!

• Use some drama to shrink the children. With a hand lens, 2 metres of string and some cocktail sticks they go on a journey as an animal.

• They place their flags where they see something interesting or meet another animal.

• They can then take a partner through the journey – talking about the life of the animal

Science

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Curiosity Corner in the ClassroomCuriosity Corner in the Classroom

• What could be in it?

Science

Recording and sharing

• Learning log/diary (big books)• Photos and video• ICT – comic life, 2connect• Regular sharing in assemblies

Water - Geological rockery – Water - Geological rockery – permeable rocks; aquiferspermeable rocks; aquifers

Science

Geography

Water - Investigating soilWater - Investigating soilGeography

Science

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Energy - Mini GreenhouseEnergy - Mini GreenhouseScienceDT

Energy - Heating water using the SunEnergy - Heating water using the Sun

Cardboard box

Black bin liner

ScienceDT

Energy - from water powerEnergy - from water powerScienceDT

Weather - Making an anemometerWeather - Making an anemometer

cane

Broom handle

Science

Geography

DT

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Anemometer and weather vaneGeography

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• Science Programme of Study: Science Programme of Study: Key Stage 1Key Stage 1

• The teaching of science in Key Stage 1 should introduce pupils to a variety of plants and animals (including humans), materials and physical phenomena.

• Pupils should study (by working scientifically, working practically, and using a variety of research methods including using books and ICT):

• Basic structures and simple classification of common plants and animals

• Life processes, including growth, reproduction and feeding, and growing plants

• Habitats, including food chains

• Simple physical properties of everyday materials in relation to their uses

• Sources of light

• Night and day, and the movement of the Sun across the sky

• Forces that make things move, speed up and slow down, and change shape.

• Science biographies, for example, Charles Darwin. • ‘

Science Programme of Study: Science Programme of Study: Key Stage 1Key Stage 1

• ‘Working scientifically’ is to be delivered through the teaching of substantive subject content, and is not to be taught separately as content in its own right. In Year 1 and Year 2, ‘working scientifically’ includes aspects of:

• Observing closely using simple equipment

• Performing simple tests

• Identifying and classifying

• Recording findings in various formats.

• Ensure pupils read and write scientific vocabulary, consistent with their phonic knowledge at Key Stage 1.

Science Programme of Study: Lower Key Stage 2• The teaching of science in Lower Key Stage 2 should ensure that pupils know about a variety of plants and animals (including humans), materials and

everyday phenomena. • Pupils should study (by working scientifically, working practically, and using a variety of research methods including using books and ICT): • The function of different parts of plants, and what plants need to survive

• What animals need to survive

• Movement in vertebrates, including humans

• Classification of living things: plants and animals

• Human digestion

• Food chains and food webs

• Introduction to evolution and inheritance

• Everyday materials that are attracted to magnets, or that sink/float

• How to make a magnet and the properties of magnets

• Simple physical properties of some kinds of rocks, and how rocks and fossils are formed

• States of matter and changes of state, with particular reference to water

• Sources of sound

• Light and shadows

• Solar systems and galaxies, including the motion of the Earth in relation to the Sun

• The uses of electricity, and how to wire a simple circuit.

• Science biographies, for example, Carl Linnaeus, Charles Darwin, Nicholas Copernicus, Galileo Galilei and Neil Armstrong.

Science Programme of Study: Lower Key Stage 2• ‘Working scientifically’ is to be delivered through the teaching of substantive

subject content, and is not to be taught separately as content in its own right. In Year 3 and Year 4, ‘working scientifically’ builds on earlier content and also includes aspects of:

• setting up simple comparative and fair tests

• beginning to make accurate measurements using standard units

• recording findings in various formats

• reporting on findings

• using results to draw conclusions and make predictions for setting up further tests.

• Ensure pupils read and spell scientific vocabulary correctly and with confidence, using their growing knowledge of spelling patterns and rules.

Science Programme of Study: Upper Key Stage 2

• The teaching of science in Upper Key Stage 2 should ensure that pupils know about a variety of plants and animals (including humans), materials and everyday phenomena.

• Pupils should study (by working scientifically, working practically, and using a variety of research methods including using books and ICT):

• Life cycles, including reproduction and growth

• Human circulatory system and gaseous exchange

• The diversity of organisms, including classification

• Life processes, including reproduction

• Inheritance and evolution happening over long periods of time

• Testing everyday materials for: hardness, solubility, conductivity (heat and electricity), magnetic behaviour

• Properties of everyday materials and reversible change

• Changes that form new materials and are hard to reverse

• Types of force and measurement of forces

• Electrostatics and magnetism

• The basic parts of a simple electric series circuit; short circuits

• The ray model of light.

• Science biographies, for example David Attenborough; Gerald Durrell, William Harvey, Galen, Charles Darwin, Sir Isaac Newton, and the Wright Brothers.

Science Programme of Study: Upper Key Stage 2

• ‘Working scientifically’ is to be delivered through the teaching of substantive subject content, and is not to be taught separately as content in its own right. In Year 5 and Year 6, ‘working scientifically’ builds on earlier content and also includes aspects of:

• Planning investigations, including controlling variables

• Taking measurements with increasing accuracy and precision

• Recording data and results of increasing complexity using various formats

• Reporting on findings from investigations, including written explanations, causal explanations and conclusions

• Presenting reports of findings in written form, displays and presentations

• Continuing to develop the ability to use test results to make predictions to set up further comparative and fair tests.

• Ensure pupils read and spell all scientific vocabulary correctly.

• Main Differences• Division of the Programme of Study (POS) – There will now be Key Stage 1

(KS1), Lower Key Stage 2 (LKS2) and Upper Key Stage 2 (UKS2). Planning issue• Scientific enquiry – now changed to ‘working scientifically’.• KS1 – Many components of Scientific Enquiry missing: ask questions, think

about what might happen, recognising a test as fair/unfair, controlling risks, and reviewing their work. The emphasis in KS1 and LKS2 seems more on developing understanding through comparative testing than on doing fair tests.

• Demonstrations – this has been highlighted as a teaching strategy• Structure of a lesson issue• Coverage – Within each Key Stage schools have the flexibility to introduce

content earlier or later than set out in the POS. In addition, schools can introduce key stage content during an earlier stage if appropriate. Planning issue

• Key stage 1 – Year 1 do not do ‘materials’, ‘sound’, ‘forces’, or ‘electricity’. Planning issue

• Biographies – Resources issue• Using outdoor environments all year. Planning issue