Thinking, Investigating Thinking, Investigating and Creativity in and Creativity in

ScienceScience

Thinking, Investigating Thinking, Investigating and Creativity in and Creativity in

ScienceScience

Anne GoldsworthyAnne Goldsworthyanne@psas.wanadoo.co.ukanne@psas.wanadoo.co.uk

www.annegoldsworthy.co.ukwww.annegoldsworthy.co.uk 01633 45031601633 450316

Starter Activity –Vocabulary

• Get partner to put a label on your back (don’t look)

• Ask questions that can be answered with a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’

• Only exchange one question with each person and then move on

• Find out what your label says

Using the labels game in KS 1

• Get everyone to talk about what would be good questions to ask

• Put a label on one child and ask the whole class to answer their questions

• Prepare labels and use pictures and words• Several children can wear the same label• Allow yes, no and I’ll find out.

Healthy Eating

• What would be a good meal to give your family to make them grow up healthy and strong?

• Kim’s game – 3 things on the tray – which food group is missing?

Floating and sinking

• T. Why do some things float and others sink?

• P. ‘Because some things are too heavy to float.’

• What would your next question be?

Making a list• Useful for KS 1 where they need to

extend their experience and become aware of more examples e.g. light sources, sound sources, plants, animals, things that use electricity etc.

Making the most of Making the most of Scientific EnquiryScientific Enquiry

• Be aware of different kinds of enquiry• Highlight skills and teach them• Add challenges to your investigations• Sometimes start at the end • Use story settings

Different ways of finding out about the

world• Carrying out a fair test, where we change one factor,

measure or observe the effect it has on something else whilst keeping all other factors the same e.g. which type of paper absorbs most water

• Carrying out a survey and looking for trends in populations e.g. do taller people jump higher

• Observing or measuring something over time e.g. how does a growing plant change; what happens to the temperature of hot water when we leave it in the classroom

Different ways of finding out about the world

• Problem Solving e.g. can I find a way to ….’ (separate salt and sand, make a bulb light)

• Classifying things according to characteristics (materials/mini-beasts) or according to behaviour (materials which do/do not allow light to pass through)

Surveys• Often arise in environmental work

and finding out about human characteristics

• Can lead to bar charts or simple scatter graphs

• To do a simple scatter graph you need to compare two sets of numerical data

Survey Do taller people have a wider reach?

Featured skills:

Measuring, considering & evaluating evidence

• Plan how to do the survey with the children

• Get them to take measurements• Plot results together• Ask them to work out what results tell

them and to interpret chart

Survey

Featured skills: Measuring, considering &

evaluating evidence • Plan how to do the survey with the

children• Get them to take measurements• Plot results together as a class• Ask them to work out what their results

tell them and how much trust they can have in their results

Do people with longer thigh bones have bigger knees?

120

130

140

150

160

120 130 140 150 160

Height (cm)

Reach

(cm

)

Typical scatter graph at KS2

Observing over timeBecome familiar with ice• Ice surprises • Ice shapes including ice hands• Pouring warm water onto blocks of ice

Then• Record changes in a large lump of ice

through the day

Featured skills: measuring, recording as bar chart, noticing patterns, making predictions based on evidence

Measuring Circumference and Melted Water

For children at about L 1 or 2• Wrap paper round ice but open to put on wall as a

column of bar chart• Build up centicubes to level of water and leave

columns under bar chartFor children at L 3 or above• Measure round ice with a tape measure - put results

on a scaled bar chart• Either measure height of water in container or

measure volume in ml and put results on a scaled bar chart

Observing over time

Problems with melting ice cubes

If doing the fair test to see where ice cubes melt fastest, don’t time them.

• Very difficult to judge moment of melting• Boring (very) to watch an ice cube melt• Not much difference between time to melt in

different places

Instead, use large ‘cubes’ e.g. yoghurt pot size• Put them in different places and leave to melt for

same length of time (1/2 hours)• Pour off melted water and compare/measure• Or do paper towel version.

Keep a caterpillar diary• Keep a diary of the development of the

caterpillar with words and pictures• Encourage close observation of the

caterpillars and the changes in the caterpillar

Featured skills: observing, measuring, recording, noticing patterns, making predictions based on evidence

• Measure the length of the caterpillars by cutting piece of wool/string to the same length and sticking on chart or measuring in mm

Mon Tue SatFriThuWed Sun Mon

mm

Watch out for spacing of the days of the week on horizontal axis

Extra Challenges• Ask children to say how much they can trust

their evidence• Get them say what was difficult to do• Measure change in mass of pot while

caterpillars are growing• Ask children to predict what graph would look

like (sketch)• Does prediction match results?

How hot the water

is

Volume of water

Number of stirs

Type of sugar

Size of the lumps

Number of spoonfuls

Type of liquid

Dissolving Sugar – Fair TestFeatured skills: Having ideas for investigation and setting up the fair test

We will change

We will measure or observe the effect it has on

We will keep these things the same to make it fair

How hot the water

is

Type of liquid

Number of spoonfuls

Size of the lumps

Time it takes

sugar to dissolve

Type of sugar

Number of stirs

Volume of water

We will change

We will measure or observe the effect it has on

We will keep these things the same to make it fair

Mrs Wobbly’s ProblemWorst Case Scenario

Jelly takes AGES to go into the water. I have to work until late into the night. This is what I do:

• Little bit of water• Add ice cubes• Put jelly in water in one lump• Give it one stir

Can you help me?

Featured skill: Having ideas for investigation

Volume of water

Size of the lumps of

jelly

Time it takes jelly to dissolve

Colour of jelly

Number of stirs

How hot the water

is

We will change

We will measure or observe the effect it has on

We will keep these things the same to make it fair

Fair Test

Question Does it tell you what to change?

Does it tell you what to measure or observe?

What size of parachute takes most time to fall?

Which fabric would be best for the farmer to wear?

How can I make an elastic band twang with a higher note?

What makes grass grow well?

No

Yes

Yes

Yes Yes

No

No

No

Analysing Questions

Using tables to plan• Bring in table of completed results• Put words and numbers on post-its• Get ‘table goblin’ to muddle them up• Talk about where things go on the table• Get children to prepare table before

they start investigating• Put headings on top of columns for

younger/less able

What we change What we measure

How hot the water

is

Time it takes jelly to dissolve

How hot the water is

How quickly the jelly goes into

the water

Harry HotWater

MaryMediumWater

CarlCoolWater

What we change

What we measure

Create conditions to get them talking

• Provide activities/real things/investigations to stimulate discussion and dialogue

• Encourage mutual support e.g. talk partners

• Be aware of your impact verbally - use non-judgemental comments, ask ‘what was your group discussing?’ not ‘what do you think?’

• Be aware of your impact non-verbally - drop eye contact, no hands up

Record in different Record in different waysways

• Use floor books

• Make up a song

• Do a mime

Ways to record• Do a mime (hands only if full

movement difficult)• Radio or TV interview• Children take photos or videos • Devise lesson for younger pupils• Posters and Floor Books• Devise a song

Floor Books• Large books with everyone’s work

displayed• Speech bubbles to show the main

comments made by teachers and children

• Contain photos, charts etc• Great evidence of what happened • Children love to re-read

HowPrepare large book with big pagesEither write down children's comments in book as they happen or note down for later useIf writing comments in speech bubbles, write the words first and put the bubble around it - the words never fit if you do it the other way!Ask the children to draw their faces to put beside their comments (or use digital camera and photos)Draw your own face and those of any adult that helps with science.Put the adults' questions/comments in speech bubbles tooTell the whole story of the enquiry adding in any tables, bar charts, pictures, photosAsk everyone to admire the finished product

Using songs to record• Make up a song in 5 minutes• Do it to the tune of a well known

nursery rhyme or pop song• Add in actions • For KS 1 children, work as a class• Make a poster ‘Our Song about …’• Keep for evidence

Posters• Use for recording about one concept or

one investigation• Groups have to record whole thing

between them• Time given for feedback • Questions go to anyone about

anything – may only write one part – have to know about it all – group responsibility

• Encourage good presentation – instant display!

Dried fruit and fizzy drink

• Observe what happens• Try to explain it• Make up a song• Do it to the tune of ….. (nursery

rhyme, well known pop song etc.)

• Ready to sing in 5 minutes• Add actions if you want

Where does soil come from?

• What are your ideas?• Now you will get some clues • You will need to make good

observations• You will need to think about what

your observations tell you

Where does soil come from? Clue 1 – Compost heaps

• What’s put in the compost?• How does the compost change?

(observe)• What makes it change? (have

ideas)

Compost 1st Year Compost 2nd Year

Where does soil come from?

Clue 2 – Pictures of a rock• What do you notice as you get

closer to the rock? (observe)• What might this tell you about

where soil comes from? (have ideas)

• You have some lumps of sugar in a pot• When I tell you, shake the pot • What can you see in the pot apart

from the lumps of sugar? (observe)• How did it get there? • What has this got do to with rocks and

soil? (have ideas)

Where does soil come from? Clue 3 – Shaking sugar

cubes

Where does soil come from? Clue 4 – Rubbing stones

• Watch the stones when we rub them.

• What do you notice? (observe)• What might this tell you about

where soil comes from? (have ideas)

Where does soil come from? Clue 5 – River bank soilWhat might rub stones

together?

Where does soil come from?

• Clue 1 – compost heaps, bags and pictures • Clue 2 – pictures of the big rock• Clue 3 – shaking the sugar cubes• Clue 4 – rubbing stones• Clue 5 – river bank

There may be more than one answer to the question.

Friction Fingers• Every surface is a little bit rough• What will happen when surfaces

try to slide over each other?• What will happen when surfaces

are smooth/rough?

Nib of ballpoint pen X 60

Adding Challenges to Investigations

• Think of a recent enquiry you have done• Can you think of an extra challenge to add at

the end of an investigation?

Example• We have been finding out how much water

comes through different soils in one minute. • Can you make a soil by mixing others together

that lets xx ml through in one minute? • Can you say how much water would come

through this soil (mixture of 2 previously tested soils) in one minute?

Sort into True, False, Not Sort into True, False, Not suresure

• The force of gravity pushes things down towards the centre of the earth

• If you stand on a concrete floor, the floor stays flat and stiff

• If a book and a feather are placed on a table, the table will push up differently on each object

• It doesn’t how much stuff is in an object, the size of the force between it and the earth (gravity) is always the same

Assessment using True-False Assessment using True-False statementsstatements

How did you feel when you responded to the True-False statements:

• individually• collaboratively

What would you want to do next as a learner?

What have you learnt about What have you learnt about gravity and forces?gravity and forces?

• Be prepared to say what you have learnt

• Be prepared to say what your partner has learnt

Splat Game – How to do itSplat Game – How to do it• Put words or pictures round the room• Give each group mini post-its to ‘splat’

with• Call out statement/question• Let groups discuss which word to splat• Groups select a ‘splatter’• On your command, all splatters get up

and stick post it on word or picture

Splat Game Splat Game How to make most of it to help How to make most of it to help

learninglearning• Do not give away right answer• Just comment on results e.g. ‘some of us

thought x, some of us thought y’ or ‘we all seem agreed on that one’

• Keep responses and show them again to children at the end of the topic/lesson

• Get children to change position of stickers if they want and to recognise what they have learnt

Space to be creative – Space to be creative – Y6Y6

• Make a light for the top of your model Christmas tree

• Find a way to make it flash on and off

• You will have a week to think about it and do it

• Be as inventive as you like

Space to be Creative Space to be Creative Y5Y5

What might it be like inside the elastic when it ..

• isn’t stretched• is stretched• breaks?