Exploring Sustainable Fuels in the Classroom: Engaging Activities for Years 5 & 6

Our free resource shows that science can offer the solutions to environmental problems

 The Sustainable Stories and Solutions for Our Planet resource from CIEC offers practical, hands-on science lessons to help Upper Key Stage 2 pupils explore sustainability in everyday materials, personal care products, food, energy, and – most recently – fuels.

With the rise of electric vehicles, now is the perfect time to help children understand how sustainable fuels can reduce air pollution and protect our environment. The newest section focuses on how sustainable fuel is made and its role in future transport.

Key Activities:

• Electricity to Gas: A teacher-led demo shows how water splits into gases using electricity, prompting discussion about hydrogen fuel cells and electric vehicles.
• Main Beam: Children investigate how adding cells to a circuit affects bulb brightness – a fun way to understand how larger vehicles need more energy.
• Lumpy Challenge: Pupils explore how surface area affects dissolving by testing different sugar shapes, linking this to materials used in fuel cell coatings.
• Increasing Surface Area: Children test different grinding methods to find which creates the finest powder, helping them understand particle size and reaction speed.

All activities are free to download from our website.

Top teaching tips

As you introduce children to the idea that science is a way to provide solutions to environmental problems you may find the following tips helpful.

Letting children plan their own investigations fosters independence and leads to deeper understanding

·       Review children’s prior knowledge at the start of each topic. This means that you can tailor next steps in learning as well as establish a baseline for evidence of progress.

·       Record children’s ideas during demonstrations. This enables them to focus on their thinking rather than their writing and will be useful to guide later discussions.

·       Let children’s plan and carry out investigations independently although this can be scary! Yes, they will make mistakes, but in the long run the learning will be deeper and more ‘sticky’.

We would love to hear how you get on using this activity. Do you have any teaching tips or photographs to share? Get in touch at ciec@york.ac.uk

 

 

The BEST way to assess children's scientific understanding

Children may be familiar with the water cycle, but do they really understand some of the processes involved?

Our latest blog post is from Helen Harden who, thanks to funding from the Worshipful Company of Horners, has worked with other members of the CIEC team to develop the primary Best Evidence Science Teaching (BEST) diagnostic tools. These support teachers to assess children's understanding of important science concepts. Read on to find out more about one of the latest additions to this important bank of resources.

The water cycle is an important feature in the primary curriculum, but have you ever considered how the ways of thinking it develops are essential for future understanding of climate change and sustainability?

From observation of small-scale changes of state in the home or classroom, children must shift their thinking to the vastness of the oceans and clouds high above their heads. Instead of thinking about a single change of state, the children must understand a connected cycle that spans the whole surface of the Earth and the atmosphere above it. Some processes in the water cycle will be very familiar to children who have stood in the pouring rain or who have watched a rushing river.  However, the complete cycle includes a key process (evaporation) that is invisible. It is this way of thinking about a whole interconnected system, including both visible and invisible processes, that is a critical skill for future understanding of climate change and sustainability.

The Best Evidence Science Teaching  (BEST) 7-11 Water Cycle resources are free to download, and support children’s development of understanding about the more challenging aspects of the water cycle. The resources include diagnostic questions and prompts for discussion to identify misconceptions as well as ideas for investigations and other activities to help children develop a more mature understanding.

By laying a strong foundation of this core primary topic children will be better placed to develop their understanding of climate change and sustainability.

Examples of some of the activities included in this free to download resource.

BEST Primary Resources have been produced as a UYSEG project in collaboration with CIEC

Exploring STEM careers with Oak Academy resources

 We are proud to share a selection of ‘science careers’ lessons created by CIEC as part of the new primary science curriculum recently launched by Oak National Academy. 

The lessons are linked to the National Curriculum for primary science and encourage more children to feel that ‘science is for me.’ 

Children as young as Year 1 (5 and 6-year-olds) will learn about how some people use science every day as part of their job, and how science can be a job for everybody.

An extract from the Y1 unit on developing new materials

The lessons include opportunities for teachers to uncover and discuss any misconceptions children may have about who might work in a science related career. 

The Oak materials encourage children to discuss preconceptions about STEM careers.

They also encourage young children to consider a range of careers in science- related industries, as they begin to think about future aspirations with information such as... 

“If you like asking questions and finding out about the world around you, then you might like to have a career in science.”

For more information about these lessons, please get in touch with CIEC or visit The Oak National Academy primary science page to access the free primary units.

Young People's Book Prize activity sheets

 

 

Congratulations to Maggie Alderin Pocock who has recently been crowned the winner of the 2023 Young People’s Book Prize with her book of frequently asked questions about space ‘Am I made of stardust?’.

Did you know that CIEC writes resources every year to maximise the learning that is possible from all six of the shortlisted titles? There are separate pupil and teacher activity sheets. Between them, they have sections on relevant careers, on maths links and the profile of a relevant scientist, as well as several engaging science activities which will help teachers to make effective links with the science curriculum and the content of the books.  All of the investigations can be done as standalone activities or carried out as an in-depth sequence to develop pupil’s disciplinary and substantive knowledge. The sheets also contain information about how schools can apply for a Royal Society Partnership Grant of up to £3,000.

 Whether or not your school has been involved in the judging and whether or not you have access to the books in question, you will find that these free resources can have a positive impact on STEM learning in your class, so why don’t you take a look and let us know what you think?

We will send a copy of one of the books that has been shortlisted in the past five years to the first three schools to be in touch at ciec@york.ac.uk with information (and ideally pictures) of how they used the CIEC activitysheets in their schools. Additionally, the first 10 schools to get in touch will receive a hard copy of a full set of this year’s activity sheets.

Working Scientifically in the Primary Classroom: Progression of enquiry skills from EYFS to KS3

This document is FREE to download from the CIEC website

Just as important as teaching the substantive aspects of the curriculum is teaching the disciplinary aspects as children learn to think and act like scientists. Teachers tell us that they find it much harder to plan for progression and to assess children in this area and this is where our free resource ‘Working scientifically in the primary classroom: Progression of enquiry skills from EYFS to KS3’ comes in.

 

Skills can be tracked from one key stage to the next from EYFS to KS3

Skills can be tracked from one key stage to the next.  For example, ‘Make links and notice patterns in their experience’ (Characteristics of Effective Learning in EYFS) is tracked to ‘With guidance, they should begin to notice patterns and relationships’ (KS1 science program of study) and ‘Begin to look for naturally occurring patterns and relationships and decide what data to collect to identify them’ (Lower KS2 science programme of study). This enables teachers and subject leads to systematically track the skills throughout the primary age range and beyond.

I can statements for EYFS

Additionally, there is a poster for each key stage (EYFS, KS1, Lower KS2 and Upper KS2) with ‘I Can’ statements which can be shared with the child, enabling them to be fully involved in their own assessment and progression. 

I can statements for Upper Key Stage 2 

The clear layout of this document supports teachers to plan lessons which enable children to show progress in their learning and add challenge for those children who are ready for it.  It also gives a framework that facilitates accurate assessment and empowers children to peer and self-assess working scientifically skills.

This booklet can be downloaded for free from the CIEC website.  Alternatively, if you would like to buy a hard copy they can be purchased from our online store for £3.20 (including P&P) for a single copy or £26.45 (including P&P) for a class set of 30.

Working with families

 

Stereotypes of 'mad scientists' negatively impact on the science capital of children and their families

In recent years teachers have become increasingly aware of the importance of developing children’s science capital by helping them to understand that science is relevant to their current and future lives and that scientists are ‘people like me’ rather than science being the preserve of a select few that fit prevailing stereotypes.  

Children from 3 to 93 will be able to join in with this activity which invites you to work out the best mixture for making bubbles.

At CIEC we believe that we not only need to think about the science capital of the children that we work with but also that of everyone around them. A particularly important influence on children is the family that they live with, so anything that we can do to raise the awareness and aspirations of family members is likely to have a positive impact on children.

In this exciting activity starch is extracted from potato peel to make ‘ooblek’; whatever your age we guarantee that you will learn something new!

One way to do this is to use our IndusTRY AT HOME activities. They are designed for use with families and are easily resourced at home.  They are interactive and engaging and link aspects of the primary science curriculum with real life contexts.

For this activity families are invited to compare different washing products as they learn that product development is an important role for some scientists

There are 18 different IndusTRY AT HOME sheets with a range of activities to suit the whole age range from nursery to Y6.  Teachers have told us that they find them more creative than traditional homework without impacting on their workload. Children have told us that they like collaborating with other family members and find the activities enjoyable. Parents report that they are easier to manage at home than activities that children do not want to do. All of the IndusTRY AT HOME activities are free to download from the CIEC website.

Making Ripples

 

Making Ripples is free to download from the IndusTRY AT HOME page of the CIEC website.

We have recently been adding to our popular IndusTRY AT HOME resources.  Thanks to funding from the Royal Society of Chemistry five new resources will have ideas for activities that can be done with children as young as three, but which can be enjoyed by the whole family including older children.  Indeed, given that they are accessible to such a wide age range you may be surprised by how engaging (and thought provoking) adults find the activities too!

Adults as well as children are likely to fascinated by this simple activity.

For example, the activity ‘Making Ripples’ invites families to take advantage of a bright sunny day to explore the way that ripples move on a tray of water as objects are dropped in, or the surface of the water is touched.  As with other IndusTRY AT HOME activities this activity is easily and cheaply resourced with items from around the home.

An extract from the IndusTRY AT HOME resource ‘Making Ripples’

There is also support for raising Science Capital by making links between the science in the activities and real science careers.  For example, after exploring the ways that water moves while making ripples, children learn that people who design and make boats need to know about this to help them to design boats that can move safely through rough seas.

We would love to hear how you get on if you use this resource either at home or in school.