News from CIEC: June 2023

Friday, June 9, 2023

Working with families

An image of a 'mad scientist'. White, middle aged, lab coat, untidy hair and a crazed look in his eyes.

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.

An industry at home activity sheet. Most of the text is too small to read.The title says 'Best Bubbles'.

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.

An Industry at home activity sheet. Most of the text is too small to read. The title is 'Runny Fun'. A subheading is 'Making Ooblek'

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.

An Industry at home activity sheet. Most of the text is too small to read. The heading is 'Washing Powder'

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.