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.

Career Cards

This post is written by one of CIEC's advisory teachers, Jane Winter

 Primary teachers are increasingly aware of the importance of raising children's science capital.  High science capital means that ALL children realise that they too could have a career in STEM if they chose, rather than dismissing the possibility at an early age as "not something done by people like me".

At CIEC we believe that one of the best possible ways to do this is to give primary school children the opportunity to meet real STEM professionals and learn how the science that they do in school links to the science that happens in industry.  However, this isn't always possible and this is where our free to download resource Career Cards come in.  Each set of cards in the pack feature one of four STEM professionals who works with one of our partner companies Johnson Matthey.  One card contains their photograph, another their job title and another a job description.  The complete set for one person also has information about their hobbies and which subjects they enjoyed at primary school.

Career cards spark discussions which help to break down stereotypes about who can be a STEM professional

Upper KS2 children have responded well to using these cards and their teachers have told us that they lead to discussions which help them to realise that anyone can aspire to be a scientist or engineer and that there are a variety of routes into STEM professions.

The cards can be downloaded from our website.  However, if you don't fancy all that cutting out, a class set of 7 packs of cards can be purchased from our online shop at a heavily subsidised cost of £8.15.  If you use them in your own classroom we would love to hear how you get on.

Thank you to Johnson Matthey for funding the creation of these cards and for continuing to subsidise their cost to schools

An Eggciting Easter Challenge

Today's blog post is brought to you by Mackayla Miller, one of our advisory teachers based in the North East.

Happy Easter folks! Here at CIEC, it’s no yolk that we’re egg-stremely eggs-cited about inspiring the next generation of scientists and engineers, but we’re also partial to a few terrible egg puns at this time of year.

Mackayla has been working with the year 6 children at Levendale Primary School to deliver our egg-cellent Children Challenging Industry (CCI) programme. The ‘Eggs-press Delivery Challenge’ was a tough challenge indeed, but this egg-ceptional group of pupils were willing to whisk it all and refused to be beaten. Working in teams with a budget to spend, the groups hatched their plans, packaged their eggs, shelled out for their materials, and are now eagerly awaiting the arrival of their packages in the post to see to see whose eggs survived the journey.

John Baker and Paul Bickley from Teeside plastics manufacturing company Alpek Polyester UK Ltd, joined the classroom sessions via Zoom to give the children an insight into their jobs and engage them in a remote site visit, including an exciting interactive bottle-drop investigation. But it’s not just the children who benefit from the Children Challenging Industry experience. Here’s what John Baker, HSEQ and Technology Director has to say about getting involved:

“I’ve been involved with CCI for nearly 10 years now and every session, whether face to face or more recently using video conference, is great. The engagement from the children in the classroom is fantastic, with them often asking challenging and thoughtful questions. As well as trying to get across what we do in industry and the rewarding careers from STEM subjects, it is an opportunity to speak directly to teachers about what can be quite limited in the curriculum on science and engineering. In some sessions, explaining what we in industry think is obvious can, when seen through different eyes, put a whole new perspective on things, so it is not just a one-way street. The practical sessions show the children the scale of our operations and seeing their sense of wonder reminds me of my primary school teacher who inspired me into my career (he was a nuclear physicist!). I would recommend anyone in STEM careers getting involved as it is a rewarding session.”

If you would like help to get cracking with your STEM education why don't you contact ciec@york.ac.uk to see if you could become involved in any of our initiatives to link schools with science based industries.  Alternatively, you could try this activity with your class as full teacher notes are available for free from our website.

Full activity notes are available in this free CIEC resource including teacher guidance and safety advice

Kitchen Concoctions: The Best Bubbles

Children from Ysgol-y-Lys primary school in Wales gather to see which group of young scientists has developed the best bubble mixture

The first time I came across this activity I was still teaching full time and was attending a course run by my now colleague, Nicky Waller.  I am not going to lie to you, I had much more fun than a middle aged lady should be having with some washing up liquid and a bubble wand!  We had been challenged to investigate the proportions of three ingredients (washing up liquid, glycerine and water) to develop an economical bubble mixture that would make the ‘best’ bubbles, and I was determined that my team would ‘win’.

Top Tips: If you ask people to find a mixture that produces the ‘best’ bubbles without giving any more guidance, it is likely to lead to some interesting discussion.  After a while they will realise that they need to think about what is meant by best; it could be the size or the quantity of the bubbles or how long they last for example.

Deciding how they are going to measure bubble size is yet another challenge – my favourite that I have seen children chose over the years being … popping the bubbles on sugar paper, which leaves a lovely measurable ring!

I have delivered the session myself many times in the intervening years both as a primary teacher and in my current role.  I have run it with various groups including groups of teachers, parents and with children from nursery through to year 6, including in mixed age groups.It never fails; participants are always fully engaged and, if approached carefully, there is a high degree of relevant discussion and science learning.

Full details of the activity, including teacher notes, risk assessments and activity sheets can be found in our free resource Kitchen Concoctions

Because it can be done in mixed age groups, works well outside and is cheap enough to provide enough resources for each child to have their own equipment this activity could easily be adapted for socially distanced circumstances.  However, it does need to be approached thoughtfully if it is to move beyond being  more than ‘a fun thing to do’.  Having said that, it is also important not to move children too quickly to formally measuring and recording their recipes as they benefit from an initial period of play, exploration and discussion before formulating their method.

The challenge of devising an economic yet effective bubble mixture for a ‘toy manufacturer’ is an engaging start to this activity.  The poster is provided as part of the free online resource.

Top Tip: Do give children small containers to work with as this forces them to produce smaller quantities of bubble mixture.  I know from bitter experience that larger containers will lead to them using industrial quantities of washing up liquid!

After the initial exploratory phase, children work together to work out the ratio of ingredients that produces the ‘best’ bubbles, while keeping the costs of ingredients as low as possible (there are lots of opportunities for the application of maths at this point).  It can be tempting to organise children to work efficiently, and difficult to give children space to make their own mistakes and ‘muddle along’; for a conscientious teacher this can feel as if you are not doing your job properly.  I find that making a few explicit notes on my planning helps me to feel better about this ‘hands off’ approach.

For teachers brave enough to take this approach and then allow time afterwards for a discussion to evaluate how they worked the learning opportunities are immense, especially if there is time for children to repeat the activity.  At this stage I used to add an extra level of challenge by providing more than one brand of washing up liquid (preferably in different colours; not all washing up liquids are green).

Developing an effective product and reporting the results is engaging for participants of all ages, and helps them to understand the diversity of science related careers.  This helps to raise children's  science capital.

Children will need to find ways to present their findings to the toy manufacturer that set the challenge and this will inevitably lead to further discussion and the opportunity to use their literacy skills, and maths too if they decide to use a table and include costings.  I find that enthusiasm is maintained throughout in a way that doesn’t always happen with many other ways of recording science as children have a real reason to share their results.  If your children send their report to ciec@york.ac.uk they will be delighted to receive a reply from the ‘toy company’ that set the challenge.

This is a great activity to share with families so why not provide a link to our IndusTRY AT HOME page on your school website?

This post is by Jane Winter, one of our advisory teachers who works in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.

Science of Healthy Skin: Investigating what happens when oil is added to water

Full details of the activity can be found in the CIEC resource 'Science of Healthy Skin’ which can be downloaded from: http://www.ciec.org.uk/resources/science-of-healthy-skin.html

Based upon the extraction of lanolin from wool grease, the activities in this resource include testing immiscible liquids using oil and water and investigating the effects of adding detergent to produce emulsions which in turn reduce the efficiency of the separation of oil from water.

The Activity: Fleece to Grease

Resources 

• 300 ml water
• 300 ml sunflower oil
• 50 ml clear water - sample A
• 50ml clear glycerine - sample B
• 50 ml clear detergent - sample C
• 50 ml white vinegar - sample D
• 4 clear plastic mini pop bottles or lidded containers around 30ml per group of 4 children
• Pipette x 1 for each child
• Teaspoon or similar for stirring
• 100 ml measuring cylinder 

Objectives

• To describe changes that occur when materials are mixed
• To make systematic observations and measurements
• To know that that some liquids do not mix, can be separated easily and are termed ‘immiscible’
• To observe that detergent can cause immiscible liquids to mix, producing an emulsion

What happens when oil is added to water?

Each child in the team of 4 to pour 10ml of water and 10ml of oil into one of the containers.

Ask them to wait for 1 minute to see what happens to the oil and water.

Tip the containers upside down four times and ask the children .....

• Did the oil and water mix?
• Did shaking make the liquids mix?
• Why do you think this happened?

The oil and mixture quickly separate when they are on their own.  But will adding any of the other ingredients make a difference?

Investigate whether adding sample A, B, C or D affects the separation of water and oil.

Using the pipette, add 10 drops of sample A to one of the bottles, 10 drops of sample, B to another bottle and 10 drops of samples C and D to the other two bottles.

Ask children to observe how long it takes for the oil and water to separate after 4 shakes.

Ask them to consider how they will record their observations.

Health and Safety

Remind the children not to drink their samples.

Links to the National Curriculum for Science:

Working Scientifically

Learning Objectives

• planning different types of scientific enquiries to answer questions, including recognising and controlling variables where necessary
• Taking measurements, using a range of scientific equipment, with increasing accuracy and precision, taking repeat readings when appropriate
• Use observations, measurements or other data to draw conclusions

Subject Knowledge

Learning Objectives

• Know that changes occur when materials are mixed and some of these are reversible

Is Anyone Out There: Investigating craters

Full details of the activities can be found in the CIEC resource 'Is There Anyone Out There?' which can be downloaded from http://www.ciec.org.uk/resources/is-there-anyone-out-there.html

The activities in this free resource, written in conjunction with the UK Space Education Agency and ESERO UK, look at the ways that scientists carry out investigations, using data such as photographs and other images, to find out about Mars and other places that are too far away for humans to visit.  Activities include looking for signs of life, comparing samples of Martian soil with soil from earth and finding out about volcanos and lava.  The activity described here invites children to investigate the effect of meteor size, mass and the height from which the meteors have fallen on the resulting craters.

The Activity: Investigating Craters

Resources

• Challenge cards from activity sheet 8 (see image below)
• Tray half filled with sand
•  A variety of ‘meteorites’ (eg. marbles, rubber balls, stones)
• Tube for safely directing/dropping/rolling ‘meteorites’
•  Measuring device (see online resource for instructions to make one of these)
•  Ruler·        
• Meter stick

Instructions

• Children start by investigating the effect of dropping various masses into a tray of sand.  They then discuss which variables effect the size, shape and depth of the resulting craters.

Different groups of children are given one of the challenge cards and invited to design a fair test in response to the challenge posed.

• Groups of children then plan and carry out different investigations depending upon the challenge card that they have been given.·         
• After they have completed the investigation and collated their results children are invited to compare the craters that they have made with photographs of craters on Mars, to comment upon whether or not they are similar in appearance and to discuss how useful they are as a model to find out more about real craters

This table shows the depth of crater produced when dropping meteorites of identical volume but increasing mass.

• They are also asked to think about whether their tests were fair, their results reliable and whether there are any improvements that they could make to their investigations.
• Because this activity provides lots of scope for taking measurements and making tables it could usefully take place in a relevant maths lesson. The ensuing discussion could then take place in a subsequent science lesson.

Tip

• To make meteorites which are the same size but different masses try wrapping objects of different mass in plasticine    

Health and Safety

• To increase the height dropped put the tray on the floor rather than standing on a raised surface.
• Dropping the meteorite through a tube can help to ensure that it lands safely in the tray.

• Links to the National Curriculum for Science:

Working Scientifically:

• Take measurements, using a range of scientific equipment with increasing accuracy and precision, taking repeat readings when appropriate.
• Report and present findings from enquiries, including conclusions, causal relationships and explanations of and degree of trust in results.