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.

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

Potatoes to plastic: Cross curricular opportunities

In the third and final post in this series linked to CIEC's latest free resource Potatoes to plastic, Jane Winter explains how it can be used to make meaningful cross curricular links.

The OFSTED report, Maintaining Curiosity, confirmed what experienced teachers already knew, it can be beneficial to both subjects when meaningful cross curricular links are made. However, it is important to do this in a way that values both subjects rather than using one as little more than a vehicle for the other.  In English lessons the teacher should be concentrating on English learning objectives and in science upon science learning objectives. One of my pet hates is when schools, with the very best of intentions, insist that writing has to be as good in other subjects as it is in English. We don't need Vygotsky's zone of proximal development theory to tell us that children are able to do more with support than they are able to do independently. The level of writing in an English lesson is achieved because of skilled teacher support which is not available in a lesson where the teacher's energy is focused on other skills.  Having said that, I have seen great writing about science which has been done in a subsequent English lesson, the children's writing benefiting from an inspirational science experience.

It is important to give children the support that they might need with English during science lessons, but this should not be at the expense of good quality science teaching.

With the value of cross curricular approaches in mind Potatoes to plastic has suggestions for a series of lessons which can be used for English teaching.  They are designed so that the teacher concentrates upon the English learning objectives, and is not trying to juggle too many plates at once.  However, the content is likely to raise children's science capital as it is based upon the biographies of six of the scientists currently working in the award winning Green Chemistry department at the University of York.  Although the focus of the lesson is on reading and writing children learn about the range of exciting jobs that the scientists do, and also find out that scientists are 'normal' people, just like you or I with families and hobbies beyond science.

When reading about real scientists in an English lesson children learn that scientists are normal people with a range of activities and hobbies, from making lego models with their children to enjoying skiing.

The final section of this free publication concentrates upon the range of other solutions to the problem of waste that scientists have developed, from extracting citronella from orange peel to turning cocoa husks into paper bags.  There are a set of downloadable playing cards which can be used for a range of games including 'Memory pairs', 'Old Fossil' and 'Go Recycle' which highlight science solutions to environmental problems.  These could be used as an activity during a science or environmental day.  Alternatively, the link and game instructions could be shared with families so that the cards could be used at home.

The previous two blog posts in this series are still available.  You can find the one about extracting starch from potato peel here, and the one about making bio-plastic from potato peel here.  If you use any of the activities we would love to hear how you get on.  It is feedback from teachers like you that helps us to know what we are doing right and how we can get even better in the future!  

Full instructions for the English activities and the card games as well as how to turn potato peel into bio-plastic are included in this free to download publication

This is what one teacher had to say after using this resource with their class.

Our current topic is all about Endangered Species and a large part of this has been around the dangers of plastics in the oceans and different habitats; so this lesson in particular was a great experience for cross-curricular discussions, the content of which were deep and enriched. In addition to this, the vocabulary resources that accompanied the investigation were a fantastic tool to help deepen the children's understanding and allowed them to speak freely, scientifically and accurately about the processes they were undertaking. Both pupil and teacher thoroughly enjoyed the lesson.

 

Potatoes to plastic: turning potato starch into plastic

This is the second in a series of three posts about CIEC's latest free resource: Potatoes to plastic.

In the previous post I described how potato starch could be easily extracted from potato peel using simple equipment that is readily available in the primary classroom.  Here I will explain how the extracted starch can be used to make bio plastic in a few straightforward steps.  As this quote from a year 5 teacher shows, this activity is not only very engaging, but makes relevant links to the topic of Materials in the English and Northern Irish primary curricula, Earth's Materials in the Scottish curriculum and Myself and non-living things in the Welsh curriculum.

"They have absolutely loved this learning. Thank you for the opportunity to engage Year 5 in such an exciting and relevant project, which has reinforced their previous scientific learning of properties of materials (and has done so in a real-life context they will not forget!) as well as their scientific thinking. This project has led to many wonderful opportunities for cross-curricular links to reading, writing and maths too".

The procedure is even better if you are able to borrow a magnetic hotplate from a local secondary school or University, as can be seen in this demonstration.  However, even without access to this piece of scientific equipment the activity can still be carried out in a saucepan on a cooker hob.

To turn it into plastic, the potato starch need to be mixed with a small quantity of water, glycerin and white vinegar before it is heated.   The mixture is then spread out on a petri dish or saucer and left to harden.  After two or three days these simple ingredients will have set into bio-plastic.  The properties will vary depending upon the exact ratio of the ingredients and how thickly it was spread while drying.  The resource gives guidance as to how children could then investigate the properties of the finished plastic as they explore how it could be used in place of plastics derived from petrochemicals.

Children are invariably delighted with the finished bio-plastic

Experienced teachers will know that even the most engaging activity needs to be planned carefully if the potential learning is to take place. Consequently, the resource gives additional  guidance  including vocabulary prompt cards which support children to use the correct terminology as they describe what has happened.  This also supports them to link the experience to past science learning.

Children using the list of vocabulary to support them to talk about the activity in a more scientific way.

In the final post in this series I will explain how this resource can be used in English lessons and to develop children's understanding of how science is working to find solutions to other environmental problems.  

Full instructions including health and safety advice can be found in the free resource available from our website.

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

Potatoes to plastic: Extracting starch from potato peel

This is the first in a series of three posts which have been written by one of our advisory teachers, Jane Winter.  They are based upon our latest free resource: Potatoes to Plastic

Frequently, scientists are the bearer of bad news.  Every day we read about mounting evidence of climate change, loss of bio-diversity and the prevalence of micro-plastics in the ocean. However, did you know that as well as identifying environmental problems scientists are able to develop solutions to some of them?  The world leading Centre of Excellence in Green Chemistry where scientists work on finding new ways to overcome ecological issues is based at the University of York.

CIEC has been working with some of the scientists from Green Chemistry to develop our latest resource, Potatoes to Plastic which looks at how scientists have been able to develop useful products from a range of waste materials which might otherwise go to landfill.  As well as looking at several examples of this scientific approach to environmental problems, this free publication looks at one example, making bio-plastic from potato peel, in more depth.  Teachers are supported to carry out some straight forward activities with their class which link closely to the materials strand of the KS2 science program of study.  They extract starch from a waste product, potato peel, and then turn that starch into plastic.

Extracting starch from potato peel does not require a lot of expensive equipment. 

I have found the raw material for this activity easy to source.  Although not all chip shops peel their own potatoes, once you find one that does they will almost certainly be prepared to let you have the peel for free. Alternatively, you may find that your school dinner provider is able to give you some.  Another possibility is to use wrinkly old potatoes that have started to sprout and which might otherwise have been thrown away.

Blending the potato peel with water

First of all you will need to blend the peel and a generous quantity of water in a food processor or blender. Give each pair of children a small jug full of the mixture each.  They will need to filter the peel and water mixture by squeezing it through the foot of an old pair of tights or pop socks.  This will produce a white liquid which is a mixture of potato starch and water.  The rest of the solids are left behind and can be disposed of on a compost heap.

Pouring the blended potato peel and water into a pop sock.

After a few minutes the potato starch will start to settle at the bottom of the container.  Once this has happened the water can be poured carefully off to leave behind the wet starch.  At this point children will be amazed to find that they are left with 'oobleck' which is usually made by mixing cornstarch and water.  That is because the starch found in potatoes is exactly the same as starch found in corn.  Once children have finished playing with the oobleck it will need to be left in a shallow container such as a saucer or petri dish to dry.  After a few days all of the water will have evaporated and you will be left with dried potato starch.  

In the next post I will explain how you can turn the potato starch into plastic.  However, if you cannot wait why not check out the full instructions for both activities on the website.  This includes teachers' notes, children's activity sheets and health and safety advice.  This is what one teacher who recently carried out the activity with their class had to say about it.

'Absolutely fantastic! The children have never felt so alive, enthused and engaged in a science lesson that I have taught. They absolutely loved the practical element of blending the potatoes, filtering the starch and using interesting 'ingredients' to create the plastic. Their scientific skills were so clear and they were all extremely careful in measuring their resources and ensuring the investigation plan was carefully followed. The time taken for the excess water to evaporate and leave the powdered starch behind kept them even more engaged as they spoke about nothing for days until it was ready to use'.

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.

Medicine from microbes: Investigating mould

This month’s somewhat mouldy offering is written by Clare Docking who is one of our advisory teachers in the East of England.

Children always love the yuck factor and growing mould is no exception!  I have found that they are fascinated to watch how mould changes over time and keen to record what happens when given the opportunity to deliberately do something that we usually tell them to avoid.

In the news

I had been looking forward to highlighting that 2020 was Florence Nightingale’s 200^th birthday when doing this activity in school this year.  However, the pandemic put an end to me doing any work with children for the time being.  However, this is a great opportunity for you, if you are currently working in school, to involve children in an exciting science activity while making relevant cross-curricular links with history and English.  It also ties in well to the current situation as children will have been hearing a lot about microbes lately. This is also a chance to reinforce messages about hand washing as this gives children direct evidence of some of the microbes in our environment.  Furthermore, you can use this activity to allay children’s anxieties by encouraging discussion about science helping us to overcome many health issues over time (such as the discovery of antibiotics for example).  Let children know that scientists around the world are collaborating to find a vaccine and treatment for Covid-19.

The information here is for teachers working with children in the classroom.  There is also support for families trying the activity out at home in our free to download IndusTRY ATHOME activity sheet. We think the activity lends itself to being done at home or in a socially distanced classroom, as the resources needed are cheap and readily available so each child could have their own.

Let’s investigate!

Children love a challenge so start the investigation by reading the news report from a fictional bio-tech company (provided in the resource), and tell the children their help is needed to find out which conditions are the best for growing mould. Encourage them to draw on their own experiences when thinking about different conditions – why do they think food left in a cupboard or lunchbox for too long goes mouldy?  Where do we usually store food and why do they think this is? Is food kept warm or cold to preserve it? At this point listen to the children’s ideas and see if they suggest that moisture, temperature and light make a difference to growth. This is a good opportunity to bring in previous learning about growth of other living organisms such as plants which may prompt ideas. 

Did you know?

A microbe is any living thing too small to be seen with the naked eye.  This includes some fungi (which include the ones which cause mould), bacteria (some of which cause diseases) and viruses such as the one that causes covid-19.  However, not all microbes are harmful and many, such as the ones that live in our gut, are essential for our health.

I have not used this activity with younger children but Jane Winter, in the CIEC team, asked Kathryn Horan (@SciKathryn) about her experience of doing a similar activity with her EYFS class.  Apparently they were fascinated when they compared bread that they had touched without washing their hands and a fresh piece of bread.  They were able to make sensible predictions based upon their experience, saying such things as ‘I think that the dirty one will go black’.  We agreed that this would be an activity that would lend itself to being used with a mixed age group in the current situation.  

Kathryn Horan's (@SciKathryn) class were fascinated to watch what happened to a slice of bread that they touched without washing their hands first!

One of the things I particularly like about using our resource is that children are motivated to record their findings knowing that it is going to be used by a real bio tech company. A mixed age group could work together to produce different elements of a report which could include videos, letters, captioned photographs and graphs.  If they send their report to CIEC@york.ac.uk they will be delighted to get a reply from the company!

Top Tips

Here are some tips to make your investigation a success:

•  Spraying the bread with water will ensure that the moisture is evenly spread before it is sealed in the bag. 
•  Make sure the bread doesn’t contain preservatives or it may take much longer to get results. 
• Very occasionally, the children find they don’t get the expected results from an investigation, especially if working with living things. Use this as a learning point to do further investigations and tell the children that scientists sometimes experience this as well, however, discoveries are often made from things not turning out as expected.   

IMPORTANT Don’t reopen the bag once the investigation has started. This is because potentially harmful spores from the mould could be released into the air.  Once the experiment is complete, enclose the sealed bag in another sealed bag before disposing of it.

Full details of this activity can be found in our free resource and includes teachers’ notes, children’s activity sheets and national curriculum links.

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.

Oil for Beginners

Full details of the activities can be found in the CIEC resource 'Oil for Beginners' which can be downloaded from http://www.ciec.org.uk/pdfs/resources/oil-for-beginners.pdf

The activities in this resource tell a simple story of oil, beginning with its recovery from beneath the sea bed, to its uses. The activities ‘Hard or soft?’ and ‘Making Holes’ would provide a real-life context to teach the materials strand of the science curriculum for Year 1 and Year 2, with excellent links to design and technology.      

The Activity: Hard or soft?

• Children are asked to discuss the meanings of the words 'soft' and 'hard' and are then provided with a range of common materials, such as sponge, rubber, clay, soil, sand, cardboard, stone, cardboard etc to help extend their discussion further.

• Children are challenged to sort the objects into ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ categories and encouraged to suggest ‘tests’ that might help them with their classification, such as scratching each object with a finger nail.

• Confusion of categories will be addressed through further discussion and clarification. Young children often confuse properties such as ‘softness’ with ‘flexibility’ or ‘smoothness’.

• During the activity, there are plenty of opportunities to think and talk about things, such as: How will you sort things which are soft or hard? • Why are some things soft? • Why are some things hard? • What do we use soft things for? • What do we use hard things for?

• Children will consolidate their learning by exploring hard and soft materials in the classroom. They could sort items into P.E. hoops and learn to place items with both properties in the intersection of hoops.

The Activity: Making holes

• Children learn that underneath the soft sand of the sea bed there is hard rock. This hard rock must be drilled through in order to reach the oil.

This image shows a 'Derrickhand' handling the upper end of a series of connected pipes as it is hoisted out or lowered into the hole.

• Children will then use their knowledge about ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ properties to explore the effectiveness of a variety of tools (nail and hammer, scissors, junior drill, pencil, hole punch etc) to make holes in different materials.

• Children investigate making holes in each material provided, using their suggested methods. They should decide which methods children can be attempted safely, and which methods need adult supervision.

• Children can further their understanding of classification of objects and materials according to their properties by suggesting which tool is the 'best' for making holes in each material and why.

• During the activity, there are plenty of opportunities to talk and think about things, such as: • Which tool could make holes in the most materials? Why? • Which tool could make the least holes? Why? • Which tools were made from hard materials? • What do you think you would need to make holes in bricks or rocks?

Activity sheet 7 can be used as both prediction and recording sheet.

      

     Links to the National Curriculum for Science:
      

Y1: Everyday materials

• distinguish between an object and the material from which it is made

• describe the simple physical properties of a variety of everyday materials

        

Y2: Uses of everyday materials:

• identify and compare the suitability of a variety of everyday materials, including wood, metal, plastic, glass, brick, rock, paper and cardboard for particular uses

• find out how the shapes of solid objects made from some materials can be changed by squashing, bending, twisting and stretching

Working scientifically:

• ask simple questions

• observe closely, using simple equipment

• perform simple tests

• using their observations and ideas to suggest answers to questions

     

Links to the National Curriculum for Design and Technology:

Key Stage 1

Make

• select from and use a range of tools and equipment to perform practical tasks [for example, cutting, shaping, joining and finishing]

• select from and use a wide range of materials and components, including construction materials, textiles and ingredients, according to their characteristics