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.

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

Water for Industry: Leaky pipes

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

I have always been a massive fan of teaching outdoors; children are more engaged and motivated and, in my experience, behaviour is much better.  The noise is less intense when not trapped by four walls and, much to the caretaker’s joy, any mess is in the playground instead of on the carpet.  In the current pandemic there is the added benefit of less risk of transmission of Covid-19.  The first half of the autumn term is a particularly good time to use your outdoor space as the weather tends to be at its best; no need for sunscreen or too many outer layers either.

Top tip: Make sure that families know that you will be regularly teaching outdoors and ask them to provide suitable warm clothing.  It may be worth having a supply of spare jumpers and coats (ask for donations of outgrown ones) so that one or two cold children don’t scupper the lesson for everyone.

Although today’s activity can be carried out indoors, it also works very well outside as the equipment is sturdy enough not to be blown away if it is windy.  Moreover, instead of mopping up any spills you can just leave them to evaporate.  This activity is cheap to resource and uses empty food cans which you could ask children to bring from home, although you will need to double check that there are no sharp edges and that the cans have been thoroughly cleaned.  If they have not been adequately sanitised they will also need quarantining for 72 hours.

Full details of the activity, including list of equipment and safety advice can be found in our free resource Water for Industry

The children are asked to test different potential sealants to see which is the best for connecting pipes and preventing leaks.  This is an engaging way for children to work on the Y5 objective ‘give reasons, based on evidence, for the particular use of everyday materials’.  Equally it could be adapted for use with Y2 children who need to ‘identify the suitability of a variety of everyday materials for particular uses’. The activity also gives children the opportunity to practice accurate measuring and making graphs.  Asking them to report their findings to a pipe-line company provides extra motivation and would be a novel way for children to record their findings.

Our Leaky Pipes IndusTRY AT HOME activity is ideal for you to share with families. Why don’t you put a link on your school website?

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.

Sustainable Stories: Which Plastic?

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

Although the materials for this investigation are free and readily available, they can be a little tricky to source.  However, it is well worth taking the trouble to do this as, once you have, everything else is very straightforward.  When I have done this activity I have found that there is a real buzz in the classroom.  Moreover, you could easily provide enough equipment for a whole classroom full of socially distanced youngsters to do the activity at the same time.

The tricky bit

You will need samples of some different types of plastic. 

Sample 1: The thin clear plastic that often comes around packs of Christmas cards and in some other packaging
 Sample 2: Foam plastic (expanded polystyrene, PS) used as for takeway foods such as burgers and chips

Sample 3: Polystyrene, as used for the lids of takeaway coffee cups. The name of this plastic surprises the children, as ‘expanded’ polystyrene is commonly referred to as polystyrene, but for scientists, there are two types, and this one is un-expanded!

Sample 4: The plastic used for milk bottles (polythene, HDPE)

Each child will need a strip of each plastic cut to approximately 8 x 1 cm.  They will also need a bowl, jug or tub of water large enough to put their hand into and some table salt.

Top Tip 

This is one activity that you really must try out for yourself before letting your class lose with it.  Manufacturers sometimes change the formulation of their plastics and so they don’t always behave as you expect them to!

The fun bit

Children test each sample to see if it floats in water or in salt solution (brine) and how it reacts to being folded.  The results of their tests will let them identify what each sample of plastic is made of.  For example, PVC and polystyrene will both sink in plain water; but if salt is added the polystyrene will begin to float.

This is an important thing to be able to do as different plastics are recycled in different ways so we need to be able to identify them.  At this stage I have found that providing children with a simple table helps them to organise their data as they carry out the tests.  

Full instructions, including safety notes, for how to do the activity are provided in this free to download resource.

This activity builds on the work that children have done on materials in KS1. It helps them to develop their skills of working scientifically by sorting in a more sophisticated way.  There is a simple sorting key on activity sheet 5 of the resource which will support children develop their understanding of how keys work, as they use it to classify their plastic samples.

As children start to think about the reasons that we might need to be able to classify materials more precisely they can begin to consider why and how this science might be used in industry.  A class discussion will help them to understand that being able to use post-consumer waste makes processes more economically viable as well as more environmentally friendly.  These sorts of links help to raise children’s science capital as they see how the science that they do in school has real life applications and is relevant to their lives both now and in the future.

To coincide with InternationalWomen in Engineering day we have published a new IndusTRY AT HOME activity for you share with families.  Why don’t you put a link on your school website?

For a broader set of activities linked to this topic, please go to http://www.ciec.org.uk/resources/plastics-playtime.html which expands the topic to look at the heat insulation and shock absorption properties of plastics – and children design and test packaging to protect parcels of fragile crisps, which they post back to themselves in school – the ultimate test of their designs!

Sustainable Stories: Which washing powder?

This month’s blog is brought to you by Clare Docking, one of our advisory teachers who works with industry and schools in the East of England.

I love sharing this activity with our partner schools. children really enjoy getting stuck into cleaning the stains off fabrics using different washing products whilst at the same time improving their investigation skills.  The activity lends itself to being run with a small number of children in a mixed aged classroom – something that is a reality for many teachers at the moment.  Children can also work outdoors if the weather is fine.

Getting Ready

As the free resource explains, the only kit you will need is readily available household equipment.  Asking children to bring small samples of different washing powder, liquid or gels from home will give you a selection to compare without any unnecessary shopping trips.  You could also include the children in the preparation by working with them to produce the stained fabric ready to test.

Full details of the activity can be found in our free publication and incudes teachers’ notes, children’s activity sheets and national curriculum links.

Planning the investigation

I have found that the interactive planning tool  is a great way for children to organise their thoughts as they plan how they are going to carry out their investigation.  If children haven’t used one before, work with them to show them how they can use it to record all of the possible variables and to decide what they are going to measure and what they are going to keep the same.  They may find this easier to do if they have the opportunity to ‘have a play’ with the materials first and therefore begin to formulate their ideas about which product they think might be the most effective.  They can then decide how they can prove that their hypothesis is right!  With this in mind, make sure that you have plenty of spare stained cloths and washing product so that you still have enough left when you begin the main investigation.

Instead of using the interactive planning tool you may choose to use the post-it planning template which is provided with the resource.  This will be particularly useful if you are working outdoors.

Sharing results

In my experience children can be just as engaged when it comes to sharing their results as they are when carrying out the main activity.  Two approaches that I have seen used effectively are asking children to write to the manufacturer to advise them of their findings and writing an advertisement extolling the virtues of the most effective product.  I find that children love using phrases such as ‘Scientists found that XXX was more effective at xxx than the brand leader’ knowing that they are the scientists that carried out the test!

Perhaps children could shoot a TV commercial to explain to consumers why they think that they should buy a particular product?

I usually round off the session with our PowerPoint presentation showing the children how the scientists at one company have been able to produce a more environmentally friendly washing product. It protects fabrics from damage and prevents colours from fading during washing.  This will help children to understand that science can help us to tackle environmental problems and that science could be a worthwhile career choice for themselves in the future.

Visit  our IndusTRY AT HOME page to find a version of this activity that can be shared directly with families

Sustainable materials: which metal?

Full details of the activity can be found in the new CIEC publication 'Sustainable Stories and Solutions for our Planet' which can be downloaded from  http://www.ciec.org.uk/resources/sustainability.html

Sustainable materials – which metal?

In this activity you will investigate how some metals rust when exposed to oxygen in the air and water. You will learn about some metals that do not change, corrode or rust easily and so have special uses, particularly in reducing gas emissions on highly polluted roads.

It would be a wonderful way to teach the ‘Properties and changes of materials’ strand of the science curriculum for Year 5, with a particular focus on how some changes result in the formation of new materials that is not usually reversible.

The Activity: 

·         Carry out a ‘rust hunt’ to observe how some metals change colour and become weaker (corrode) when they react to substances in the environment.

 ·         Investigate which metals rust by placing everyday metal objects in saucers of shallow water. Over several days, observe which objects start to show signs of rust and which do not. Steel wool pads can be used to test for signs of rusting.

·         Begin to form conclusions about which metals rust and what causes this to happen. You could use a magnet to identify metal items that contain iron or steel.

·         Think of your own ‘rusting’ enquiry questions, such as: can iron or steel rust when there is no water? Does salt speed up rusting? Can I prevent rusting? Plan and carry out your investigation; you can ask for extra ‘kit’ if you need it.

Results from rusting activity using a steel wool pad left for two days in different liquids.

·         Research how some metals, such as gold, silver, platinum and palladium, are unique because they do not react easily, change or corrode. These ‘precious metals’ are often used to make jewellery as well as catalysts which are fitted to car exhaust systems to turn harmful gases produced in the engine into safe gases. 

Links to the National Curriculum

Y5 Properties and changes of materials:

• explain that some changes result in the formation of new materials, and that this kind of change is not usually reversible, including changes associated with burning and the action of acid on bicarbonate of soda.

Working scientifically:

• planning different types of scientific enquiries to answer questions, including recognising and controlling variables where necessary
• recording data and results of increasing complexity using scientific diagrams and labels, classification keys, tables, scatter graphs, bar and line graphs 
• reporting and presenting findings from enquiries, including conclusions, causal relationships and explanations of and degree of trust in results, in oral and written forms such as displays and other presentations  

CIEC Role Badges - Promoting Teamwork and Roles from the World of Work

Introducing Role Badges

This week we are featuring our very popular resource - Role Badges. These can be used in any science lesson, and as an advisory teacher for our Children Challenging Industry (CCI) programme, I’d like to share with you my own experience of using them in schools.

While carrying out a CCI science activity, children are given the opportunity to work in small ‘companies’. Each child chooses a role within the group, for example,  Health and Safety Manager or Resources Manager. The children wear a lanyard with a badge showing their role within their ‘company’.

There are five role badges - Health and Safety Manager, Communications Officer, Resources Manager, Administration Officer, and Personnel Manager

The Role Badges provide an excellent opportunity for the children to focus on working cooperatively as a team, whilst highlighting real jobs from the world of industry. The roles can be swapped each lesson so that the children can experience different tasks. Pupils enthusiastically enter into these roles and the badges add an extra buzz of excitement to the lesson!

Children at a school in the North East of England

So How Do The Badges Work In Practice?

Each badge carries a set of responsibilities which are outlined in the resource information. Once the badges are explained the children very eagerly assume their roles.

We strongly encourage teachers to carry out science in groups of four, and provide the fifth role badge purely for classes where the occasional group of five is required. Otherwise, the responsibilities of the Administration Officer are merged with those of the Communication Officer.

The Personnel Manager is responsible for eliminating any disputes within the group and ensuring the team works cooperatively.  Great for developing teamwork skills.

A particularly popular badge is that of Resources Manager. The pupil who is assigned this role is solely in charge of collecting and returning all the resources needed.   This promotes independent working as the children select their own resources.

The Communications Officer elicits the group’s ideas and responses and reports back to the rest of the class whilst the Administration Officer is responsible for keeping pictorial or written records during the activity, e.g. predictions, tables of results, lists of resources, diagrams, conclusions or evaluations for the group.

Lastly, we must not forget to mention the all-important Health and Safety Manager who is responsible for overseeing the safety of the group and assessing any risk involved in practical activities. The pupils are interested to hear that in every UK company today, the Health and Safety Officer is a vital role! Another great topic for discussion.

The badges reflect the CCI programme’s emphasis on careers in industry and prompt the children to begin considering work roles before they encounter ambassadors from industry, or if they are lucky, meet adults on visits to the workplace - as we are able to offer through CCI.

A CCI ambassador, Stephanie Udeogu from Johnson Matthey, talks to a group of children about her role in industry.

An Excellent Tool for Classroom Organisation and Confidence Building and Teamwork

The Role Badges aid classroom organisation by ensuring classroom areas don’t become overcrowded as only a few children need to move around to get the resources they need.  There are nominated people in each group to feedback and record, which ensures a smooth lesson.  

Children can sometimes initially lack confidence when assuming a role but often rise to the challenge and discover that they can do something new.   Prompting each other about their roles enables heightened interaction and promotes good teamwork. Children develop social skills when working in their roles in all sorts of unexpected ways, for example, learning to be less ‘bossy’ or more encouraging,  learning to support others in their roles if they need it, sharing and making decisions. They enjoy the feeling of being given an adult role and feel empowered by it. The badges foster independent work and develop organisational skills.

As one expert testifies: "I have been using the CCI role badges for many years and they are a brilliant way to organise practical science lessons. The children often remind each other of when it is their turn to respond or collect equipment or record some important information. The personnel manager is a fantastic way to ensure teamwork such as turn-taking, sharing and working together." Nicola Waller, CCI Advisory Teacher.

Full details of the role badges are available in the CIEC Primary Resources section which can be downloaded from www.ciec.org.uk/resources/role-badges.html http://www.ciec.org.uk/resources/role-badges.html

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