Practical IT session

Monday 24th September

Nicky Waller and Tanya Shields ran an IT session this morning.

Today the primary teachers had a go at the kinds of ICT we use in primary schools in the UK, from data-loggers and electronic microscopes to blogs and educational websites. This session was held at the National Science Learning Centre.

Two of the challenges for the group included finding the perfect material for an eye mask and deciding which materials kept a baby's bottle warm.

Setting Science in Context

Gayle Pook and Joy Parvin ran a primary practical session on Day 5 of the Nanjing visit.

The session on Friday 21st September about teaching science within a context that children understand proved very popular.

There were several animated discussions to consider some 'real life' contexts that pupils would be familiar with in which to set science investigations.Firstly packaging was considered as a starting point. The visitors produced beautiful mind maps which showed all the strands that children could investigate - the environmental footprint of waste packaging was a prominent strand.

Gayle set a challenge involving foam production! After looking at CIEC's new web resource Science of Healthy Skin the visitors were provided with basic equipment and asked to measure the foam they produced. Great fun was had and the conclusion was that shaking detergent and water produced much better foam than whisking!

Visitors from Nanjing make a local primary school visit

Gayle Pook reports on Day 4 of the Southeast University, Nanjing, visit:

Our Chinese teachers from Nanjing visited Wilberfoss Primary and Woodthorpe Primary schools in York this morning. In Wilberfoss they had the opportunity to observe Year 2 pupils in a literacy lesson, Year 4 children carrying out research in the ICT suit and then later solving maths problems, and science in year 6 focused on the Earth and Space.  There was also time for a tour of the foundation stage classroom where the children had been making cakes and our visitors were also enthralled by the assembly which focused on Christian values.

Teachers from Southeast University, Nanjing visit York

Primary teachers from Nanjing district, China, attended two primary sessions this morning where they participated in some typical CIEC primary science activites.
Some of the topics included testing paper towels for 'mopping up' properties, counting seeds in various fruits and seeing how quickly a block of ice melts.

More unusual activities included becoming a human bar chart and  a human line graph!

The Science of Healthy Skin - NEW RESOURCE

http://www.scienceofhealthyskin.org.uk/

The Science of Healthy Skin resource is now available through the CIEC Promoting Science web site and as an Activity Book.

The website and hard copy resource have been specially designed to teach 9-11 year olds about a range of products which help clean and protect our skin. Through online and classroom activities, children have the opportunity to develop and implement creative ideas and innovative solutions to scientific and industrial problems. It is based on the work of real companies, in which innovation in science is crucial.

The web pages are for teachers to use directly with their classes, alongside an exciting range of investigations and other practical science activities, which are available as downloadable materials at the start of each section or as an Activity Book available by contacting ciec@york.ac.uk.

Why not look at the web activities now? Click on the link below:

http://www.scienceofhealthyskin.org.uk/

Primary Science Conference

A very successful day was had at the NSLC/ASE Primary Science Conference.

The sun shone and everyone was in a happy mood.  A total of 115 teachers, advisors and people interested in primary science attended.

A roaring trade was done at our stand where our publications are being offered at £1 per copy.    

Sue Andrews ran two workshops linked to the publication ‘Is There Anyone Out There?’, funded by the UK Space Agency and developed by ESERO-UK www.esero.org.uk and CIEC Promoting Science.

A quote from Sue  “The workshops were very well received. I worked myself to the bone ensuring that all went smoothly!”

Industry Ambassadors to support science in the classroom.

Ambassadors from Lucite and FUJI met with the science department  at Northfield School Billingham to begin the development process for a STEM project to take place in school this summer.  The new ambassadors will join Johnson Matthey employees who introduced this initiative at St Michael’s last year.

To extend Children Challenging Industry into secondary schools, CIEC Promoting Science provide support and training for this programme where volunteers from local industry take part in practical science lessons to enhance the context of the lessons and show pupils how science is applied in manufacturing and research.

John Burgess, head of science at Northfield, thanked the ambassadors who attended and said ‘Last night was an excellent start to the process and we look forward to taking the next steps.’

CIEC are looking forward to delivery of this project in the classroom as it more than doubles the number of ambassadors that were involved in last year’s very successful pilot.