Progression

in Primary Science
Page Intentionally Left Blank
 Progression
in Primary Science
A Guide to the
Nature and Practice
of Science in Key Stages 1 and 2

SECOND EDITION

Martin Hollins and Virginia Whitby

with Liz Lander, Barbara Parson and Maggie Williams

I~ ~?io~;~;n~~~up
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published in Great Britain by David Fulton Publishers 1998, reprinted 1999
Second edition published 2001, reprinted 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005

This edition Published 2012 by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright © Martin Hollins, Virginia Whitby, Liz Lander, Barbara Parson and
Maggie Williams 2001

Note: The right of Martin Hollins, Virginia Whitby, Liz Lander, Barbara Parson
and Maggie Williams to be identified as the authors of this work has been
asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988.

British Libraty Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 1 85346 748 0

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a

retrieval system or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission
of the publishers.

Typeset by FiSH Books, London

Contents

Acknowledgements vii

Contributors ix

Introduction 1
Children's learning 1
Concepts and contexts 2
Science and literacy 3
Science and numeracy 4
Science and Information Communication Technology 4
Science in the National Curriculum 5

1 Scientific Enquiry 7
The process skills of science 8
Sex, drugs, disasters and the extinction of dinosaurs 9
Knowledge, understanding and skills in school science 11
How can children develop the skills of science? 12
Investigations in the classroom 14

2 Life Processes and Living Things 19

Introduction 19
The basic unit of life - the living cell 19
Life processes 23
The diversity of life - classification 37
Adaptation 43
Living things in their environment 54
The interdependence of living things 68
Human effects on the environment 72
Some health and safety issues 74
3 Materials and their Properties 75
Introduction 75
The structure of materials 76
vi Progression in Primary Science

Physical changes 81
Mixing and separating 85
Chemical changes 88
Mechanical properties 90
Origins, manufacture and uses 94

4 Physical Processes 99
Electricity 99
Forces and energy 112
Sound and light 131
Earth and space 144

5 Planning Primary Science 159

Planning 159
Long-, medium-term and lesson planning 160
Planning for differentiation 166
Planning science for the Foundation Stage 166
Organisation 168
Science in the whole curriculum 172

6 Assessing Primary Science 175

Assessment strategies 176
Assessment opportunities 177
Concept mapping 178
Recording systems 178
Profiles 180
Observing and assessing for the Foundation Stage 181
Developing scientific knowledge and understanding - self audit 182

Appendices 183
1 Bibliography and references 183
2 Resources 184
3 Equipment 185

Glossary 189

Index 195
Acknowledgements

We express our thanks to Lynne Bartholomew for her contribution to science in

the early years' sections of this book, and to Stephen Cook for his computer
expertise and hard labour in producing this book.

This book is dedicated to Philippa, Fiona, Melissa, Lawrence and Robin who
may become the scientists of the twenty-first century.
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Contributors

Lynne Bartholomew is a retired senior lecturer in education at University of

Surrey Roehampton and coordinator of Redford House Nursery, situated at
Froebel Institute College. She was previously deputy head of a nursery school
in Southall, West London, and is co-author with Tina Bruce of Getting to Know
You: a guide to record-keeping in early childhood education and care.

Martin Hollins is Principal Officer, Science, at the Qualifications and Curriculum

Authority, where his responsibilities include developing the national curriculum
and its assessment in science at the primary stage. He previously worked at
Roehampton Institute in initial teacher education and in professional develop-
ment. Martin used to edit Primary Science Review, the Association for Science
Education's primary journal, and directed the BBC's Primary Science Project.

Liz Lander is a senior lecturer in science education at University of Surrey

Roehampton, working on initial teacher education courses as well as INSET. Liz
has worked as an advisory teacher for Surrey Local Education Authority provid-
ing in-service courses for teachers, and also as a freelance consultant providing
in-service packages for schools.

Barbara Parson is a senior lecturer in science education at University of Surrey

Roehampton, working on initial teacher education courses, both PGCE and
undergraduate, as well as INSET. She has previously worked as an advisory
teacher for the ILEA providing in-service courses for teachers.

Virginia Whitby is currently the coordinator for science education at University

of Surrey Roehampton. She is involved in teaching across all programmes
including INSET. Her past research interests have included work on teachers'
questioning skills, and their attitudes to science. She is currently involved in
University of Surrey Roehampton research to examine tl1e effect of the imple-
mentation of the QCA scheme of work on primary schools.
x Progression in Primary Science

Maggie Williams is a freelance consultant for primary science. She currently

works on initial teacher education courses at University of Surrey Roehampton.
She has previously worked as an advisory teacher and a head teacher within the
ILEA. She has wide research interests into children's learning in science.
Introduction

This book has been written to enable students in initial teacher education and
newly qualified teachers to make effective and informed links between scientific
knowledge and its application for children in the primary school classroom. It
provides an introduction to the nature and content of science, how children
learn science, and how teachers can support scientific learning. The book also
addresses the requirements of the initial teacher training National Curriculum for
primary science. It has been organised for ease of reference to the requirements
of the science curricula for schools of the United Kingdom, and will give read-
ers a broad pedagogical base for science.

Children's learning
In this book we have approached science through the constructivist view of
learning. Constructivism is a perception of the way learning takes place.
Learning is an active process involving the selection and integration of informa-
tion by the learner. It is very much the opposite of the view that children are
empty vessels to be filled with knowledge.
Through research projects such as SPACE (Science Process and Concept
Exploration Project 1991), and CUSP (Children's Learning in Science Project
1984-91), it has been shown that children hold many ideas about how the world
around them works. Children therefore develop their own scientific ideas and
formulate their own understanding whether or not they are formally taught science.
This can lead to children holding problematic misconceptions which can hinder
their scientific learning. It is essential that teachers find out what children know at
the outset of learning, to establish their understanding of science concepts. This
constructivist view of teaching and learning is promoted by both the SPACE and
CUSP projects, and we shall refer to both projects throughout this book.
Both children and adults construct, or build up, their own concepts. A
concept is made up of the interrelation in our minds of facts, ideas and under-
2 Progression in Primary Science

standing. Only when these three aspects are joined can we constmct concepts
to explain what we see and experience. Concepts will always be rooted in our
own previous experience, which will influence our attempts at understanding.
There is a sense in which our concepts can never be 'wrong', as they are a
reflection of our own level of understanding at that time. They may not,
however, concur with accepted scientific ideas and may therefore be 'miscon-
ceptions'. For us to be able to alter our conceptual understanding, new
experiences must be encountered which challenge the existing concept. If this
challenge involves too big a leap from currently held ideas, the new ideas will
be dismissed out of hand, or lip-service will be paid to them while the original
concept remains intact. If the challenge involves a sufficiently different rethink
of the currently held concept, then the concept can be adapted or changed to
fit the new experience; learning will therefore take place. A major part of our
role as teachers must therefore be to ascertain children's current understanding
and then stmcture new experiences to bring about this learning.

Concepts and contexts

Science for both adults and children is about making sense of the world around
us and how it works. What many of us appear to have inherited from our
secondary school experiences of science is isolated chunks of knowledge or
individual facts and definitions which we are unable to link together or apply
even if we are able to recognise situations where they might be relevant. What
we have is 'knowledge', often without 'understanding'. The aim of science is to
help us understand the way things behave and to develop broad conceptual
understandings which we can interlink and which help us to find patterns in
phenomena and the behaviour of our world.
As teachers we are aware of the need to find effective ways of establishing
the ideas that children bring to their learning in science. An idea known as
concept mapping was developed many years ago and this has proved to be a
very helpful tool for both children and teachers in eliciting children's own
understanding.
To introduce the idea of concept maps teachers need to have a discussion
with the children to establish their ideas. As a result of the discussion the teacher
can provide an appropriate set of words for children to use. For example, the
teacher gives a concept map to the children; they could write the word 'trees'
and draw a circle round it and then write the word 'leaves' and do the same.
They could then join the two circles with an arrow pointing towards 'leaves'.
What then could be written on the arrow to describe a relationship between
trees and leaves? It could be 'grows', 'reproduce', 'feed' or, 'drops'. Each of these
responses would indicate a slightly different understanding of the relationship
 Introduction 3

between trees and leaves. Each of these words could then be linked to other
words concerning trees and leaves and the result would constitute a concept
map. Examples of concept maps for materials and electricity can be found in
Chapters 3 and 4. We recommend that you try a concept map for yourself before
planning a topic, and complete a further one at the end. It may be interesting
to note any developments or changes in your own scientific understanding
through researching and planning the topic.
The purpose of primary science therefore is to equip children with the skills to
tackle new situations with confidence and to develop broad conceptual knowl-
edge and understanding as a solid base on which to develop new concepts.

Science and literacy

Science and literacy are interwoven. In order to take part in a science activity
children need to be able to communicate both by the spoken and written word.
The partnership between science and literacy is two way: science offers
natural contexts for the use and development of literacy skills and under-
standing whilst literacy helps to offer the individual access to the existing and
challenging world of science. (Feasey 1999)
The following example of scientific thinking and talk occurred when working
with a reception class and introducing them to floating and sinking. The chil-
dren had a tray of objects and were taking turns to select one object, feel it, and
then predict what would happen when it was placed in the water. One girl aged
4 years 10 months chose a block of wood.
Teacher What do you think will happen when you put it into the water?
Child It will stay on the top, not moving.
Teacher Will it float?
Child No, it will stay still on the top.

The child places the wood into the water and it is floating.

Teacher Is it floating?
Child No, it is staying still.

At this point it was obvious the child was not able to accept the term floating in relation
to the tank of water and the wooden block. The teacher therefore needed to find out
what the term floating meant to her.

Teacher What is floating?

The child looked at the teacher very excitedly and said 'Floating is when you are in the
swimming pool and you have a float and you are moving around.'
4 Progression in Primary Science

The child had a clear understanding of the term floating that she was confident with.
For her it involved movement, but she was not yet ready to take on floating in relation
to the block of wood and the water tank.

This example makes it clear that language plays an important role in devel-
oping children's scientific thinking. Language is the vehicle through which we
communicate. The importance of establishing children's own ideas and under-
standing is essential so that we can then provide them with appropriate science.
It also allows children to develop their language skills in a variety of contexts.
You will find further evidence of the role of language in science throughout each
chapter of the book, where we encourage children to talk to their teachers and,
more importantly, to each other about their work.

Science and numeracy

There are many natural links between science and mathematics. Much of science
involves aspects of measurement, sorting and comparing, and classifying. Both
maths and science provide opportunities for predicting skills to be developed.
Both subjects also require the learner to make appropriate choices about the line
of action to take, and encourage the learner to use alternative strategies when
their first choices prove unworkable.
At the heart of science is mathematics. Science relies on the use of mathe-
matics to provide quantitative evidence on which scientists make
comparisons, note patterns and trends, make generalisations and draw
conclusions.
(Feasey and Crallear 2000)

Science and Information Communication Technology

In today's world science and information communication and technology are very
closely linked. The use of ICT to support science is commonplace in many
schools. Children use a range of CD-ROMS to develop and support their scien-
tific learning. Data logging is increasing in its use throughout the primary school.
Data logging has many advantages for primary science. For example it allows
children to:
- collect data over periods of time;
- manipulate variables and observe cause and effect, making different noises
and watching the changes show immediately;
- access graphs and data quickly.
 Introduction 5

Science and the use of ICT are developing very positively in primary schools.
Children are much more computer literate than they were, and effective use of
the computer to support science teaching is essential as we enter the twenty-
first century.

Science in the National Curriculum

Since the introduction of the National Curriculum in 1989, science has been a
core subject. However, science has been a cause of concern for many schools,
as before 1989 it did not have the same status in schools as the other core
subjects of English and mathematics.
The National Curriculum for science is composed of four areas, all of which
are addressed in this book. The first area is 'scientific enquiry', which is the
process of how children learn to behave scientifically, in other words to develop
the ability, for example, to observe, predict, obtain evidence and design fair
tests. Whatever the content area of science children are engaged in they will be
using and hopefully developing their scientific skills. 'Life process and living
things' is the biological area of the National Curriculum, 'Materials and their
properties' covers the chemistry and 'Physical processes' the physics.
The demands of the National Curriculum for science at Key Stages 1 and 2
require a substantial understanding of scientific concepts, to be built on and devel-
oped throughout Key Stages 3 and 4. Since its inception, many primary school
teachers have raised concerns about their own level of scientific knowledge and
understanding, as many of those teaching prior to the National Curriculum
received no science teaching during their own initial teacher education courses.
However, science is now an important aspect of all initial teacher education
courses alongside English and mathematics and the Foundation subjects. From
September 1998 the Teacher Training Agency set out criteria for trainee teach-
ers to ensure that their scientific knowledge is of an acceptable standard.
OFSTED 0996) state that there is a strong belief that knowledge and under-
standing of a subject facilitates more effective teaching and learning. There is
currently debate about the most effective way to approach the science curricu-
lum. Some schools favour a subject-specialist approach particularly in Years 5
and 6 as this ensures that the content is covered effectively. Other schools find
the traditional topic approach more comfortable as learning is not so compart-
mentalised. Science does pose particular problems, but it highlights a broader
debate about the role of subject knowledge in teaching.
The first four chapters of the book address the demands of the National
Curriculum for primary schools and desirable learning outcomes for early years
units. Each chapter includes science content, children's ideas, teaching advice
and case studies. Set out below is a brief synopsis of each chapter.
6 Progression in Primary Science

• Chapter 1 explores the nature of experimental and investigative science; that

is the process skills of science. It shows how children and scientists use these
skills, and their implications for classroom practice. This chapter discusses the
nature and place of practical work, the importance of context and the progres-
sive development of these process skills.
• Chapter 2 explores life processes and living things, thus focusing on the
biological aspects of science. It considers the scope and variety of life, and
presents ways in which children can develop their understanding of these and
gain respect for the natural environment.
• Chapter 3 shows how development in the understanding of the behaviour of
materials can help to support scientific investigation in all other areas.
Exploring materials provides stimulating first-hand experience for children
across Key Stages 1 and 2, enabling them to make sense of their environment.
The areas included in the chapter are: solids, liquids and gases; heating and
cooling; mixing and separating; chemical changes; mechanical properties;
obtaining, making and using materials.
• Chapter 4 considers the physical processes of science. This is an area which
is more abstract and difficult for both children and adults to understand. The
concepts of electricity, energy, force and motion, light and sound, and the
Earth in space are all covered in an accessible way, and methods of devel-
oping children's understanding are detailed.
• Chapter 5 considers long-, medium-term planning and lesson planning. The
QCNDfEE Scheme at work for primary science is also examined. In addition
issues concerned with classroom organisation, appropriate resource provision
and resource management will be discussed.
• Chapter 6 considers assessment of primary science, in terms of developing
assessment strategies and assessment opportunities, how to organize
managable record-keeping systems and profiling children.
We hope that as readers you will find this book provides you with the oppor-
tunity to develop your own scientific knowledge and understanding. In addition
we hope that the practical advice and case studies will enable you to find ways
of implementing the National Curriculum for science in a lively and exciting way
for the children who will be the scientists of the future.
References

Contents

2 Resources 184

3 Equipment 185

Glossary 189

Index 195