Primary Science Education Conference

This talk will share ideas from academic literature about effective primary science education. We will focus on issues of both curriculum and pedagogy, including hands-on, minds-on science enquiry, cross-curricular science, science as a series of stories, talk for learning (including argumentation), misconceptions and conceptual change, and models and representations. Participants will depart with not only a range of classroom strategies but a deeper understanding of why they might be effective and greater knowledge to help them evaluate the strategies they currently use. In line with the best practice in professional development, the audience will be expected to be hands-on, minds-on too!

This session will look at a range of practical strategies to use in the classroom to promote talk and higher order thinking skills. These were developed as part of a PSTT funded Research Learning Community project by a PSST science cluster in Islington and have been used successfully in classrooms across the group of five schools. There will be time to prepare resources for your own class.

This workshop supplies creative ideas supporting teaching about population change over time, variation and natural selection, inspired by Darwin's observations of moths. Based on his prediction of the existence of a moth with a 30cm proboscis to feed from the Madagascan Comet orchid, the session commences with a dramatic dialogue between Darwin and his wife. A brief drama activity follows, modelling how differing length proboscises link to different flowers. This scaffolds understanding of the symbiosis between plant and animal, leading to insights into how evolution by natural selection occurs. Participants also gain practical ideas to make 'flowers' and moth 'proboscises'.

School Outdoor Learning the UK's largest provider of outdoor learning solutions for schools will be embarking on a curriculum linked exploration of science outside the classroom. Linked to their Learning Outside the Classroom Teaching Handbook you will explore teaching matter from EYFS through to Key Stage 2 in an experiential and sensory way. You will come away with greater confidence, ideas and inspiration to innovate your teaching using the outdoors. Each delegate will also receive with a free pack of tried and tested outdoor lesson plans and a copy of the 'Tips and Tools Handbook' for outdoor learning. This workshop is for anyone who would like to enhance engagement, the social skills, attainment, health and wellbeing of their pupils.

Overview
The PSTT's flagship Teacher Assessment in Primary Science (TAPS) project, has worked with teachers in all four countries of the UK to develop support for valid, reliable and manageable school assessment processes. Following a brief introduction to the TAPS project, its scope and resources; the speakers will explore how development and use of the TAPS resources has driven change in schools, with a range of examples from different regions. They will provide guidance on making the most effective use of the TAPS self-evaluation tool and focused assessment resources for enquiry, to support teacher assessment literacy and ensure whole school lasting impact.
 
Talk 1 – Sarah Earle
Dr Sarah Earle, project lead for TAPS, will briefly introduce the TAPS project, its scope and resources (Earle et al. 2015, Davies et al. 2017, Earle et al. 2018). She will then describe how development and use of the TAPS resources has led to changes in practice in a range of schools from different regions (Earle 2017, Earle 2018).
 
Talk 2 – Elaine Stockdale
Elaine Stockdale is a PSTT Fellow, science subject leader and Foundation Phase teacher at Tongwynlais Primary School in Cardiff, Wales. As part of the TAPS Cymru team she identified examples of assessment good practice in her school (Earle et al. 2018) and helped to develop a range of scientific enquiry focused assessment activities. She will explore the focused assessment approach and consider how the TAPS Cymru resources can be used to lead to staff development.

Talk 3 – Pauline Rodger
Pauline is a PSTT Fellow, science subject leader and Key Stage 2 teacher at Holt Primary School in Wiltshire, England. She has been a TAPS project teacher since its inception in 2013. Pauline will describe how she has developed and used the TAPS resources in her school and cluster. She will explore how to support staff to develop their assessment literacy, for example, by using moderation (Rodger 2018) and how to ensure whole school lasting impact.

Chaired by Derek Bell

References
Davies, D., S. Earle, K. McMahon, A. Howe & C. Collier (2017) Development and exemplification of a model for Teacher Assessment in Primary Science, International Journal of Science Education, 39:14, 1869-1890.
Earle, S, Davies, D, McMahon, K, Collier, C, Howe, A and Digby, R (2015) Introducing the TAPS pyramid model (interactive pdf). Bristol: Primary Science Teaching Trust. Earle, S. (2017) Use of case study to develop and exemplify a model of teacher assessment. In ESERA 2017: 12th Biannual Conference of the European Science Education Research Association, 21-25 August 2017, Dublin, Ireland.
Earle, S. (Ed.) (2018) Teacher Assessment in Primary Science (TAPS) special issue, Primary Science, 1-23.
Earle, S., Jones, B., Coakley, R., Fenn, L. and Davies, D. (2018) The Teacher Assessment in Primary Science (TAPS) Pyramid Model: TAPS Cymru: examples from Wales. Bristol: Primary Science Teaching Trust.
Rodger, P. (2018) Making more effective use of moderation, Primary Science TAPS special issue pp.11-12.

Overview
This year pupils from Mearns Primary School had the opportunity to take part in a project to launch a weather balloon into the upper atmosphere to study changes in atmospheric composition and pollution. The project was run by hi-impact consultancy with support from Bristol University. The focus was on giving pupils an opportunity to be involved in every stage of a scientific research project from asking the initial questions through project planning to data collection, analysis and presentation. This type of high-profile project and the subsequent research opportunities has had a significant impact on pupil engagement in science and their understanding of scientific research. It has enhanced the work the school already do on developing the Science Capital of their pupils and the Citizen Science projects they engage in. The project was part funded by the Royal Society who offer partnership grants to support schools collaborating in real scientific research in a variety of contexts. This seminar will explore the importance of pupils having opportunities to engage with scientific research in a variety of ways, how schools can access grants to support projects and how you can find opportunities to get involved in scientific research.

Talk 1 – Professor Dudley Shallcross
Research shows that when pupils have the opportunity to get involved in real scientific research there is an increased engagement with science. In the opening section of the seminar Professor Dudley Shallcross will discuss the importance of engaging pupils in scientific research to inspire and engage them and raise their awareness of the importance of science in a wider world context. He will discuss different ways in which scientific research can be brought into the classroom and how it can be used effectively. He will explore the importance of accessing current scientific research, adapted for their level, as a way to improve understanding of the importance work scientists do. He'll also look at the positive effects of schools engaging in high impact scientific research projects with academic partners. It will discuss current research around engaging pupils and how carefully planned scientific experiences can benefit pupils and schools.

Talk 2 – Paul Tyler
Paul is a primary teacher and science lead and has a history of engaging pupils through 'real' science experiences at his school. He has used a wide variety of Citizen Science projects throughout the school and organised large scale programmes of STEM visits and visitors. Recently the school have been involved in a project to launch a high altitude weather balloon up to the edge of space to study atmospheric conditions. The project involved 130 Primary 7 pupils working alongside STEM experts in a wide variety of fields to plan the mission, programme the detectors, monitor the launch and flight, collect the data and analyse it. The inspiration and pupil engagement of such a project contribute hugely to the Science Capital of the pupils who took part.

Talk 3 – Jo Cox
Jo Cox will discuss the Royal Society's schools’ grant scheme and how her team can support schools to get involved in research projects with academic partners. She will explain the Royal Society’s focus on getting young children involved in scientific research from an early age, the value of expert partners in a school setting and the benefits to teachers of becoming engaged in research . As part of this session she will walk teachers through the application process, which can appear daunting, so that they can access the £3000 grant in 2020 following a step by step timeline. The Royal Society Partnership Grant scheme is unique in that it is fully supportive of time pressures that teachers are under and recognises that support with the application process is as important as support during the project. Pitfalls, advice and eligibility criteria will be discussed along with project ideas for teachers to consider.

Chaired by Sue Martin

Matt Larsen-Daw - Education for Our Planet
How can science educators help to save the planet? Starting with an introduction to the wealth of educational resources and free multimedia content available to educators through the Our Planet project, this practical talk will use real-life examples and demonstrations to explain how you can embed environmental education into your lessons and wider school life, and why you should. Includes an interactive guide to involving your students in the Our Planet global citizen science programme, building understanding of local and global biodiversity and the role they can play in sustaining it for the future.

Fran Long - Engaging with natural history museums to invigorate your science curriculum at school
Discover how museum collections and practical study of real specimens can be used to enrich the KS2 curriculum. A recent pilot study using the British Insect Collection demonstrated the impact of using of museum specimens to successfully increase knowledge. Development of working scientifically skills were evident whilst sparking curiosity and a passion for natural history. Learn about opportunities to showcase STEM careers (role of an entomologist) and link to work of famous scientists such as Carl Linnaeus. Many ideas can easily be replicated in the classroom and school grounds whilst demonstrating the benefits of collaboration with local museums and organisations.

Do you sometimes struggle to get started with experimental science? Do you find it hard to link your experiments to the real world? Do you worry that you might be caught off-guard by questions that children may ask or things that can go wrong?  Do you need more support with terminology around the scientific method? Or you might just want to bring Brian Cox to your classroom! If the answer to any of these questions is yes then come along and try out the Brian Cox School Experiments. You will be able to take away a set of the videos and resources to use in your classroom.

All national support programmes for Scottish educators provided by Education Scotland are underpinned by the national model of professional learning. Central to this model is the importance of practitioner as learner and the direct impact on learners.  This workshop will explore how this model can be used a critical element of self-reflection and will support professionals to consider the development of pedagogy through the use of coaching tools. Participants in this workshop can then access these resources and further online tools to develop and support their understanding.    

The Linnean Society offers free-to-hire resources across the UK with our Discovery Kit scheme, as well as free online activity packs, worksheets and videos. This workshop will take a look at the breadth of resources available to hire, giving a quick-fire CPD session and illustrating simple methods of bringing biology into the classroom, as well as integrating nature into other subjects.

Exciting 'hands-on' science activities often pass by in a flash, so how can teachers ensure the most is made from this learning through reflection and peer assessment? This project, funded by the Primary Science Teaching Trust, shows you how to make and use short films to stimulate children's dialogue about their own and each other’s learning.

Playground science bags are a great new resource from the PSTT. They are a fantastic way of enabling your pupils to carry out their own scientific enquiries at break and lunchtimes. In this workshop you will be able to try out the different activities that the science bags contain and receive practical advice on how to set them up in your school.

A circus of activities for you to try which are often perceived as being tricky to deliver because of safety, or which are commonly delivered but where the safety is often ignored. In either case, you will leave the session knowing how to run the activities in your classroom and feeling reassured that they (and other practical activities) are all easy to implement safely. You will take away the practical procedures, including the model risk assessments, for each of the showcased activities.

A workshop for teachers and schools to develop a methodology for using both famous and contemporary scientists in their science curriculum. We will share research-informed and trialled strategies of how to use scientists to model how to work scientifically. Delegates will take away resources which will provide a structure for an overall whole-school approach to teaching about scientists which demonstrates how scientific ideas have developed through time. In addition to this a number of practical activities will be provided which mimic how specific famous scientists worked. Activities are taken from the new PSTT resource, “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants”.

This workshop will explore how to select a focus for teaching and learning during practical activities, to support progression and assessment of enquiry skills. We will draw on the bank of TAPS Focused Assessment plans and examples, together with presenting new activities created as part of TAPS in Northern Ireland (TAPS-NI).

Overview 
The seminar will begin with a review of the academic literature relevant to the leadership of primary science and consider what effective primary science leadership might look like from a theoretical perspective. The second talk will consider the expectations which others, including senior leaders and OFSTED, will have of subject leaders. The CPD and distributed leadership which might support subject leaders to increase their effectiveness will also be discussed. The seminar will conclude with the findings of recent research into the way in which the Primary Science Quality Mark (PSQM) supports the development of the professional identity of science subject leaders in their roles as both leaders and science teachers. Consideration will be given to the elements of the (PSQM) and the contexts in which subject leaders work which offer affordances and constraints in such developments.

Talk 1 – Derek Bell
Subject leadership in primary schools is a relatively under researched area of study but, at the same time, it has a key role in successful teaching and learning across the curriculum. Based on research undertaken in primary schools in England, this talk will review and reflect on the development of the role, its challenges and its benefits. In particular the presentation will consider contrasting views on the tensions which arise for the vast majority of subject leaders who are also classroom teachers (see Hammersley-Fletcher & Brundrett, 2005, Busher and Harris, 2000)

Talk 2 – Julia Burger
In the primary settings the science subject leaders will usually assume responsibility for other roles in their schools. Despite performing multiple roles, effective subject leaders need to be aware of the expectations of senior leaders, colleagues, OFSTED and pupils. These expectations will be explored as will the CPD opportunities which should be available. The ways in which, through distributed leadership, subject leaders can not only raise the profile of science in school, but develop themselves as leaders will be considered. Finally, the talk will discuss preparation for a visit from Ofsted.

Talk 3 – Clare Warren
Bell and Ritchie (1999) describe subject leaders as "agents of change" and my PSQM experiences as both a participant and hub leader lead me to believe that PSQM is supportive of science subject leaders as they lead change in their schools.  This prompted me to investigate the developing identity and agency of science subject leaders as they work towards gaining a PSQM award and the affordances and constraints which influence any such development.   The results of my research will be shared.

References
Bell, D. and Ritchie, R. (1999) Towards Effective Subject Leadership in the Primary School. Open University Press. Buckingham and Philadelphia Busher, H. and Harris, A. (2000) Subject Leadership and School Improvement. Paul Chapman Publishing Ltd., London
Busher, H., Hammersley-Fletcher, L. and Turner, C. (2007) Making sense of middle leadership: community, power and practice, School Leadership and Management. Vol. 27, No. 5, pp. 405-422
Hammersley-Fletcher, L. and Brundrett, M. (2005) Leaders on leadership: the impressions of primary school head teachers and subject leaders. School Leadership and Management. Vol. 27, No. 5, pp. 423-435
Wellcome Trust (2017) 'State of the nation' report of UK primary science education. CFE research. London.

Chaired by Jane Turner

This talk will provide an introduction to curriculum and training materials produced by the EU funded project Creativity in Early Years Science (2014-1017) designed to support creative, inquiry-based approaches to early years science (children aged 3-8). It will include an overview of ways in which project materials were developed through partnerships between researchers, teachers, teacher educators and school leaders. Participants will be involved in discussion and practical activities to explore the nature of creative, inquiry-based approaches to learning and teaching. They will share classroom examples that illustrate both opportunities and challenges in fostering young children’s creativity in science.

The SunSpaceArt project brings together scientists and artists to run workshops in primary schools (7-11 year olds). The project, funded by STFC (Science and Technology Facilities Council), is led by Dr Helen Mason OBE. The feedback has been excellent from teachers and children, e.g. 'Today I loved this lesson because the science and art inspired me'. The resources link closely to the Science National Curriculum. Through these creative STEAM activities, the children have produced impressive, original, imaginative and beautiful art that communicates a deeper understanding of the Sun, the solar system, space travel, polar science and 'Our Place in the Universe'.

Michele Grimshaw - Swinging Sixties Science
The Space Race, World Cup Final, flavoured crisps and heart transplants. These are some of the topics fuelled by historical events of the 1960s which can be used to inspire teachers' and their pupils to discover more about this era whilst linking to the science curriculum for upper KS2. A practical workshop with suggestions for investigations and also ideas for linking different writing genres and speaking and listening activities.

Target age range: 7-11

Kathy Schofield - Where the Great Fire of London meets Science Enquiry
Health and Hygiene in 1666; an interactive workshop outlining a programme of investigations linked to the Great Fire of London. From decaying food to cleaning teeth this workshop will provide teachers with a wealth of ideas to help bring 1666 and Stuarts to life through science related to the children's everyday experiences. Participants will experience first-hand investigations via a carousel of activities linked to boats, spread of diseases, the combustion triangle and teeth. Plus they will leave with copies of other investigations to try out back at school.

Target age range: 4-11

Co-presented by Naomi Shallcross

Pedro Zany Caldeira and Ana Paula Bossler - Can you tell who's more creative than me?
The participants will be challenged to make three drawings. The drawings will correspond to three different challenges. According to our experience, the answer to each of these challenges will be relatively diverse: some drawings will be relatively common, while others will be very resourceful. The ingenuity of the answers will correspond to different degrees of creativity. Later on typical drawings of children from 9 to 11 years of age will be presented and compared to the drawings made by the participants of our presentation: The drawings of the participants will be much more creative than the drawings of the children.

Anthony Artist - Origami science
Teach science with minimal resources! All schools have paper, so why not put it to good use and teach science through origami? During the workshop, participants will create a penguin, fly, food chain, fortune teller, and samurai helmet. Teachers will experience how creating simple objects using nothing more than folded paper can support student learning across Years 1 to 4. This workshop will provide teachers with practical ideas that link to a variety of programmes of study, such as identifying animals, food chains, animal offspring, functions of flowering plants, and grouping and classifying living things and objects.

Overview 
The concept of science capital is a way of encapsulating all the science related knowledge, attitudes, experiences and social contacts that an individual may have. To help more students engage with science, the Science Capital Teaching Approach builds on good teaching practice. Professor Louise Archer will give an introduction to science capital and the Science Capital Teaching Approach which, to date, has been secondary focussed. Paul Tyler will share experiences of developing science capital at Mearns Primary in Glasgow and Ruth Shallcross will share experiences of working with diverse schools across London and the South East. The session will explore some of the nuances of developing science capital in a primary setting ahead of the UCL & Kings KCL Research and Development Project funded by The Primary Science Teaching Trust and The Ogden Trust Project.
 
Chaired by Louise Stubberfield 

Giving children the best start in life and preparing them to take life’s opportunities and deal with its challenges is central to what all of us in education, child care and health services aspire to achieve. To help children to learn, but also to develop as people, requires us to grapple with evidence and to focus on what are the best ways for children to learn and develop.

In this talk I will present evidence assessing the role that play and relationships have in child development - right from the start of life. This includes during pregnancy and into the postnatal period, where the quality of early play-based interactions of mother, fathers and their infants predict a range of later outcomes for children, including important aspects of their cognitive development and emotional and social development. I hope to make the case that finding the right place for play is critical for all aspects of children's development.

Join Josh & Jennie from the NFU Education team in dreaming up your own Great British food start up. While you cook and taste test your first ever product, they will guide you through their new cross-curricular project-based STEM scheme of work that uses real life problems faced by the nation’s farmers and business owners as engaging contexts for learning. Expect a session of ideas for exciting practical activities and projects and a free scheme of teaching and learning resources, allowing you to infuse your wider curriculum with engaging STEM learning opportunities.

A hands-on fast-paced session to help you get the most out of a completely free digital resource, Explorify, from Wellcome. There's never enough time in the timetable, so how can we support children to apply their learning in different contexts and show them that science is all around them, as well as developing much needed highly transferable skills? This interactive session will help you understand how Explorify's easy-to-use activities can help you and your colleagues deliver great science, and develop much needed thinking and communication skills along the way. You’ll enhance your teaching, and your pupils will love it too!

Come explore strategies for linking science and literacy that support students’ abilities to read, write, and discuss in the context of science and inquiry-based learning using fiction and non-fiction texts. Hands-on examples of how science supports literacy and literacy supports science will be used.

EEF/Royal Society research published in 2017 found that the strongest factor affecting pupil achievement in science was understanding scientific vocabulary and written texts. This workshop uses evidence-based research to investigate effective literacy strategies for teaching and learning in science. Participants will explore a toolkit of resources to support direct teaching of subject - specific vocabulary and ways of reading non- fiction science texts. All teaching and learning approaches will focus on key scientific text types, supporting teachers to deconstruct, annotate and create useful models of science information reports, explanations and comparisons.

Science in My Pocket is a set of structured activities for primary school teaching assistants to use with individual children who for whatever reason need to leave the classroom. The workshop aims to practically share with you some of the materials and examine the research and the outcome of trials in a variety of school settings. You will see how the materials aims to help children to develop the personal skills and habits of mind to enable them to be self-regulating and motivated learners. To use engagement with science to help deal with their own emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. Like the children you will explore science concepts through small focused practical activities. The workshop will demonstrate how the materials support teaching assistants to develop new strategies to work on a one-to-one basis with children in their care whose emotional/behavioural difficulties prevent them from accessing the curriculum in the classroom.

Why is the mirror foggy when you take a shower? Why do you see yourself upside-down in a spoon? And what effect does a carpet have on pushing or pulling a sofa to another position? In this workshop you will discover 'inexplicable' observations in bathroom, kitchen and living room with children’s eyes. Learn how to support the natural curiosity of your students for scientific phenomena with easy hands-on experiments while simultaneously training their language skills. The workshop is based on the teaching brochure 'Lilu's House: Language Skills through Experiments' which will be provided for free.

Having a grasp of scientific knowledge, understanding concepts and learning scientific skills are all important aspects of primary science but do we have to record everything they do and what is really meant by recording in science? This workshop examines the most effective strategies for recording science learning. A variety of ideas and activities (including the use of FLOOR BOOKS or Big Books) will be experienced in order to demonstrate that recording of science can be done more creatively and for a variety of purposes.

Stories are often used to provide a context for science lessons e.g. testing materials to build the strongest house for the three little pigs. 'Science Through Stories' goes one step further. By teaching children to tell a science story, you teach them to tell the science. Oral rehearsal of the facts and sequences in a science topic can help children to visualise and internalise the learning. Children write about science concepts in English tasks and improve their understanding of the story in their science lessons. Come and learn how to tell a story and teach lessons that are truly cross-curricular.

Join Robbie on a practical, creative workshop discovering some of the wonderful animals of Antarctica, how they have adapted to survive the extreme cold and their interactions. Robbie Taylor spent several years working for the British Antarctic Survey before becoming a Primary Teacher.

In an ever-increasing digital world, enabling children to use technology to enhance learning is becoming more important. Children love science and they love technology so why not combine the two? This session will focus on how a range of apps and websites can support the teaching and learning of science for all learners. You will also see how children at West Jesmond Primary School in Newcastle have used technology to showcase their science work to a wider audience and the benefits of this. Bringing a Wifi enabled device to this session would be beneficial.

This interactive, discussion-based workshop combines research design principles and project management skills to give practitioners the opportunity to think systematically about the aims of their next project in primary science teaching. Do you want to pilot a new teaching strategy? Or perhaps use your Science Week to conduct some research? Bring along your ideas and we will cover: defining project objectives; how and when to collect data to demonstrate impact; the timeline, milestones and possible issues you will face; and ways to share your results beyond your school walls. Sources of funding for science projects will also be discussed.   

An energetic, hands-on carousel of practical, curriculum-based activities. Easily recreated in your own setting. Useful as lesson starters, to support theory work, for science week or STEM clubs. Five stations, five minutes per station, five areas of the primary science curriculum. Full resource pack and equipment list provided in addition to prizes for the winning team. Tweeting is encouraged via #WhatsInMyTray.

See www.learning-rooms.com/teaching-resources/ for more free practical science activities.

Overview
This seminar will consider the benefits of introducing current scientific research to primary age children and how this can be done in primary schools. Dudley Shallcross will describe how making links to science research makes learning more meaningful and engages children. He will explain that cutting-edge research can be linked to the primary science curriculum and share examples from ‘I bet you didn’t know…’ articles published in ‘Why & How’, the PSTT Newsletter. Julia Nash will talk about how as a teacher she has used some of the practical ideas in the ‘I bet you didn’t know…’ articles with her class. She will describe how the children in in her class have responded and the impact on their learning and perception of science and scientific research. Ex-biochemist and primary teacher, Alison Trew, will briefly describe what is meant by ‘science capital’ [1] and describe how student engagement with science is shaped by students’ interests, dispositions and past experiences [2]. She will suggest that ‘I bet you didn’t know…’ provides teachers with an accessible, practical way to raise children’s science capital and inspire the next generation of scientists.

Talk 1 – Dudley Shallcross
Fundamental science principles are explored at primary school and many cutting-edge science projects can be explained using these principles. For example, a recent study showed that Greenland sharks can live for many hundreds of years and the principle behind this was making a good calibration chart, something that can be replicated in primary school. In another study scientists believe that they have found a hidden planet in the Kuiper Belt, even though telescopes are not powerful enough to see the planet! Using ideas from primary science investigations it is possible to carry out investigations that mirror these studies. The principles of camouflage are discussed in another paper and these investigations can be carried out in a primary school setting (outdoors of course). Linking with cutting edge science at an early age is, we hope, an exciting way to stimulate children and their teachers and provide rich contexts for learning.

Talk 2 – Julia Nash
Engaging children in ‘real life science’, has for me, been paramount in inspiring young science learners in the classroom. I teach full-time in a class of 7-8 year olds and have used the ‘I bet you didn’t know…’ articles to provide a starting point for a series of science lessons. I want to show that this resource is accessible and enjoyable for everybody, all teachers and children, whatever the Key Stage. The articles explain clearly, in language that children can understand, what scientists have discovered and provide questions for children and teachers to consider in the classroom. There are suggestions of practical activities that the children might carry out to find their own answers to some of these questions. Children love to take ownership of their learning and this is exactly what happened in my class. The children enjoyed exploring new ideas and carrying out their own science research.

Talk 3 – Alison Trew
Science capital combines all an individual’s science-related resources: knowledge, attitudes, experiences and contacts. The more science capital young people have the more likely they are to engage with the subject. We believe that teachers can make a difference to student engagement with science by sharing examples of cutting-edge research because:
• Linking scientist’s research findings to real-life situations enables pupils to see science as relevant to their everyday life and has a positive impact on their attitude towards science.
• Encouraging discussion and providing simple practical challenges linked to research has a positive impact on children’s science-related knowledge and experiences.

Chaired by Craig Early 
 
References 
[1] Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education (241-258). New York, NY: Greenwood.  
[2] Godec, S., King, H. & Archer, L. (2017) The Science Capital Teaching Approach: engaging students with science, promoting social justice. London: University College London. 

Learn how to navigate a maze, write a short program and control a robot and hold a small piece of Mars! Computing plays an ever more important role in all of our lives and has changed the way scientists and engineers work and collaborate. Inspire your pupils with computing, using the stories of space and our solar system as a 'hook'. Our experienced deliverers will demonstrate a series of interactive modular activities which tell the story of how space scientists use data, linking to the Computing and Earth and Space topics for KS1 and KS2.

This workshop will explore a range of software for the creation of interactive books for children to create. Drawing on work done by trainee teachers it will look at how interactive books give scope from creativity and recording that "traditional" methods do not. Interactive books allow children to use multimedia to collect and present their data and findings in ways that enhance the understanding of science.

Tricky Ticks and Operation Outbreak are flexible resources developed to assist teachers in incorporating scientific and public health learning into their schemes of work. They promote tick awareness, understanding about how infectious diseases spread, and portray a range of careers that are possible within public health. They also develop links to other areas of the curriculum: including geography, history, mathematics and PSHE. This workshop will provide the opportunity to explore these exciting and significant resources. We intend to showcase the successful collaboration between a science cluster and a scientific institute.

This practical CPD is intended to provide attendees with a bank of easy to use ideas that they can take away with them to enable pupils to conduct experiments and have fun. Hands-on experience promotes curiosity and engagement and provides opportunities for the discussion and questioning which develop understanding. All activities within the session have been designed to be affordable for any school budget, with resources easily purchased at your local supermarket. This course is designed to support Working Scientifically objectives.