We started following Wikid Science last September and I started with high hopes. We had piloted the cook module the year before and liked the approach taken byWikid Science. So how have things run over the last 9 months?

One of the main selling points for Wikid (apart from its link with the ASE) was the way ‘how science works’ (HSW) was embedded throughout the course. The course seemed to appeal to students who are given a role throughout the topic that works to link a variety of unconnected science topics together. This approach takes a little adjusting to after the wayQCA topics are lumped together by similar or related ideas. It also makes it difficult to see at first glance how continuity and progression are built over an individual topic.


What went well?
Pupils enjoyed the CSI module the most of all, and were totally wrapped up in the mysteries we had to solve. Pupils had excellent recall between lessons and could grasp much of the content (disjointed as it was). The wayHSW is threaded through the module is excellent, making one of the better modules of the course. By the end of the module pupils had a reasonable grasp of reliability and could speak about it with reasonable confidence. Behaviour over the topic was excellent with pupils rushing to the lesson for next exciting installment ofCSI.

The cook module was pretty good and looked at heat transfer, involving a variety of experiments including ice cream making. Pupils enjoyed this topic although not as much as theCSI module. Again pupils had good recall at the end of the topic. The extinction topic wasn’t as well received as the other topics, partly because of the lack of practical work and reliance ofpowerpoints/video clips. Some of the science was a little difficult for my class and so we ended up skipping out several lessons.

What could be improved?
The topics have a lot of content which takes a while to get through. We tried not to miss out any material for the first time through – so we could evaluate the activities and drop the least useful ones next time round. This approach meant that the topics have overrun and we are extremely behind. We intend to drop some of the modules over KS3 but haven’t decided which ones should go.

The pitch of the topics is quite high and many of the activities are not accessible to pupils with poor literacy skills, or pupils who have SEN. Modification of some of the tasks was quite simple whilst others required a major overhaul. I’ve been blessed this year with a relatively able groupperforming around the level 3/4 mark. Teaching this course to pupils in the P-levels to L2 range will require extensive changes as some of the activities take some understanding, or require literacy skills that these pupils simply will not have.

Assessment material is also thin on the ground for pupils who perform below level 4. Whilst this is also a short coming of the national curriculum, it would be nice to see publishers cater for pupils who have SEN, especially as the proportion of pupils with these needs seems to be on the increase. I’ve had to modify some of the level assessed tasks to cater for the needs of my pupils – and this is extremely time consuming. It would also be good to see opportunities for APP pointed out in the schemes of work, especially sinceWikid science was written with the final revision of the science framework in mind.

Wikid science was also built with the promise of a Web 2.0 community, and a Wiki to provide course updates and materials. Although there is a wiki to centrally file links, the forum seems clunky and underused, and doesn’t live up to expectations. I found this quite disappointing (but is useful for getting rapid responses from theWikid team).


What does the future hold?
I’ve ordered the year 8 modules and intend to run the cohort through to the end of KS3. I will also be following Wikid science with Y7 next year with the intention of polishing it a little. I’m hoping I feel a little more positive at the end of next year – I can’t help but feel disappointed with Wikid science to date.

I recently had the privilege of joining a year 7 course at a local secondary school. The pupils were following a different commercial scheme of work (Explore) which had a much more practical slant. The interactive materials which accompanied the scheme were very slick and streets ahead of the Wikid materials, which is powerpoint/PDF only (you might expect better from the ASE). The materials were also significantly easier to navigate and contain differentiated materials. Although not as strong on HSW, the Explore course has many plus points which the ASE should take heed of if they expect to sell their materials to time-pressed science departments. In fact had I seen the Explore scheme in detail before I ordered Wikid I might easily have been persuaded to switch schemes. Wikid pull your finger out!

I would also be interested to hear from anyone else who has either evaluated or followed the Wikid scheme? How have your staff and pupils found the course and what do you think could be improved?