Category Archives: Science in Action

Examples of Science teaching from my own school and lessons

Pepping up teaching the electromagnetic spectrum for SEN students

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We’ve been looking at the EM spectrum this week which is difficult with SEN students who find the idea incredibly hard to grasp.

To make this topic more hands on we’ve done a series of practical lessons looking at different types of waves.  Perhaps you’ll have time to squeeze a few of these in – they do make a dull topic more fun.

Radio waves

Investigating properties of radio waves using a mobile phone by using Bluetooth to send photographs to each other (check your school policy on mobile phone use first!).

Factors which affect Bluetooth signals (worksheet)

Microwaves

Measuring the speed of light using a microwave oven


Infrared

Using a digital camera to view the infrared signal from a DVD remote control.

Light

Spectrum – splitting white light using a prism.

the spectrum worksheet

Ultraviolet

Ultraviolet sensitive beads (work in sun or with a UV lamp).  Also looking at security markers, money, credit cards etc under UV light.

The importance of science induction sessions for the KS2-3 transition

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Induction days are an important part of the academic timetable for science teachers.  They provide an opportunity for science teachers to weigh up the scientific ability of prospective students (and to map it to teacher assessed levels if these have been provided in advance).  Our new intake recently spent the morning with us and the ensuing practical work gave me a very good indication of their science skills.  I saw students manipulating equipment, working in new groups, recording results and interpreting their results.

Induction days are also a good opportunity to excite students about science and to have them looking forward to starting science lessons in September.

My favourite induction activity involves using red cabbage juice as an indicator to classify unknown chemicals as acid, alkaline or neutral.   We also made fridge magnets (laminating student drawings and sticking magnetic tape on the back) which gave me a good idea of each student’s skill with a pencil (handy in a special school!).

Red cabbage indicator.


Wikid Science – thermite reaction in pyrotechnics

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The pyrotechnics module contains both the thermite reaction, and the reaction of copper oxide and zinc.  I have done the thermite reaction this way (CLEAPSS method with fluted filter paper) many times before but never tried the copper oxide and zinc reaction.

I’m sure there are teachers out there who haven’t tried either – I’ve put videos of both below so you can see what to expect (and the students loved them!).

Wikid Science – how I make mine better

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Practical work.  That’s the main method.  The more the better.  Science is a practical subject and you learn best by doing and making sense of what you have seen.  I like to shoehorn any practical work in that helps students grasp a topic – the more the better.

This lesson in the Pyrotechnics sequence had flame tests in.  Students love flame tests but they don’t really help reinforce the concept of elements and compounds.  The solution?  Keep the flame tests but stick in some extra practical work to reinforce the main learning objectives.  I slotted in a small-scale reaction of iron and sulphur (in CLEAPSS recommended quantities of 2g iron/sulphur mix per student), moving this from the following lesson which already contains plenty of meaningful practical work.

This reinforced the concept of elements and compounds within this lesson, and provided more meaningful practical work than flame tests alone.

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Practical (used to aid teaching) works best when it helps students to grasp the main objective of the lesson.  Don’t be afraid to stick more practical work in your schemes of work if it makes science more fun and aids understanding, or move it to more appropriate parts of your scheme of work.