Tag Archives: APP

Science APP – one approach to managing the paperwork

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I get quite a few contact requests asking about APP.  Whilst I have used APP and indeed still do, it is only one one of the assessment tools I use, since I am required to report back internally using NC levels.

I found this site whilst searching the Internet, from a Science teacher called Stewart Feather in Birmingham.  He has developed a whole approach to APP including a recording system that minimises the time demands on the teacher.

I would recommend that science teachers who use APP on a regular basis check out Stewart’s site - it is well worth a look.

Science APP – Don’t put all your eggs in one basket

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Followers of my blog know that I like APP.  That’s not to say that I don’t realise its limitations and problems, and I know it has got a lot of bad press because of the way some schools have chosen to implement it.  I still maintain that APP has a lot going for it – especially when it comes to developing students as scientists, and for consistency of assessment data between primary and secondary.

However I’d recommend schools to maintain familiarity with the statutory level descriptors and their use.  Teachers will have to use these descriptors at the end of each key stage, and therefore be confident in any judgements they make.  APP levels will provide evidence of the general level that a student is working at and their development as a ‘scientist’ but they are not statutory.

My advice would be for teachers to use the National Curriculum level descriptors to assess some of their work, or to be conversant with the statements and how APP descriptors work alongside them.

APP and Wikid Science – how they fit well together

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I attended a county APP network meeting last week which included a show & tell session.  Being a model of good organisation I remembered that I was meant to be taking something two day before.  I could have simply gone through my schemes of work and picked an example of how we use APP, but instead I wanted to include something fresh.

I looked at the lesson plan for my next Y7 lesson, which was from the A&E sequence.  Students were looking at some of the key pieces of equipment used in a hospital used to aid diagnosis.  The teaching resources needed a little differentiation, partly to make them more accessible and partly to speed up that part of the lesson so we were free to move on.

I looked at the APP criteria that matched this lesson, which also gave me an idea of the outcomes I could expect from my students and what the next steps should be.  I chose AF2 and students were recognising roles in the hospital with science and applications of science.

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  • Identify a link to science in familiar objects
  • Recognise scientific developments that help us
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  • Describe in familiar contexts how science helps us do things
  • Identify people who use science to help others
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  • Identify aspects of our lives, or of the work that people do, which are based on scientific ideas
  • Link applications to specific characteristic or properties
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  • Identify aspects of science used within particular jobs or roles
  • Recognise applications of specific scientific ideas
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  • Link application of science or technology to their underpinning scientific ideas
  • Identify ethical or moral issues linked to scientific or technological developments

I then modified the task so that students would have more of a chance to demonstrate these skills in a way that suited their special needs.  I decided that students would be presenting to the hospital board (who were looking for job cuts) and explaining to them that science was important in the hospital and which jobs used some kind of science.  Students would also mention the key pieces of apparatus used in a hospital, relating applications of science to specific properties (e.g. the X-ray machine).

Students were videoed making their presentation to the hospital board after planning the presentation (in pairs).  Students then watched back the presentations as a class the next lesson and offered peer feedback on both the presentations and the specific science skills (above) we were looking at.

I’ve included the presentation and worksheet that I used for this lesson, however I wanted to make the point that APP isn’t about collecting mountains of paperwork or one off assessment style lessons.  It can be used to aid most science activities (either for assessment, development or both) and that the writing of Wikid Science makes this process extremely easy.

Resources

equipment used for diagnosis

Presenting to hospital board – APP

Clarity on NC level descriptors

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I received clarification today about the level descriptors we should be using for Science.  I’ve quoted from the email below since many people are arriving on my site after searching for KS3 level descriptors.   Thankfully it means that there isn’t much of a change – so little change that you wonder why the Government bothered to make any change at all!

From the QCDA:

  • schools are to use the LDs for levels 4 to 8 plus exceptional performance that were set out in the 2007 secondary curriculum handbook (not the 2009 revised versions which were consulted on last year and sent to al schools in February of this year). For levels 1-3, they are to use the current descriptions from the primary curriculum (1999). (This applies for all subjects except citizenship, MFL and RE where all levels were set out in the 2007 Handbook).
  • this applies from 2011 for Y9 pupils being statutorily assessed for the first time under the current secondary curriculum but from this year in schools which run a compressed 2-year key stage 3 and statutorily assess at the end of Y8.
  • we will be adjusting the secondary National Curriculum website and putting up consolidated lists of all the level descriptions to be used. This will create an issue in mathematics (where two of the four ATs changed their name in 2007) and in science (where all ATs changed their name). We propose to list the LDs under the 2007 AT heading with a footnote to explain that, L1 to L3, the AT has a different name in the primary curriculum.
  • the line on APP is that, since national standards have not changed, it remains completely relevant although we also remind that it’s voluntary

Hopefully this provides much needed clarity as we all rush to complete our end of year teacher assessments.