This pack is for teachers working with children of around 9-11 years of age. It introduces 'Smart Science' - a way of developing children's Personal Capabilities. It embeds the Personal Capabilities of teamwork, self management, creativity, problem solving and communication into science learning activities and reinforces work in thinking skills and personal, social and emotional development. The pack helps all teachers, teaching assistants, senior managers and parents or carers to help improve children's self awareness and Personal Capabilities. It is not just for Science teachers.
The pack is significant in the way that it helps schools to address key areas of the Every Child Matters, Assessment for Learning and Social, Emotional Aspects of Learning educational improvements.
The Smart Science pack builds on The Personal Capabilities™ in Science Programme, born in 1999 at the Centre for Science Education, Sheffield Hallam University. This research showed that by proactively using Personal Capabilities children are increasingly scientifically capable and responsible learners.
The benefits
The activities will help your children know more about themselves and their abilities as well as providing powerful ways to demonstrate them in science. As well as many other benefits children will have:
- improved understanding of 'how' to learn
- better learning of science
- greater motivation to learn science
- increased engagement in learning science
- improved personal responsibility when learning science.
Learning Science the Smart way
Smart Science incorporates learning objectives from the English Science National Curriculum. It focuses largely but not exclusively on Scientific Enquiry, developing both Ideas and Evidence and Investigative Skills. The activities enrich and broaden the scope of science learning for 9-11 year olds by using stimulating contexts. Children are challenged to think abstractly and aply their science knowledge and skills creatively in varied contexts.
Although Smart Science activities infuse the Personal Capabilities through science the skills and capabilities are generic and apply across the whole curriculum. For example, many of the generic tasks in Smart Science apply to much broader contexts and can be extended into other subject areas, as well as Circle Time, Religious Education and Personal and Social Health Education.
About the Pack
The Smart Science pack provides:
4 Smart Science Poster Sets
- to be used as display and reinforcement cards in the classroom
16 Activities
- 4 for Self Management
- 4 for Communication
- 4 for Teamwork
- 4 for Creativity & Problem Solving
All activities include:
- a generic Personal Capability task: to teach children about a specific Personal Capability objective as a stand-alone activity - activities appropriate for any curriculum area, Circle Time, after school clubs, PSHE, RE etc.
- a Personal Capability task embedded into science: to develop and exemplify the use of Personal Capability in science learning - activities to be used during science lessons, after school Science Clubs etc.
- ideas for assessment for learning through self, peer and teacher assessment