Horton Kirby Environmental Education Centre

1. Horton Kirby Environmental Education Centre How can environmental projects enhance pupils scientific understanding ?

2. Observational skills • An opportunity for children to use all their senses to find out more about the natural world Identifying different organisms Understanding the needs of animals Which scientificskills and understanding can be developed using the outdoors? Understanding what plants need to grow Understanding animal behaviour Understand the lifecycle of plants Understanding the relationship between animals and plants Understanding habitats Understand food chains Understanding adaptation Understanding properties of rocks Understand energy

3. Science Plants - Identification • Gatekeeper • OPAL • Woodland Trust • Field Studies Council

4. Science Animal Identification charts - Menu

5. Science Nature Trail • Could you develop a route around your habitats? • Can a plaque be placed in the different habitats? • Can you gather information at different times of the year from the different places?

6. Science Being a Camera! • Establish a field of vision by extending your arms in front of you, hands in a fist with the thumbs pointing straight up. Look carefully at the “picture” framed by your thumbs. Keep your head still and move your eyes from left to right and vice-versa as a wide angled lens. Observe carefully your “picture”. Look away and sketch what you saw. • Zoom lens – use both hands to form a tube [or use a card/wooden disc with a hole in the centre or cardboard tubes of varying diameters] and focus on something in the distance, particularly concentrating on shape and colour. • Close-up lens – zoom in to the ground at your feet with your zoom lens. Find something to look at closely. • Rose tinted spectacles. Look at your surroundings through coloured acetate sheets either taped on to cardboard tubes or in picture frames

7. Science Touchy egg boxes • Words of opposite meaning written on the bottom of the boxes – wet/dry, rough/smooth, dead/alive, shiny/dull etc. • Find three pairs of things that match your opposites and place in adjacent pairs of holders in the egg box. • Swap boxes and guess the words from the contents.

8. Coloured Worms - camouflage Science Coloured worms. Use coloured pieces of wool about 7cms long in groups of ten pieces per colour. Hang them on bushes, trees, shrubs, on the ground. Story about a local farmer and his worm farm, growing them for fishermen/scientists/restaurants/good EU subsidy. They’re very valuable because of the wonderful colours they’re bred in and some have escaped. They’re kept in groups of 3/5/10 and X number of these groups have escaped. Help him find them. Embellish the story as required and depending on location Pastry worms for gulls!

9. Science Pitfall traps

10. Science Collecting minibeasts

11. ICT Use of ICT

12. Science Blindfold Trail

13. Science Magic Water! • Pick up small interesting things – leaves, grass, flowers, twigs, [care needed] – and smell them. [Beware of allergies.] • Crush them and put into a plastic cup of “magic water”. Smell them. Make a cocktail and see who has the nicest/worst smelling cup.

14. Science Woodland Concert and Animal Ears • Sit in a secluded place with a “magic” crystal held tight in your hands. Close your eyes and the “magic” crystal helps you to hear the woodland concert. • Cup hands around ears to imitate animal ears.

15. Science A Sound Map

16. Science Canopy gazing • Study the tree canopy by holding a mirror horizontally on the nose just below the eyes. Look down into the mirror to see the tree canopy.

17. Science Nature’s Palette • Artist palette shaped piece of card with pieces of double sided sticky tape stuck on. Each person/pair/group collect things to remind them of the walk and to show nature’s variety. • Could also stick paint chart samples on and ask children to match what they find to colours. BUT discourage too much picking. Good to use as part of a display.

18. Science A Journey Stick Menu

19. Plants for Invertebrates As of October 24th 2012 Meadow 1 primroses Meadow 2 hayrattle Wood anenome cotoneaster bluebells rose of sharon budlea foxglove Comfrey (purple) Comfrey (white) bugle geranium Patio Shelter Menu

20. What animals need to stay alive Which animals can we provide with food/water and shelter? Invertebrates – a place to hibernate Birds – tables, feeders, nests, nesting materials hanging up Small mammals – a place to hibernate Amphibians – a place to spend the winetr Menu

21. What helps plants to grow • Investigation over time – cover up areas of grass – measure the grass over time and make observations. • Investigation over time – grow plants in pot plants; add different amounts of water and measure over time. Place some in greehouse. Menu

22. Lifecycle of plants • A metre square garden – children can plant a couple of seedlings of different plants. Take photos over time.

23. Science Plants - Estimating age of living tree If you have chosen a tree in woodland, divide the circumference in centimetres by 1.25. If you have chosen a tree in an open space, divide the circumference in centimetres by 2.5.

24. Maths Height of places Menu

25. Understanding habitats Which types of habitats can you create at school? • Rockeries/log/hot spots piles/pit-fall traps for mini beasts • Composters • Grasslands/Meadows • Hedgerows • Herb Gardens • Marshlands • Trees • Vegetable plots • Butterfly/bee garden • Ponds • Hibernating areas (minibeast hotel)

26. Science What type of pond?

27. Hibernating Areas

28. DT Science Build a nest using newspaper strips and tape. Can it hold four mini-eggs? And a tennis ball (parent bird)?

29. Science Pattern-seeking • What sort of information/data could you collect from different habitats throughout the year? Menu

30. Adaptation • Create their animal for a particular environment. • Provide the children with lots of props (e.g. snorkel, flippers, wings, etc) – can they become the animal and explain how it is suited to where it lives. Menu

31. Food chain headbands • Children choose a headband. • They must arrange themselves into a food chain without saying what they are. • They can pass along an arrow to show the passage of energy. Menu

32. Animal behaviour - Being a minibeast! Science • Use some drama to shrink the children. With a hand lens, 2 metres of string and some cocktail sticks they go on a journey as an animal. • They place their flags where they see something interesting or meet another animal. • They can then take a partner through the journey – talking about the life of the animal Menu

33. Science Curiosity Corner in the Classroom • What could be in it?

34. Recording and sharing • Learning log/diary (big books) • Photos and video • ICT – comic life, 2connect • Regular sharing in assemblies

35. Science Water - Geological rockery – permeable rocks; aquifers Geography

36. Geography Water - Investigating soil Science Menu

37. DT Science Energy - Mini Greenhouse

38. DT Science Energy - Heating water using the Sun Black bin liner Cardboard box

39. DT Science Energy - from water power

40. DT Science Weather - Making an anemometer Geography cane Broom handle Menu

41. DT Anemometer and weather vane Geography

42. Science Programme of Study: Key Stage 1 • The teaching of science in Key Stage 1 should introduce pupils to a variety of plants and animals (including humans), materials and physical phenomena. • Pupils should study (by working scientifically, working practically, and using a variety of research methods including using books and ICT): •  Basic structures and simple classification of common plants and animals •  Life processes, including growth, reproduction and feeding, and growing plants •  Habitats, including food chains •  Simple physical properties of everyday materials in relation to their uses •  Sources of light •  Night and day, and the movement of the Sun across the sky •  Forces that make things move, speed up and slow down, and change shape. • Science biographies, for example, Charles Darwin. • ‘

43. Science Programme of Study: Key Stage 1 • ‘Working scientifically’ is to be delivered through the teaching of substantive subject content, and is not to be taught separately as content in its own right. In Year 1 and Year 2, ‘working scientifically’ includes aspects of: •  Observing closely using simple equipment •  Performing simple tests •  Identifying and classifying •  Recording findings in various formats. • Ensure pupils read and write scientific vocabulary, consistent with their phonic knowledge at Key Stage 1.

44. Science Programme of Study: Lower Key Stage 2 • The teaching of science in Lower Key Stage 2 should ensure that pupils know about a variety of plants and animals (including humans), materials and everyday phenomena. • Pupils should study (by working scientifically, working practically, and using a variety of research methods including using books and ICT): •  The function of different parts of plants, and what plants need to survive •  What animals need to survive •  Movement in vertebrates, including humans •  Classification of living things: plants and animals •  Human digestion •  Food chains and food webs •  Introduction to evolution and inheritance •  Everyday materials that are attracted to magnets, or that sink/float •  How to make a magnet and the properties of magnets •  Simple physical properties of some kinds of rocks, and how rocks and fossils are formed •  States of matter and changes of state, with particular reference to water •  Sources of sound •  Light and shadows •  Solar systems and galaxies, including the motion of the Earth in relation to the Sun •  The uses of electricity, and how to wire a simple circuit. • Science biographies, for example, Carl Linnaeus, Charles Darwin, Nicholas Copernicus, Galileo Galilei and Neil Armstrong.

45. Science Programme of Study: Lower Key Stage 2 • ‘Working scientifically’ is to be delivered through the teaching of substantive subject content, and is not to be taught separately as content in its own right. In Year 3 and Year 4, ‘working scientifically’ builds on earlier content and also includes aspects of: •  setting up simple comparative and fair tests •  beginning to make accurate measurements using standard units •  recording findings in various formats •  reporting on findings •  using results to draw conclusions and make predictions for setting up further tests. • Ensure pupils read and spell scientific vocabulary correctly and with confidence, using their growing knowledge of spelling patterns and rules.

46. Science Programme of Study: Upper Key Stage 2 • The teaching of science in Upper Key Stage 2 should ensure that pupils know about a variety of plants and animals (including humans), materials and everyday phenomena. • Pupils should study (by working scientifically, working practically, and using a variety of research methods including using books and ICT): •  Life cycles, including reproduction and growth •  Human circulatory system and gaseous exchange •  The diversity of organisms, including classification •  Life processes, including reproduction •  Inheritance and evolution happening over long periods of time •  Testing everyday materials for: hardness, solubility, conductivity (heat and electricity), magnetic behaviour •  Properties of everyday materials and reversible change •  Changes that form new materials and are hard to reverse •  Types of force and measurement of forces •  Electrostatics and magnetism •  The basic parts of a simple electric series circuit; short circuits •  The ray model of light. • Science biographies, for example David Attenborough; Gerald Durrell, William Harvey, Galen, Charles Darwin, Sir Isaac Newton, and the Wright Brothers.

47. Science Programme of Study: Upper Key Stage 2 • ‘Working scientifically’ is to be delivered through the teaching of substantive subject content, and is not to be taught separately as content in its own right. In Year 5 and Year 6, ‘working scientifically’ builds on earlier content and also includes aspects of: •  Planning investigations, including controlling variables •  Taking measurements with increasing accuracy and precision •  Recording data and results of increasing complexity using various formats •  Reporting on findings from investigations, including written explanations, causal explanations and conclusions •  Presenting reports of findings in written form, displays and presentations •  Continuing to develop the ability to use test results to make predictions to set up further comparative and fair tests. • Ensure pupils read and spell all scientific vocabulary correctly.

48. Main Differences • Division of the Programme of Study (POS) – There will now be Key Stage 1 (KS1), Lower Key Stage 2 (LKS2) and Upper Key Stage 2 (UKS2). Planning issue • Scientific enquiry – now changed to ‘working scientifically’. • KS1 – Many components of Scientific Enquiry missing: ask questions, think about what might happen, recognising a test as fair/unfair, controlling risks, and reviewing their work. The emphasis in KS1 and LKS2 seems more on developing understanding through comparative testing than on doing fair tests. • Demonstrations – this has been highlighted as a teaching strategy • Structure of a lesson issue • Coverage – Within each Key Stage schools have the flexibility to introduce content earlier or later than set out in the POS. In addition, schools can introduce key stage content during an earlier stage if appropriate. Planning issue • Key stage 1 – Year 1 do not do ‘materials’, ‘sound’, ‘forces’, or ‘electricity’. Planning issue • Biographies – Resources issue • Using outdoor environments all year. Planning issue