Aims and purposes of science
The exemplar scheme is underpinned by assumptions about the aims and purposes of teaching science at key stages 1 and 2, which also underpin the National Curriculum programme of study. These are that science teaching should offer opportunities for children to:
- develop knowledge and understanding of important scientific ideas, processes and skills and relate these to everyday experiences;
- learn about ways of thinking and of finding out about and communicating ideas;
- explore values and attitudes through science.
Knowledge and understanding
Children should:
- be curious about things they observe, and experience and explore the world about them with all their senses;
- use this experience to develop their understanding of key scientific ideas and make links between different phenomena and experiences;
- begin to think about models to represent things they cannot directly experience;
- try to make sense of phenomena, seeking explanations and thinking critically about claims and ideas.
Processes and skills
Children should:
- acquire and refine the practical skills needed to investigate questions safely;
- develop skills of predicting, asking questions, making inferences, concluding and evaluating based on evidence and understanding and use these skills in investigative work;
- practise mathematical skills eg counting, ordering numbers, measuring to an appropriate number of decimal places, drawing and interpreting graphs and bar charts in real contexts;
- learn why numerical and mathematical skills are useful and helpful to understanding.
Language and communication
Children should:
- think creatively about science and enjoy trying to make sense of phenomena;
- develop language skills through talking about their work and presenting their own ideas using sustained and systematic writing of different kinds;
- use scientific and mathematical language including technical vocabulary and conventions, and draw diagrams and charts to communicate scientific ideas;
- read non-fiction and extract information from sources such as reference books or CD-ROMs.
Values and attitudes
Children should:
- work with others, listening to their ideas and treating these with respect;
- develop respect for evidence and evaluate critically ideas which may or may not fit evidence available;
- develop a respect for the environment and living things and for their own health and safety.
Building on children's earlier experiences
Many children will have attended reception and nursery classes where they will have had opportunities to find out and learn about the world they live in. These experiences are likely to have included:
- asking questions about why things happen;
- investigating a wide variety of objects and materials in the natural and made world;
- learning about themselves and living things;
- looking closely at similarities and differences, patterns and change;
- talking about their observations and sometimes recording them.
The differing backgrounds children have in scientific learning offer a significant challenge to teachers. By observing children's developing understanding of scientific knowledge and ideas, teachers will be able to ascertain what tasks and expectations would best support their learning.
Expectations
The end of unit expectations broadly correspond to levels in the National Curriculum for science, as set out below.
- year 2 - level 2
- year 4 - level 3
- year 6 - level 4
For units designed to be taught in years 1, 3 and 5, the end of unit expectations are usually pitched slightly lower. However, where units for these years cover material from Life Processes and Living Things, Materials and their Properties and Physical Processes that are not revisited in a year 2, 4 or 6 unit - as in Unit 5F Changing sounds - then the expectations related to that unit broadly match the level descriptions for level 2, 3 and 4 respectively.
Features of progression
To ensure children make progress in science, teaching should provide opportunities for children, as they move through key stages 1 and 2, to progress:
- from using everyday language to increasingly precise use of technical and scientific vocabulary, notation and symbols;
- from personal scientific knowledge in a few areas to understanding in a wider range of areas and of links between areas;
- from describing events and phenomena to explaining events and phenomena;
- from explaining phenomena in terms of their own ideas to explaining phenomena in terms of accepted ideas or models;
- from participating in practical science activities to building increasingly abstract models of real situations;
- from unstructured exploration to more systematic investigation of a question;
- from using simple drawings, diagrams and charts to represent and communicate scientific information to using more conventional diagrams and graphs.
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