Science
Queens’ Federation: Science Subject Statement
Intent
At the Queens’ Federation we aim to foster ‘Learning for Life.’
We will provide a rich, relevant and inspirational curriculum that promotes a lifelong love of learning and equips our pupils with the key knowledge and understanding, skills and personal qualities that they will need to thrive in a rapidly changing world. Our curriculum is designed to be relevant to our children and is linked to the context of our school and the local community.
At the Queens’ Federation, it is our aim to provide a high quality science curriculum that provides pupils with a strong understanding of the world around them whilst acquiring specific skills and knowledge to help them think scientifically and develop scientific enquiry skills. Our curriculum will enable pupils to become enquiry based learners collaborating through researching, investigating and evaluating a wide range of experiences.
Pupils will be encouraged to understand how science can be used to explain what is occurring, predict how things will behave and analyse causes. It will provide opportunities for the critical evaluation of evidence and rational explanation of scientific phenomena as well as opportunity to apply wider curriculum knowledge to their understanding of science, including collecting, presenting and analysing data. Pupils will be immersed in scientific vocabulary, which supports the acquisition of scientific knowledge and understanding.
Implementation
Encouraging children to ask questions, allowing them to indulge their curiosities and build on their abilities to find scientific answers by both logical enquiry and keen observation is at the heart of teaching and learning in science at the Queens’ Federation. Scientific enquiry skills are embedded into each topic that the pupils study. Topics are revisited and developed throughout their time at school allowing pupils to build upon their prior knowledge and increase their understanding of all areas of science.
At the Queens’ Federation, our science curriculum is enriched through the use of cross-curricular links which make learning purposeful and relevant. We endeavor to provide regular on and off site science related experiences and provide opportunities to learn outdoors where appropriate, making learning relevant to our local area. We further supplement our curriculum with engaging science events and by utilising experts from within the local and wider community.
We view assessment as a holistic process, which takes place in every lesson through observation of, in questioning and in conversation with pupils and in the production of written outcomes. Science assessment criteria set out the key knowledge and skills that a pupil should achieve at the end of each unit of work.
Impact
At the Queens’ Federation pupils will develop a sense of excitement and curiosity about science. Our curriculum provides them with the necessary skills and knowledge to become young scientists and builds foundations for understanding the world that they can take with them once they complete their primary education. Pupil outcomes evidence a broad and balanced science curriculum and at the end of each year, pupils achieve age related expectations and retain the knowledge and skills learnt from each unit of work.
Yearly Overview
Examples Of Learning
STEM Days
Queen Emma have loved partaking in our STEM days this year! A shocking discovery was made, whereby a new planet has been found by NASA and the conditions on the planet suggest life could exit! We read the BBC news article about the planet and had an amazing opportunity to speak to Dr Chetwynd from the Babraham Institute via a zoom assembly. The children asked him many thought provoking questions and used their existing scientific knowledge to suggest what the creature might be like. We then spent the first day, unpicking the news articles and thinking about what type of creature may live on the planet, based on the data we had and our science knowledge. We then worked in groups to design the creature. During the second day, we made prototypes of our creatures using junk modelling and presented these to our phases. Each phases selected a winner and these were announced in our whole school assembly. Finally, we evaluated our work by noting the strengths and weaknesses of our prototypes in relations to our scientific knowledge about the creature. We hope our prototypes and findings help contribute to this amazing discovery!
Pupils Voice – Science
Science on Display
Take a look at these photos to see some of the lovely ways Science is being celebrated in our school.
Year 1
In Science, Year 1 have been learning about the planets in our solar system. We have learnt the planets names, their sizes and their colours. We used this knowledge to accurately colour in the planets before carefully cutting the planets out and sticking them in the correct order. Well done Year 1!
Year 1 have been finding out about plants. First, we looked at the structure of plants. Then we explored the school grounds to find out about different types of wild plant. We identified dandelions, daisies, buttercups and nettles. In pairs, we recorded our findings in a tally chart. We discovered that daisies are the most common type of wildflower growing on the field; buttercups are the least common. We also spotted some cowslips which were very pretty.
Year 2
In Year 2, the children have been finding out about everyday uses of materials. We have been identifying and comparing the suitability of a variety of everyday materials for particular uses. We explored how the shapes of solid objects made from some materials can be changed by squashing, bending, twisting and stretching. The children found out about ‘fair tests’ and then decided on what materials they would use for a pet home. They made models out of a variety of materials and we then carried out tests on waterproof materials having made predictions. We then discussed our results. It was great fun!
Year 3
Year 3 have enjoyed their work on ‘animals including humans’ in science lessons. They have been thinking about healthy diets and the human body.
Year 4
Our Science School lead; Ms Halliwell, really wanted to hear what Year 4 thought about Science so she asked them whether they enjoyed the subject and why. These three pupils all said the following;
““I love Science because you get to do lots of fun experiments. It’s so different from all the other lessons because you don’t get to do that in other subjects like English.”
“I would like to do more Science as we only do it once a week and some other subjects we do every day.”
“I really like doing long experiments over time as it makes me feel like a proper scientist. We recently did an experiment where we left an egg in different liquids like vinegar, cola, water and orange juice to see what happened to its shell. The shell was supposed to be our teeth and I couldn’t believe how decomposed it was in the vinegar and cola!”
“My favourite is when we get to go outside for Science, which we do quite a bit.”
Here are some examples of the work that they are most proud of covering topics such as the human body, sound and an experiment all about teeth. Thank you so much Year 4 for sharing all your wonderful thoughts and work.
Year 5
We had lots of fun celebrating the end of our topic with a Space Day. The children came dressed in some great costumes. We played some games to develop our teamwork and communication skills, as well as doing some coding on the iPads. We also had a go at making paper rockets which would be propelled by air blown through a straw.
We have been learning about the lunar cycle. We looked at the different ways the moon appears to us and why this happens. We then used Oreos to recreate this pattern.
We worked together in small groups to act out and describe the movement of the sun, earth and moon in relation to each other. One person was the sun, who stood in the middle, while they were orbited by a rotating earth. At the same time, the moon was orbiting and rotating the earth.
We enjoyed conducting an investigation into water resistance. We created different shapes out of plasticine, dropped them into a funnel of water and timed how long they took to reach the bottom. We discovered that more streamlined shapes were quicker to reach the bottom. We also spent some time evaluating the investigation and discussing what improvements could be made.
Year 6
Year 6 have been taking part in a longitudinal study of microorganisms. They have been looking to see what microorganisms grow on bread in different conditions. The pupils had to check up on their bread, draw a diagram in their books of their findings and predict what may continue to happen for next week. They discussed how to treat the experiment with care, therefore ensuring that the results were valid. The lesson ended by discussing and sorting whether the effects of different microorganisms were positive or negative eg mould, chicken pox, flu, making cheese, antibiotics, decomposing matter. I wonder what the bread will look like in the coming weeks when they next check on it!
In year 6 we have been investigating wires. We know these studies give us answers to a targeted focus question, but one student found it created more questions. Delighted, she then exclaimed “I need to do another experiment to figure out why!” A Scientist in the making!
In science we explored refraction, and looked at an example through water and glass. We noted our findings when we finished.
We put into practise the periscope activity from science to check our understanding of the law of reflection. We then noted our observations and findings of how it worked.