I bet you didn’t know… (Primary Science Teaching Trust)

Aimed at teachers interested in introducing cutting-edge/topical science research projects to primary age children, the Primary Science Teaching Trust has created freely downloadable ‘I bet you didn’t know…’ articles suitable for the primary science curriculum.

Using the articles and accompanying Teacher Guides can engage and stimulate the children through the creation of a rich context for learning.

Fellows of the PSTT’s Primary Science Teacher College are gathering recent research papers (published within the last two years) to write articles which explain cutting-edge science research in language that primary children can understand.

The ‘I bet you didn’t know…’ articles explain what scientists have done and what they have discovered, suggest questions for children and teachers to consider in the classroom and describe activities that children can do to mirror the research. An over view of the articles, topics and the age group it is suitable for can be found here:

IBYDK_overview_Jan_22.xlsx (live.com)

A new ‘I bet you didn’t know…’ article describing cutting-edge science research will be published every month on their web-page; these can be freely downloaded. I bet you didn’t know… | Primary Science Teaching Trust (pstt.org.uk)

A Teacher Guide PowerPoint accompanies each article to provide:

• suggestions of how the learning might fit into the science curriculum
• guidance on appropriate age groups
• quick activities that could be used as a starter to engage children in a related science lesson, as an extension at the end of a lesson, or even as an assembly
• longer investigations for a  whole science lesson
• symbols indicating the enquiry approaches and enquiry skills used in the activities
• questions to stimulate further learning
• maths links that could be made to develop maths skills
• writing links that would could be made to develop writing in different genres