Daily Archives: March 4, 2014

CfE, Mathematics, Sciences, Technologies

New Water Learning Journeys for STEM Central

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                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          STEM Central supports the delivery of teaching in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.   

Through Learning in Context, practitioners can source information, resources, learning journeys and videos for nine learning contexts, including Food Security, Transport and Water.

To support and enhance the existing Water context section we have added three new learning journeys:

Changing States – Early Level

  • learners explore the changing states of water as they investigate freezing, melting, boiling and evaporation.

Travelling on Water – First Level

  • learners investigate floating, sinking and buoyancy and develop their understanding of the concept of density and Archemides’ Principle.

Uses of Water – Second Level

  • through science challenges and investigations learners improve their knowledge and understanding of the different uses of water in Scotland and the world e.g. as source of power or use in recreation.

The new water learning journey format incorporates the Design Principles demonstrating their relevance to planning enjoyable, contextualised and challenging learning experiences and in identifying appropriate forms of assessment.

There are supporting resources for each new journey and links identified for additional learning and teaching opportunities.  

Access the water learning journeys and supporting resources on STEM Central  

http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/stemcentral/contexts/water/index.asp

CfE, Sciences

Sciences – National Qualifications Update

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 Sciences – National Qualifications Update

 We can now confirm that three Higher Cross-Authority Writing Workshops will now take place as follows:

 Session 1 – Evening session 5pm – 7:30pm on Wednesday 19th March and all day Thursday 20th March 2014. Venue: Stirling Management Centre, Stirling

 Session 2 – Thursday 24th April 2014. Venue: SSERC, Dunfermline

 Session 3 – Tuesday 27th May 2014. Venue: Glasgow, to be confirmed. Note: Date changed due to clash with Biology Markers’ Meeting.

 The purpose of the days will be to provide practitioners with the opportunity to share existing materials developed for the Higher Sciences qualifications and co-develop further materials as required including resources for each Higher Unit, banks of questions etc. Our hope is that we will have groups collaborating to support all five sciences Highers including: Biology, Human Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Environmental Science. Education Scotland and SQA colleagues will also be attending to work alongside practitioners.

Each local authority is invited to identify one practitioner to attend. This should be a Faculty Head, Principal Teacher and/or someone with experience of developing course materials for national qualifications.  Nominations should be sent to Grant.McAllister@educationscotland.gov.uk by 5pm Monday 10th March 2014. When submitting nominations please provide the following details: name, role, school, email, subject specialism and dietary requirements. Our hope is that the same representative will attend all three events to ensure continuity but we realise that this may not always be possible.

One place for each local authority is guaranteed providing nominations are received by the deadline. Places not claimed by this point will be reallocated to other authorities. A limited number of reserve places will also be available to ensure balance across each of the five Higher qualifications. Authorities can nominate a second individual, from a different subject specialism, to be added to this list. We will notify reserve list nominees about availability of places shortly after the deadline on the 10th March.

Other updates:

Please note: you may need to click the compatibility view icon and/or refresh button in the top navigation bar of your internet browser to see the videos.

 

 An extensive range of course materials for Higher Sciences is available from Education Scotland’s NQ Higher Sciences website: http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/highersciences/

The cross authority writing group’s approach to National 5 Hydrogels assignment has been published on the NQ Glow portal. http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/nqcoursematerials/subjects/c/nqresource_tcm4827127.asp .

Highland council have kindly shared their mapping of changes from traditional higher to CfE Higher for Biology, Chemistry, Human Biology and Physics. Again available on the NQ Glow Portal.

South Lanarkshire have produced a guide to assessments in the sciences at national 3, 4 & 5. This has been adapted to into subject specific versions and are available on the NQ glow portal http://bit.ly/1lcuFGn

 

The sciences glow 365 site http:\bit.ly/glowsciences continues to be populated with more materials including resources for National 4 & 5 Biology, Chemistry and Physics.

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation has an educators’ group: http://is.gd/circulareconomy. The Ellen MacArthur foundation has a number of resources suitable across the sciences and interdisciplinary learning activities. The Scotland’s Environment Website Youth Discussion competition is aimed at 5-18 yr olds and closes on 31 March. The competition has an environmental theme so it could cover a range of areas within the curriculum.

CfE, Community Capacity Building, Community Resilience, Early Years, Health and wellbeing, Outdoor Learning, Responsibility of All, Sciences, Senior Phase, Skills, Social studies, Technologies, Young people, children & families

Community Resilience Education – Conversation Day and Networking Event – Mon 17th March 2014

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Time: 09:30 (for 10:00 start) – 15:00

Venue: Glasgow Hilton Hotel, William Street, Glasgow, G3 8HT

Education Scotland is excited to be hosting its first community resilience conversation and networking event with a view to developing a shared, partnership approach to provide 3-18 resilience education opportunities.

The day aims to bring together members of the Scottish Government, emergency planning and civil contingencies teams from local councils, representatives from local education authorities, and members of other key organisations to consider community resilience as a rich and exciting context for teaching and learning focusing on a range of contexts such as flooding and other forms of extreme weather and their impact on our lives.

Conversation activities will provide delegates with opportunities to network with one another and engage in professional dialogue in relation to preparing for emergencies and developing resilient communities. Selected examples of good practice will also be shared through engaging presentations delivered by government, local council and school representatives.

We would like to invite you to take part in the event at the Glasgow Hilton Hotel on the 17th March 2014 to explore how we might take forward resilience education and consider important developments in teaching and learning. Places will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. There is no cost to attend.

We would be grateful if you could register online at http://svy.mk/Mb8ZM7 by Monday 10th March 2014 to confirm your attendance and inform us of any special dietary or access requirements you may have.

Health and wellbeing, Mathematics, Outdoor Learning, Responsibility of All, Skills, Social studies

Statistical Accounts of Scotland

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Education Scotland has uploaded some new materials illustrating good practice on to the Studying Scotland website.

Discover how primary teachers at Eaglesham Primary School used the Statistical Accounts of Scotland to further enhance their learning. Learners used these primary sources to make a connection with the past through their interdisciplinary Victorians project. Watch the video to find out how the pupils used a variety of approaches to learning whilst undertaking their focus on the history of their community including Outdoor Learning, Rights Respecting Schools as well as Learning about Scotland.