Last week, we had a workshop about planning an investigation which I found really helpful. At the start of the workshop, our groups had to draw a picture of a scientist. This resulted in a handful of very similar images revolving around a middle-aged man with crazy, electrocuted hair wearing a lab jacket and holding a test tube. It really challenged me when the lecturer pointed out how no one had drawn a female scientist or one that was under the age of twelve or disabled or not middle/upper class. It hit me how much the stereotypes of society have infiltrated us all and the message that it sends to children- that they have be a certain kind of person to be a scientist.

Science begins when we start to question our everyday ideas. Iike this diagram of what we can do with children when we are questioning something in class. It follows a constructivist approach, in that we recognise our own misconceptions and intervene to challenge them by setting up a controlled experiment. This will result in the children and I reformulating our ideas and solidifying what we have found in the experiment.

Science experiments practice and develop a lot of different skills; observing, raising questions, predicting and hypothesising, planning and carrying out investigations, measuring, recording, evaluating and communicating. I thought that the planning sheets we used in our experiment were really helpful; planning an investigation can be quite daunting, but when you split it up it is a lot easier! I now feel a lot less nervous about planning an experiment with my pupils, and I plan to use the sheets with my class in the future.