The thought of teaching science to a class of eager students has always filled me with slight dread. This is partly due to having little experience of science throughout my own primary experience as well as lacking any confidence surrounding science knowledge and experiments.

I decided to engage with this module in the hope that through learning about the theories behind science pedagogy my confidence and subject knowledge would grow. Not only have I learned masses about certain scientific areas, I have also gained better confidence in planning and delivering lessons.

Going into our first group teaching lesson I was slightly apprehensive as this would be the first time I had taught science and the thought of teaching my first lesson to experienced primary 6 pupils was daunting. I believe that working as a group provided ‘strength by numbers’ but also gave us the opportunity to share knowledge and ideas. Having the support of other students was also a confidence boost as it allowed us to step in and support each other in any areas of weakness.

For our second group lesson again we were in a group. I felt much happier about the thought of teaching science to a group of primary 7’s. As a teacher it is my responsibility to make sure that I have a secure subject knowledge. when we were first shown the list of topics we could cover I knew that I would have to do a lot of research, however this was extremely beneficial as it meant I was engaged with the learning process and also helped me to judge how much of a topic we could cover in the given time and also how complex we could take the concept. After reflecting on my contributions to the first group lessons, I identified areas of personal weakness which I hoped to develop and improve on.

Firstly, I believed that it was important to have a set of questions prepared in order to assess learning throughout the lesson. Although we did have a set of pre-prepared questions it was also important for us to acknowledge and answer the questions presented by the children throughout the lesson.

Throughout my time at university I have repeatedly heard lecturers mention the “hook”. A way of sparking interests in a lesson and gaining instant engagement. This is something we struggled with in our first lesson as we had a more mundane experiment compared to some of the others surrounding us. However, by incorporating fly-sticks in this lesson we instantly had pupils hooked on our concept and managed to keep their attention throughout the lesson. As a teacher it is simply not enough to have a good opening, we must be able to explain the idea and the science behind it.

I believe our second group lesson flowed well as we each presented a different experiment based on the concept of static electricity. Again, the benefit of teaching with peers was that if any questions were presented that one person did not know the answer to we could rely on each other to fill in any gaps of knowledge.

By engaging in this module I have not only learned a huge amount about science, I have also gained a greater insight as to creating educational vlogs. I have never made a video before and was apprehensive of filming and producing videos which would form part of my assessment. However, as technology becomes an ever-expanding part of society it is important that as a teacher I engage with learning about how technology can be used in the classroom. Vlogging in this sense was a great way of exploring and sharing our own personal findings however this idea could be easily used in the primary classroom. It would also be reasonable to suggest that vlogs and voice notes could be featured as a form of teacher/peer feedback.

This module has improved my knowledge of both the science curriculum and methods of teaching which in turn has created a newfound sense of confidence in myself and my teaching abilities which I hope to put into practice on my next placement.

After visiting the Famous Grouse Distillery I created a video based on my findings. I thoroughly enjoyed the visit however had to cut back on the amount of information included in this video as I felt it was more important to focus on explaining the main process – fermentation.

I believe that using diagrams provides pupils with a clearer understanding as they can visualise the concept. Although the process of fermentation presents some complex concepts, it would be reasonable to suggest that some of these can be briefly mentioned. However, in order to explore fermentation pupils must have a profound understanding of solids, liquids and gases. They must be able to build upon this knowledge to then explore chemical changes.

Fermentation relates to multiple Experiences and Outcomes. It also provides a great context for cross-curricular learning. The Scottish drinks industry has a huge historical background which could be explored by children. Whisky in particular plays an important role in Scottish heritage which could provide multiple opportunities for research projects within the classroom.

Science

References:

The Scottish Government, (2009). Experiences and Outcomes: Social Studies. Available at:

https://www.education.gov.scot/Documents/social-studies-eo.pdf

The Scottish Government, (2009). Experiences and Outcomes: Sciences. Available at:

https://www.education.gov.scot/Documents/sciences-eo.pdf

Our lesson was based on the separation of water and oil. It was important for us to assess the class knowledge at the start of the lesson in order to structure the lesson to suit each group’s needs.

Each group brought new ideas, different levels of knowledge and importantly different questions. Children’s questions are central to science and enquiry. It is important to encourage children to ask questions which they can find solutions to. Providing a context which excites children and engages them is central to learning. One problem we faced was being surrounded by experiments which involved acid and alkali reactions. The excitement surrounding these experiments somewhat took away from the engagement with ours. In hindsight, as a group I believe it would’ve been beneficial to communicate with our peers and gain a better insight as to what other groups were doing. This perhaps would’ve helped us assess how to best put our ideas into practice.

Having prepared questions is also key to good assessment and learning. In hindsight this is something as a group we should have considered more closely. In our plenary we introduced the word emulsion which left children slightly confused. It would have been beneficial to introduce the word at the start of the lesson as a plenary should sum up learning. Assessing group work can be difficult, and what works for one group may necessarily not work for the next. In a situation where you are unfamiliar with the children and their preferred learning styles it may be of benefit to have more than one prepared method of assessment. Assessment should not only tell a teacher what a pupil has learned, partly learned, and not learned at all. It should also identify areas of teacher improvement. By assessing our own performance we have the ability to adapt and improve our lesson for the next group, meaning that by the time the last group arrive our lesson should be well polished and clear.

Central to the constructivist theory of teaching and learning is social interaction. Children should be encouraged to share their thinking and ideas with their peers through talk. It was hard to engage all children in talk as they were unfamiliar with us as a group of teachers. Finding other ways to engage pupils in talk, breaking the ice or perhaps asking them to share ideas with a partner instead of the whole group would have possibly worked better. However, without knowing the children it was hard to plan for these uncertainties.

Identifying areas of weakness, as well as  areas of strength, will help my future practice. The issues raised from today’s lesson should help inform my planning for the next group lesson. This lesson has also contributed to building my confidence as a science teacher as it was a good experience having other contributors to the lesson to learn from and create a wider knowledge base.