Louise's Blog

Key features for a good science lesson

Key Features of a good science lesson:

A good science lesson:

is designed to stimulate the interest and motivation of children
allows flexibility and choice
teacher need to have strong subject expertise and be enthusiastic about their subject
creates a positive ethos for learning
includes opportunities to allow children to become actively involved in their learning by using questioning
allows children to independently or collaboratively with others – allowing them to discuss and reflect on ideas and their experiences.
Includes the use of cooperative learning techniques with children and young people to develop these skills.
develop citizenship skills by providing appropriate opportunities for children to develop respect and learn to care for living things such as: eco gardens
making good use of current issues
provides opportunities for learning out-of-doors, field trips, visits to science centres, local, national and sometimes international facilities.
Investigation work helps
Scientific communication
Higher-order thinking skills – helps challenge study in-depth in open-ended investigation and projects
Outdoor learning promote early science skills and develop children’s interests

Food and Health

Familarise yourself with First & Second Level Health and Wellbeing Experiences and Outcomes.

develop my self-awareness, self-worth and respect for others

meet challenges, manage change and build relationships
experience personal achievement and build my resilience and confidence
understand and develop my physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing and social skills
understand how what I eat, how active I am and how decisions I make about my behaviour and relationships affect my physical and mental wellbeing
participate in a wide range of activities which promote a healthy lifestyle
understand that adults in my school community have a responsibility to look after me, listen to my concerns and involve others where necessary
learn about where to find help and resources to inform choices
assess and manage risk and understand the impact of risk-taking behaviour
reflect on my strengths and skills to help me make informed choices when planning my next steps
acknowledge diversity and understand that it is everyone’s responsibility to challenge discrimination.
Have a close look at the Food & Health section.

Key E’s and O’s for Food & Health

understand and develop my physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing and social skills
understand how what I eat, how active I am and how decisions I make about my behaviour and relationships affect my physical and mental wellbeing
participate in a wide range of activities which promote a healthy lifestyle

Plan 3 lessons to develop at least one of the E’s & O’s.

Linked to the E and O:
By investigating food labelling systems, I can begin to understand how to use them to make healthy food choices HWB 2-36a

I would organise a lesson which would include asking the children to bring in packaging from home, I would also provide packaging from home and any resources within the school – the packaging should include the ingredients as well as the nutrition facts/serving facts on the labels. The packaging brought in can be a mixture of health and unhealthy foods.

With the packaging brought into school, the packaging will be scattered around the tables and in pairs, working in a group, they must decide if the food contained within the packaging is healthy or unhealthy. There will be an area within the class to place the packaging into a healthy area and unhealthy area. As a whole class, we would discuss and talk about the foods in each area allowing children to justify why they think it’s healthy or not.

The aim of the activity would be to identify the foods that we as a society we think are healthy and in fact they may contain higher sugar and fat content than foods we see as being unhealthy. This will allow pupils to make decisions about healthy eating by knowing where to look, what the labels on packaging tell us and allow them to make healthy choices.

Linked to the E and O:
I can understand how advertising and the media are used to influence consumers HWB 2-37a

To allow children to understand how advertising and the media are used to influence people I would have on each desk a picture printed on their desk. Firstly, within pairs they will discuss ‘What they see?’ – related to healthy foods and fitness thinking about the objects/person in the picture, ‘what do you think the picture is telling us?’ allowing children to feel confident to discuss their thoughts with their partner. After this, I would like to ask the children to come up with where they might see these pictures that are in front of them. Lastly, I would ask the pupils to design their own logo or brand using different materials, fabrics, paints, pencils, pens, that they think that may attract people to buy their product and why. They will then present their idea to the table and try as hard as they can to try sell their product/tempt their friends to buy it.

This activity will help children understand the importance of advertising and media have on society to buy what we think may be healthy as well as the branding/ people who support or advertise products.

Linked to the E and O:
Through exploration and discussion, I can understand that food practices and preferences are influenced by factors such as food sources, finance, culture and religion HWB 2-34a

I would prepare and organise a food tasty activity that would include foods from different countries. Before organising this, content forms would need to be sent to parents that include the list of foods that will be used – for culture reasons, allergies or other reasons.

This activity would allow children to explore foods from all different countries they may have not tried before and discuss if they like it or not and why? This activity could include discuss about where the food comes from, how and where they think it grows and how much do they think the food would cost to buy. This will allow children to feel confident in exploring and discussing their likes and dislikes of foods from trying it within the food tasty activity.

Which other curricular areas might be a large focus with these planned activities?
Literacy
Numeracy
Art
Drama
ICT
Social Subjects
Science

Relationships

Suzanne Zeedyk is a current theorist who explores the study of neuroscience. Zeedyk explains how important the pre-birth stage is as well as the development outside the womb and stressed that development of the brain doesn’t stop when children are aged 3 within her Youtube clip. Suzanne Zeedyk believes neuroscience helps babies brains function properly and development continues to help children gain new skills, knowledge and to be able to cope with positive and negative relationships, Zeedyk explains in the Youtbube clip that brains will develop depending on the relationships they have with family members, she goes into further detail and explains some children experience living in household that have domestic violence and the brain will learn how to cope with threatening environments as it will monitor threats which cause child’s brains to have a mindset of ‘Who is going to shout next’ which leads children focusing on being stressed and worried leaving them unable to concentrate and focus on work tasks as some children see the world as a threatening place. Deedyk deeply explains that when the mind is stressed and in a state of worry, cortizone is realised which is why some children who have difficult lives at home are ‘unable to sit down and be quiet’. Children who feel anxious, stress and unable to cope are looking for ‘SaverTooth Tigers’ according to Suzanne Zeedyk, the tigers being people who protect and nuture those who feel these emotions. She believesemotional attachment evolves from inside the womb from babies hearing voices from the outer world and then be able to have skin on skin contact with their mother’s which creates an attachment to allow babies to feel loved and safe. This feeling grows through-out later life because parents can be seen as comfort when their child is faced with harm or fear. Emotional connections between a parent and a child allows the child to feel safe and emotional connection grows when they have strong, positive interactions with one another.

From watching the Youtube clip with eyes of a practitioner going into placement and in the near future having my own class, I have understood the background as to why some children don’t have the ability to concentrate for long periods of time as well as why some children may be late. This allows me to be cautions of keeping children for too long on the carpet and instead having shorter periods sitting as a whole class and having more activity-based lessons. I have also learned from the video and through lectures that raising your voice to get the class attention isn’t the most effective way of communication and some children leave a home environment where shouting is the ‘norm’ and children don’t want to experience this within a classroom where they should feel safe and secure.

Positive, Fair and Consistent

The values task proved that a teacher who uses negative words and treats individuals different can cause an individual to feel upset, become disengaged and can begin to doubt their ability leading them to lack self-confidence. I experienced these feelings myself during this group task.

The task involved 4 different groups within the room, 2 groups were given resource packs which had a greater amount of content within it and the group I was in along with another group had resource packs with less resources in it.

We had; a few pens, 3 pieces of paper, 2 paper clips, 3 post it notes, blue tac and 2 elastic bands.

With these resources, as a group, we had to create something for a new student starting at Dundee University. Throughout the activity, the teacher was giving the 2 groups who had greater resources inputs and help on how they can make their ideas better and gave the group I was in along with the other group who had less resources very little help and didn’t spend time with us when we were preparing our poster and chatter box.

We had to present our ideas to the rest of the groups and while we were doing this the teacher was very disengaged, blunt and didn’t clap for the 2 groups with the less resources. Positive comments and feedback was given to the 2 groups who had the most resources and applauded them for their hard work. The 2 groups who had the most resources won the prize as they were given the biggest points for effort and overall presentation.

This was disheartening as our group tried extremely hard and worked well as a group to come up with a colourful and creative idea to provide a new student starting at University. It was frustrating to know a group who copied one of our ideas had won the challenge and received a prize as we came up with the chatterbox idea first. As a groups we were annoyed by this and felt we done a great job.

This activity was an eye opener and it clearly explored the idea that no child within a classroom should made to feel their work isn’t good enough as every individual in the classroom tries their best. It also shows that every child should be treated fairly and each child should be provided with the same resources from the teacher such as: stationary for the table. This way children aren’t arguing about or commenting on each other belongings as people come from all different backgrounds and shouldn’t be treated differently because of this. Children who are given the same resources within a classroom are therefore not being judged. It also reminded myself for someone who is going into the Education world that every child should be treated the same and positive language should be used at all times. This is the reason why some schools use: 2 stars and a wish as this is focusing on mainly the positives within a child’s work.

Inspiration for Teaching

14, a number that won’t be forgotten: The age I was when I knew teaching was for me. It was the time my mum became ill, our roles switched. I was the mum, she was the daughter. I had many jobs around the house including helping my mum to read and write again: making her a scrap book of pictures and words to help her understand the meaning of them. The feeling of achievement when she started learning words was truly amazing and being able to see the progression from her knowing no words to now being able to know what words describe what object. This life changing experience was a way of me being able to identify that I wanted to be the teacher who everyone remembers for going above and beyond and to help every pupil achieve their full potential.

After this, I went to college for further education which confirmed Teaching is the career I want to pursue. I have been in placement within a Nursery as well as a Primary Two class. Within this role, I planned and set up lessons, allowing me to widen my own understanding of the roles a teacher needs to have to make sure every pupil or child is engaged in their learning. I have learned that each pupil has different learning styles and to support those who have difficulties at home, during school or due to a disability which I could personally relate to due to my mum falling ill.

One of my main goals when I become a Teacher is to be apart of the growth of a child’s development and see how they grow to confident individuals which allow them to feel prepared for Secondary School. I have the skills which will be used to ensure children reach this stage but also know it won’t be easy, through experience and developing my skills during my time at University.

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