Philosophy is concerned with fundamental questions about knowledge, truth, reality, experience, justice and what is right and wrong. In this article, the authors discuss how philosophy and science can be taught together in the primary classroom.

This article outlines Primary Science for All resources and ideas designed to raise engagement in science for pupils with special educational needs. The aims of the Primary Science for All project were to: (1) make science more accessible to primary school pupils with invisible special needs and to enhance their progress in science; and (2)…

In this article, Julian Grant, a Prep VI class teacher at Bridgewater School, Worsley, Manchester, explores the cross-curricular nature of language in scientific recording and how children can waken an audible science world with words. The ideas that came from what started as an applied vocabulary exercise demonstrated just how many…

The author describes a model designed to "improve science learning in 30 minutes" using an alternative perspective on a language-based kinaesthetic approach to teaching science. Identification of pupils' learning styles is commonplace throughout the education system, using the simple model of establishing whether the learners are…

"Evolution" is an area of the curriculum in which children show great interest and enthusiasm to learn more. They also bring considerable prior (though incomplete) knowledge from their informal "life worlds". Most children have encountered the term "evolution" from an early age and tend to define it in terms of…

Microbes (by definition) are tiny living things that are only visible through a microscope and include bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protoctists (mainly single-celled life forms such as amoebae and algae). Although people are familiar with the effects of microbes, such as infectious disease and food spoilage, because of their lack of visibility,…

Creating charts and graphs is all about visual abstraction: the process of representing aspects of data with imagery that can be interpreted by the reader. Children may need help making the link between the "real" and the image. This abstraction can be achieved using symbols, size, colour and position. Where the representation is close to what…

Assessing children's learning is a key part of teaching. In all curriculum areas it is used for informing planning of future learning experiences and assessing pupil progress. Specifically in science, it identifies knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts, reasoning, and practical skill development. There are various ways to assess,…

To develop children's understanding and ability to enquire, teachers need to create the conditions that promote thinking and the expression of ideas. Opportunities to wonder aloud, speculate, and form hypotheses are essential. These can be offered through the use of visual stimuli--objects and demonstrations, pictures and dramatic scenarios,…