In this article, we present some practical tips primary teachers might use to help their students understand adaptations. We also aim to raise awareness of the learning progression towards understanding one of the big ideas of science. A key message is the role that language plays in presenting scientifically accurate ideas about adaptations.

Light is a topic that is often taught in year 3 (ages 7-8) in English schools, where children learn that light is needed for us to see, that it can be reflected from shiny surfaces and that shadows form when light is blocked by an object. They may also have some experience of how the size of shadows changes when the distance between a light source…

In this article, year 6 teacher (ages 10-11) Rebecca Towner-Yates shares a case study where science led the way for learning in her class. Based on her experience, she concludes that science can offer opportunities for children who may otherwise switch off from learning to switch back on. Science can offer the disengaged a path back, a chance for…

In her current role as an adviser with Herts for Learning, the author finds that most of the support primary schools across the county have been asking for centres around assessment and ideas for making the new curriculum practical and "hands on". In this article, she outlines how she created resources to support assessment in science…

This paper demonstrates the positive impact of learning through ecological fieldwork upon children's ability to write, and to write about science. Specifically we have carried out a relatively large-scale study (involving 379 children aged 9-11 years from 8 primary schools in North East England) comparing intervention classes (involved in…

There are many transition points in the school life of a child, but the move from primary to secondary school is a particularly significant one. How can both the social and academic threads remain intact? In this article, Kristen Mould discusses the main issues relating to transition from primary to secondary science. She cites the primary factors…

Gender balance in computing education is a decades-old issue that has been the focus of much previous research. In K-12, the introduction of mandatory computing education goes some way to giving all learners the opportunity to engage with computing throughout school, but a gender imbalance still persists when computer science becomes an elective…

Two groups of year 6 pupils (age 10-11 years) each experienced science practical lessons that were essentially identical but for one difference: one group (theory-led) were told by the teacher what result they should expect, and the other group (hypothetico-deductive) were not. The theory-led group demonstrated experimental bias, recording results…

A keen personal interest in natural history, involvement in environmental organisations, and experience, first as a secondary biology teacher and later as a field teacher, means that this author has spent many years working outdoors. Any part of the curriculum involving ecological concepts would lead her to open the door and go outside. She…

Fox Hill Primary School is part of a family of schools in Sheffield that is piloting the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust Primary Specialism for Science. In parallel to this work, Fox Hill participated in the Smarter Schools project from September 2008-2009. This project, funded by the AstraZeneca Science Teaching Trust, was set up by the…

Since the demise of the key stage 2 (age 11) science Standard Assessment Tests (SATs) in England, teachers have been getting to grips with the issue of teacher assessment. Although arguably providing a more valid picture of children's scientific enquiry skills than a paper-and-pencil test, observations of investigations in progress face the…

After the removal of the science SATs (Standard Assessment Tests) written paper for the end of key stage 2 (11 year-olds, year 6) in England, some teachers and leaders were jumping for joy while others were left wondering "What do we do with year 6?" Uncertainty about the future of science assessment made many feel uneasy. With no…

In this article, the authors describe a research project designed to explore the effects of science testing in Year 6 (age 11) in England and implications of the abolition of testing in Wales since 2004. The research was commissioned by the Welcome Trust in association with the ASE to inform representation to the House of Commons Select Committee…

This book contains a compilation of papers presented at the International Conference on Education and New Developments (END 2017), organized by the World Institute for Advanced Research and Science (W.I.A.R.S.). Education, in our contemporary world, is a right since we are born. Every experience has a formative effect on the constitution of the…