Science Curriculum The National Curriculum

Jacoby claims that girls who opt out of math and science at the ripe age of 16 are sure to fail in the world of science and technology, as they are “eliminating themselves from any serious possibility of studying science as a result of decisions made during the vulnerable period of mid adolescence…” (Jacoby, 2004.) While

Standard: K-2, Science is a way of knowing… Science knowledge helps us know about the world.

The process skills approach to teaching is defined as the educator helping children develop science skills and processes to confidently undertake their own investigations (Campbell, 2012). These skills are developed through: communicating, science language, asking questions, making sense of phenomena, predicting, modelling, conducting investigations, planning, testing, observing, reasoning, and drawing conclusions of science concepts (Campbell, 2012). When the educator assist children’s learning, it is important to put the emphasis on the nature of science and scientific concepts. Guided discovery approach to teaching requires the educator to ask effective questions that encourage children to explore and extend their investigations throughout science learning (Campbell, 2012). This can be developed through play experiences as children explore their world around them. An interactive approach to teaching children is based on questions that lead explorations and the educators to provide essential resources to guide these explorations (Campbell, 2012). It is the educators’ responsibility to support children’s development, ideas, questions, ways of thinking, and develop scientific thinking. Furthermore, an inquiry approach to teaching relates to children investigating the answers to their own

When teaching natural sciences and technology, teachers need to promote an understanding of seeing these subjects as activities to promote curiosity and enjoyment about the world and that what we encounter around us. The history of science and technology should also be integrated with other subjects. Science and technology should be seen as a contribution to social justice and societal development (Motshekga, 2011). A growing need of discovery in science and technology needs to be promoted in order to form interest in ourselves, society and

Wheelers said that when kids are little they love science and find all aspects of it extremely fascinating, however, when many students get to middle school and high school, then the science information gets drilled out in lectures and tests all while students are competing against one another to get the best grade.

This framework builds on previous high quality works in science education: Science for All Americans (1989), Benchmarks for Science Literacy (1993), and NSES (1996). Unlike these previous standards, the importance of having the scientific and educational research communities was taken into the process for developing the framework. Thus, the most current research on science and science learning was grounded when identifying the science that all K-12 students should know, which increased its scientific validity and accuracy. The second step was facilitated by Achieve, Inc. with the recognition of the importance of state and educator leadership in the development of the actual standards. Thus, state policy leaders, higher education, K–12 teachers, and the science and business community were involved when developing Next Generation of Science Standards

Benchmarks for Science Literacy is a part of project 2061. It outlines that what all students should know or be able to do in science in K-12 setting. It is a companion report to Science for All Americans (SFAA). Benchmarks are put together in a way that is similar to textbook. It is divided into chapters just like SFAA. There are comments on the ideas to be learned in the chapter along with general terms. Each chapter has sections like introductions on pacing, clarification of ideas, and common difficulties and they are broken down into grade spans. There are statements of what students should know at the end of each grade span: K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12. It can be used to explore the concept of science literacy in

same things. It covers what subjects are taught and the standards children should reach in each

Based on the NSTA Position statement, the curriculum of science from kindergarten through 12 grades has kept changing during the century of rapid development of science. Those changes increase the complexity of teaching and learning science. Teachers are required to design the science class that provides sufficient and effective activities of science to students. In addition, students are expected to complete the task by following the instruction and to adopt the factual knowledge replacing the superficial information or isolated facts. The importance of science programs is to assist students to adapt the community of the well-developed science, and develop student’s self-assessment skills.

This assignment will discuss the challenges and benefits for pupil’s learning when Mathematics is connected to Science. This cross-curricular link has been chosen as I wish to further deepen my understanding of Science and its cross-curricular links to Mathematics. The essay will explain what role Mathematics and Science play within the National curriculum, what cross-curricularity means followed by the discussion of the challenges and benefits including examples of how these are applied in work-based practice at primary school within upper key stage 2.

This assignment is a case study of a child’s engagement, inquiry skills and understanding of physical or chemical understandings. There are two parts to the assignment that build to the final case study report. Part A is to design a science inquiry activity suitable for engaging a child at junior primary with physical or chemical science understandings that uses materials like water, sand, ball or tubes. At the next, it is needed to figure out how the planned inquiry activity links to the Australian Curriculum and the early Years Learning Framework. This report also needs to explain and justify the learning theory that underpins the activity and the proposed teaching and learning approach. At the last

found the study of physics interesting (Tamir, Levine, Lewy, Chen, & Zuzovsky, 1988). Shemesh (1990) found that Israeli junior high school girls tended to be more interested in languages, social studies, and humanities, while boys were more interested in science and technology. Furthermore, boys' interest in science and technology increased with age, while older girls became less interested. Likewise, the USA Department of Education (1997) reported that, while male and female seventh and tenth graders had similar positive attitudes toward science, high school seniors demonstrated a greater difference in these attitudes. Unfortunately, these less favourable attitudes of

The National Curriculum for Science (2013), anticipates to advance all pupils’ scientific knowledge and conceptualise understanding through the segmented scientific approaches; biology, chemistry and physics. In addition, pupils should have an awareness of the nature, processes and approaches used within science, through the various scientific enquires that enable pupils to answer questions related to the world and life. Finally, the aims of the science curriculum also consider that children must have the resources to fund the knowledge that is necessary to use science in the, present and future tense states the Department of Education (2013).

This research focuses on science in early childhood education, because as an educator I have always had an interest in science and I often wonder whether I am teaching this topic effectively and correctly for the children. I will define ‘What is science? And I will use a minimum of six articles relating to my topic. What is Science? Duschl, Schweingruber, & Shouse, defines science, Science is both a body of knowledge that represents current understanding of natural systems and the process whereby that body of knowledge has been established and is continually extended, refined, and

Science is, by its nature, inquiry based and science knowledge is built through processes in which discoveries of the natural world are made (Abruscato, 2000). It utilizes discovery and scientific thinking process to explore and learn knowledge and skills. Learning by doing is the new efficient method in teaching science. For kindergarten, this method leads to better understanding of science concepts and builds skills that children will use in future life .What a child can do with assistance now, they can later do on their own (Vygotsky, 1978). John Dewey (1916) stated that children must be engaged in an active quest for learning and new ideas. Inquiry is important in educating kindergarteners because it not only keeps them interested in lessons but also helps them retain more information when performing exploration and investigation. Children are naturally motivated to learn and actively seek out information to help their understanding (Piaget, 1950).The success of students who participate in hands- on inquiry activities suggests that if students have first hands experience with science, concepts are easier to understand and apply and students are generally more favorable to science and have better understanding of the nature of science .Within a conceptual framework, inquiry learning and active learner involvement can lead to important outcomes in the classroom. In kindergarten, students who are actively making observations, collecting results and drawing