TEACHING FRAMEWORK Year 5 Series Editor: Jane Turner Series Consultant: Derek Bell Authors: Chris Banbury, Nicola Beverley, Hellen Ward
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CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Welcome to Snap Science!
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The best teaching of Primary Science
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The new Programmes of Study for Science
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Assessing the new National Curriculum for Primary Science
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Snap Science components
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Progressive success criteria for data collection and analysis skills
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Success criteria for different approaches to science enquiry
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Progression charts
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Module overview chart Resource matrix
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TEACHING FRAMEWORK
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Our changing world
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Circle of life
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Reproduction in plants and animals
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Get sorted
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Everyday materials
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Marvellous mixtures
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Materials: All change!
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Feel the force
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The Earth and beyond
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GLOSSARY
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WELCOME TO SNAP SCIENCE! The publication of the new National Curriculum for Science in Primary Schools in England is a wonderful opportunity for subject leaders and teachers to review all aspects of their science provision, including planning, pedagogy, resourcing and assessment. There are several new topics to get to know, a wider range of science enquiry must be planned for, children will need to spend more time learning science outdoors and assessment will no longer be about ‘levelling’. All these changes are undoubtedly positive, yet they have big implications for busy, dedicated primary teachers. How can you be sure that the transition to the new Programmes of Study for Science for Key Stages One and Two in your school is smooth and stress free and, most importantly, results in enjoyable, challenging and successful science learning for all children? Snap Science has been created by a team of leading experts to give subject leaders and teachers the confidence to develop a new scheme of work for science for their school which clearly meets the aims of the new National Curriculum for Science. It covers all the required knowledge, conceptual understanding and the full range of scientific enquiry types identified in the Programmes of Study. Snap Science is a comprehensive and rich resource that will support best practice in science teaching and teacher assessment, whilst encouraging teacher professionalism and autonomy. It has been written by teachers for teachers with full awareness that every class is different but that teachers share similar concerns: • Am I meeting the requirements of the Programmes of Study? • Is there clear progression in the science learning in my school? • Is the level of challenge right for each child in my science lessons? • Is my subject knowledge secure for all topics? • Is formative assessment built into every lesson? • Am I using the best teaching strategies for this topic? • Are children engaged in productive practical work and meaningful enquiry? • Do children enjoy their science learning? • Are the children in my class making good progress in science? When using Snap Science you can be confident that these concerns are addressed. Snap Science comprises: • An online resource kit with a flexible planning tool, editable lesson plans, integrated assets for every lesson (including videos, animations and slideshows), as well as support for assessing and tracking children’s progress. • A printed Teaching Framework per year group with sequenced lesson plans for each topic in the new Programme of Study. Together these form a tool kit which has been designed to enable and liberate teachers to do what they do best – teach science well! I hope you enjoy using Snap Science.
Jane Turner
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THE BEST TEACHING OF PRIMARY SCIENCE Snap Science has been created to reflect current ideas about best practice in primary science teaching and learning. Although a relatively new subject in primary schools in England, becoming statutory only in 1988, science is a well understood area of the Primary Curriculum. There is a wealth of research evidence and good practice data that has informed the design and content of Snap Science. At the heart of the resource are the following principles: 1 A science scheme of work must embody a clear progression. 2 It is through working scientifically that children develop an understanding of the nature and processes of science and the key scientific knowledge and concepts. 3 Children are curious to find answers to questions about the world around them. 4 Children need to be actively involved in their own learning, to be engaged and reflective. 5 Every child should have the opportunity to achieve in every lesson. 6 Assessment is an integral part of teaching that enables children to understand the purpose of their activities and to improve the quality of their work. These principles have shaped the overall design of Snap Science, as well as the content and structure of each lesson. 1 Based on the year by year model of the Programmes of Study, the creators of Snap Science have developed a clear progression framework of the ‘big ideas in science’ which has been used to structure the content both within each topic, from year to year and within each year group and module, and to identify any conceptual gaps. This will ensure that children are continually building on their prior learning as they systematically develop their understanding of key ideas and their scientific skills. 2 The creators of Snap Science recognise that working scientifically, asking questions and testing ideas against evidence, is the most effective way for children to learn about science. Therefore each lesson has a clear science enquiry focus. 3 Every lesson in Snap Science is carefully planned around a question for children to answer, either inside the classroom or outside. By ensuring that these questions spark children’s curiosity and that they want to find out the answer, lessons are purposeful and result in children gaining a new understanding of the world around them. 4 In each lesson in Snap Science the learning intention is designed so that children have a powerful understanding of the skills and understanding they are developing in the lesson. Success criteria define the features of the learning intention in the context of the activity so that children can identify what they are aiming for and how well they are doing. 5 Snap Science has been designed to ensure that all children in a class can access and master the lesson’s learning intention with each lesson offering three levels of differentiated task. These are planned to challenge and extend the learning of all children whilst ensuring that they all achieve the learning intention. 6 Every lesson in Snap Science includes Assessment for Learning strategies which enable teachers to find out what children have learned and to use that information formatively. 7 In response to the wealth of evidence that exists about the benefits of children experiencing the natural world first hand, children learning science outdoors is a key feature of Snap Science. For each year group there is a module called Our Changing World which is designed to be taught in every term, offering children regular opportunities to explore all aspects of their outdoor environment and build up a rich understanding of how it changes over the year.
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The most recent Ofsted report1 into science in primary schools in England outlined three factors which exemplify the best teaching: • It is driven by determined subject leadership that puts scientific enquiry at the heart of science teaching and coupled with substantial expertise in how pupils learn science • It sets out to sustain pupils’ natural curiosity, so that they are eager to learn the subject content as well as develop the necessary investigative skills • It is informed by accurate and timely assessment of how well pupils are developing their understanding of science concepts and their skills in analysis and interpretation so that teaching can respond to and extend pupils’ learning. The creators of Snap Science have considerable and acknowledged expertise in how children in primary schools learn science well. This experience and knowledge has enabled them to design a resource which embodies the best of current pedagogy and practice, and meets Ofsted’s definition of ‘the best teaching’.
SCIENCE ENQUIRY A scheme of work that has science enquiry at its heart requires children to learn to use a variety of approaches to answer relevant scientific questions2. Each module in Snap Science is made up of a carefully planned series of lessons which will engage children in the different types of science enquiry identified in the National Curriculum, where they will use and develop the necessary investigative skills and attributes identified for each Key Stage phase. All lessons are stimulated by a question for children to answer, a scientific phenomenon to investigate or a problem to solve. Science Enquiry is the methodology children will use to develop their conceptual knowledge, working in an authentically scientific and purposeful way to collect evidence to find answers to their questions.
SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE CONFIDENCE Snap Science has been carefully planned to ensure that children use their developing science enquiry skills to build their knowledge of the scientific ideas in a systematic and conceptually appropriate way. Each lesson is designed to explore, value and build on children’s prior knowledge so that misconceptions can be addressed and secure understanding developed. The creators of Snap Science are aware that every primary teacher cannot be an expert in all subjects, and have designed the resource to give teachers subject knowledge confidence. The sequence of science ideas throughout the resource as a whole, and in each module and lesson, is clear and accurate. The introduction to each module provides teachers with a clear explanation of the science they need to understand and in each lesson key information is highlighted at relevant points.
EXPLORE ACTIVITIES Stimulating and maintaining children’s natural curiosity is fundamental to good science teaching and learning. Every lesson in Snap Science starts with an Explore activity to excite children’s curiosity about a scientific phenomenon and provide a focus for their questions and investigations. The Explore activity is also designed as a rich formative assessment opportunity for children to reflect on what they already know, and identify what they need to learn next.
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Ofsted 2013 Maintaining Curiosity Goldsworthy, A., Watson, R., Wood-Robinson,V. (2000) Investigations: Developing Understanding Hatfield: Association for Science Education Turner, J., Keogh, B., Naylor, S., Lawrence, L., (2011) It’s Not Fair - Or Is It? Sandbach: Millgate House Publishers and Association for Science Education
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ENQUIRE CHALLENGES Genuine curiosity leads to authentic, purposeful science investigation so each Explore activity is followed by a differentiated Enquire challenge where children will collect and analyse data to answer their questions and so develop their scientific understanding and knowledge. Mostly children’s science investigations will involve them in first hand collection, recording and analysis of data, although sometimes they will use secondary sources of evidence or information to answer questions. In the Enquire challenges children will engage in a wide range of practical activity both indoors and outside, using a variety of observation and measuring equipment including data loggers and digital microscopes, everyday items and materials, natural and living things and electrical components. Comprehensive equipment lists are supplied for every module and lesson to help teachers with planning and ensure that children have as much independence as possible to decide what data to collect to answer their question and how. Snap Science supports children to work both in groups and alone as appropriate.
SUMMARISE, SHARE, REFLECT Good science teaching recognises that children need opportunities to summarise what they have found out, share their findings and reflect on what they have learned. Each Snap Science lesson has a final Reflect and Review activity when children will communicate what they have learned in an appropriate and meaningful way. Being able to summarise understanding is key to developing conceptual knowledge as well as being the vital, final satisfying step in the science enquiry process. Writing, drawing, speaking, using ICT and mathematical formats are all important skills in communicating and presenting science and are all developed in Snap Science. The Reflect and Review part of each lesson also provides an excellent opportunity for children to self and peer assess their achievements in the lesson or module, using the success criteria to guide them. How well have I completed the challenge? What do I know now that I didn’t know at the beginning of the lesson? What have I learnt to do? What can I do better now than I could at the beginning of the lesson? What do I want to find out next? What do I need to do next to improve the skills I used today? As children reflect on their own learning, teachers can also assess the progress that they are making. Each lesson in Snap Science includes guidance for teacher assessment, indicating where teachers will find evidence of achievement of the learning intention and what that achievement may look like, in the things that children say, do, write or draw. Assessment will therefore be on-going and accurate – focusing firmly on progress in conceptual knowledge plus data collection and analysis skills. Assessment will also be formative, supporting teachers and children to identify the next steps in learning, and to keep moving forward.
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THE NEW PROGRAMMES OF STUDY FOR SCIENCE In September 2013 the Department for Education published a new Primary National Curriculum including a new Programme of Study for Science. Implementation begins September 2014 with the first sample tests reporting on national standards against the new POS in 2016. What is different about the new National Curriculum for Science? What challenges and opportunities do these changes present to primary teachers? How will Snap Science help teachers to meet them? As with any curriculum it is important to know and understand its aims. It is the aims that explain what the education described should do. In the case of the new National Curriculum for Science the aims are reflective of widely and long held views about the values and purposes of primary science education. The National Curriculum for Science aims to ensure that all children: 1 Develop scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding – through the specific disciplines of biology, physics and chemistry, 2 Develop understanding of the nature, processes and methods of science through different types of science enquiry that help children to answer scientific questions about the world around them, and 3 Are equipped with the scientific knowledge required to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future. 1 The Programmes of Study contain a sequence of knowledge and concepts on a year by year basis. Although it is not compulsory for schools to follow this sequence, the blocks of knowledge and concepts have been arranged to ensure progress in the big ideas of science to ensure that children develop secure understanding. Most of the content will be familiar to teachers, but some topics have been broadened and extended, and some are introduced at different times. • The plant and animal biology content is significantly increased for every year group, with much more focus on children getting to know and to classify living things in their local and wider outdoor environment. • A wider range of plant and animal life cycles is included. • Evolution and inheritance is now included at Y6. • Simple digestion in humans is included at Y3. .
• Seasonal changes is now included at Y1 including day length. • Chemistry at Y3 now includes fossils. • States of matter is now in Y4, mixing and changing materials is all in Y5. • There is no chemistry content specified for Y6. • These is no requirement to cover electricity, light and sound, and forces and movement in KS1. • Mechanisms are included at Y6. To enable teachers to confidently plan to teach the new National Curriculum, Snap Science is organised into a series of modules per year group, based on the topics in the new Programmes of Study, and the year groups in which they occur. All the required science content is fully covered to make sure that learning is deep. Each module is made up of a sequence of lessons which has been carefully planned by subject experts to ensure that new ideas are only introduced once
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understanding of lower-order content is secure. Although in most lessons children will engage in first hand practical activity, each lesson is also richly supported by additional assets including film clips, images and interactive resources to exemplify and illustrate concepts and ideas. Because the creators of Snap Science know that primary schools are organised in many different ways the interactive planning tool will facilitate flexible whole school planning, whilst still ensuring coherent progression of knowledge and understanding. 2 In the new National Curriculum the nature, processes and methods of science are organised into three sections for KS1, lower and upper KS2 under the title working scientifically. These sections of the Programmes of Study identify the progress children should make in all areas of science enquiry from asking questions, planning and carrying out investigations, presenting data, making and communicating conclusions and evaluating results.
WORKING SCIENTIFICALLY However a difference in the new Programmes of Study is that working scientifically, although described separately, is not to be taught as a separate strand. The creators of Snap Science fully support this embedded approach as it reflects accurately the scientific approach and ensures that science lessons are purposeful and lead to the learning of science concepts. Each lesson in Snap Science is planned to meet a biology, chemistry or physics learning intention by Working Scientifically. Teachers will therefore be able to track progression in all aspects of the Programmes of Study. The new Programmes of Study require that children should learn to use a variety of approaches to answer scientific questions, as well as fair testing which has become an over and often incorrectly used method in primary classrooms3. The creators of Snap Science know that different questions lead to different types of enquiry. Teachers can be confident that the starting points in Snap Science will require children to use the recommended different types of science enquiry to answer questions and so develop their understanding about which is the best method to use to answer a question. In each lesson in Snap Science the enquiry strategy that children will use is clearly identified. Enquiry strategies include those recommended in the new National Curriculum: • Observing over time – when children observe or measure how one variable changes over time • Identifying and classifying – when children identify and name materials and living things and make observations or carry out tests to organise them into groups • Looking for patterns – when children make observations or carry out surveys of variables that cannot be easily controlled and look for relationships between two sets of data • Comparative and fair testing – when children observe or measure the effect of changing one variable when controlling others as far as possible • Answering questions using secondary sources of evidence – when children answer questions using data or information that they have not collected first hand As well children will: • Use models – to develop or evaluate a model or analogy that represents a scientific idea, phenomenon or process
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Turner, J., Keogh, B., Naylor, S., Lawrence, L., (2011) It’s Not Fair – Or Is It? Sandbach: Millgate House Publishers and Association for Science Education
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3 Teachers sometimes find daunting the idea of helping children to understand the uses and implications of science, citing their own lack of confidence about complex scientific developments and issues. The creators of Snap Science recognise that this aim is challenging and have developed a straightforward two-fold strategy to support teachers to develop children’s scientific literacy. • Firstly the context of the lesson must make sense and matter to children. They need to see the relevance of a scientific question or concept to their own lives. In every lesson children should be able to explain the importance of the question they are answering, and how the science connects to their own lives. In Snap Science the approach to this is pragmatic and manageable, using question and stimulus Explore activities to focus children’s powerful curiosity about the world around them. At the end of every lesson in Snap Science children should be able to explain or demonstrate how they have answered the question and what they have learnt. Sometime children will do this via a technology activity – applying their scientific knowledge and understanding to make an artefact or system that solves a problem. Sometimes they will use argument, debate or persuasive writing to show how a science explanation has helped them to understand or make informed personal decisions about something that involves science, such as health, diet, use of energy resources, or human impact on the natural environment. • Secondly children must learn that all understanding in science depends on the evidence that has been used to answer a question and that working scientifically involves evaluating the quality of that evidence and the conclusions that have been drawn from it. In every lesson children should be able to explain what evidence they have used to answer a question and to evaluate honestly the reliability and validity of that evidence. In Snap Science children are supported to use discussion and argument to evaluate their own data, methods and conclusions, as well as those of others, in the classroom and beyond. They will also be helped to recognise how improvements in evidence collection and analysis techniques have led to ideas about science changing over time.
ASSESSING THE NEW NATIONAL CURRICULUM FOR PRIMARY SCIENCE Alongside new Programmes of Study for primary science, a new assessment model will be introduced, where attainment will no longer be tracked and reported against level descriptors, but instead children’s ‘mastery’ of the matter, skills and processes of the Programme of Study will be assessed. The expectation is that most children will achieve ‘mastery’ of the full programme of study. Sample tests in Science to provide national monitoring of standards will take place every two years, but involving a small number of pupils, with no individual pupil or school Science attainment data being reported. Schools are now free to decide how to track the progress that children make through KS1 and 2 against the Programmes of Study. What are the implications of removing levels in primary science? What challenges and opportunities does this change present to primary teachers? How will Snap Science help teachers to meet them? Levels, particularly when used to design SAT questions, had the effect of constraining science learning in two ways: firstly the curriculum became narrowed to what could be tested in a replicable, pen and paper method and therefore understanding of what achievement looked like came to be understood in terms of these narrow tasks; and secondly they became organising models for planning, with teachers differentiating lessons according to artificial notions of children ‘levelness’. 4
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Harlen (2012), Developing Policy, Principles and Practice in Primary Science Assessment: Report from a Working Group; London: Nuffield Foundation
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The removal of level descriptors means that the relationship between the science that children are taught and the science that is assessed will be much stronger. Confident teacher assessment is vital and the creators of Snap Science have ensured that effective formative assessment strategies are used in every lesson. • Each lesson has a clear science Learning Intention which all children are expected to achieve or exceed, with Success Criteria to exemplify what success will look. • Differentiation is by access, with each lesson beginning with an Explore activity to enable children and their teacher to assess prior understanding and identify which level of challenge to take. Teachers can annotate planning to reflect this. • The Enquire part of the lesson includes a choice of three challenges which will ensure that all children can work appropriately towards achieving the learning intention. Differentiation in the challenges is based on a model of progression in science learning which supports children to become more independent and autonomous, systematic, precise and evaluative, and to increasingly use their scientific knowledge in their explanations. This means that grouping in Snap Science lessons is flexible, dependent on the level of skill, knowledge and understanding that each child demonstrates in the Explore activity, and the level of support and challenge that is appropriate for them in each lesson. Children should be encouraged, with teacher support, to choose for themselves the right challenge to complete to achieve the learning intention. • The final stage of each lesson is a Reflect and Review activity where children summarise what they have learnt and use the success criteria to assess their success and identify next steps. Assessment evidence from each lesson should be used formatively to determine appropriate next steps for individuals and groups of children. Without levels to track progress against teachers will need to find other ways of monitoring children’s progress and reporting this to parents, secondary schools and external bodies such as Ofsted. The creators of Snap Science recognise that this represents a challenge to schools and have referred to recognised sources of good practice5 to design a manageable process for tracking progress in science. • Formative assessment evidence from each lesson, including children’s work, the feedback that is given and responded to and any additional observation notes that the teacher makes, is used to track progression and to enable teachers to make confident summative judgments of attainment when required. Comparison of evidence outcomes from different children and between classes and school is used to moderate teacher assessment judgements. • Supporting digital assessment tasks on Collins Connect such as quizzes or short activities can be used to check children’s understanding of specific concepts or facility with particular working scientifically skills. • Either at an identified point during a module or at the end of a module a teacher reviews any observation notes on a child, their written work, their self-assessment judgements, and their answers to any additional activities they have completed to ascertain if they have not yet achieved, have achieved, or have achieved and exceeded the expected outcomes for that part of the Programme of Study. Teachers record the judgements in an on-going digital progress tracker on Collins Connect which contains a summary of the knowledge outcomes for that module including an on-going Working Scientifically tracker. • There are no ‘end of module tests’ nor artificial interim (sub) levels of achievement. It is assumed that high quality formative assessment which influences planning for individual children will lead
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Harlen (2012), Developing Policy, Principles and Practice in Primary Science Assessment: Report from a Working Group; London: Nuffield Foundation
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to an excellent match of task and challenge and that teachers and children will recognise when the lesson intention has been achieved. • At the end of each Key Stage teachers use the digital progress trackers on Collins Connect to judge whether or not each child has achieved the designated learning outcomes for the Key Stage in the main components of the National Curriculum. • At the end of the Key Stage individual pupil records are aggregated from each class, for the school as a whole and for particular groups.
SNAP SCIENCE COMPONENTS THE TEACHING FRAMEWORK • The printed Teaching Framework is organised into a series of modules, based on the topics in the new Programmes of Study. The new Programme of Study for Science is divided into 4 topics per year in KS1 and 5 per year in KS2. Some topics have considerably more content than others. Traditional half termly topic planning for science will clearly no longer be appropriate. The modules in Snap Science have been organised to reflect the content of the POS for that year and are not all of identical length. Teachers should plan to teach all the complete modules over a year, regularly fitting in lessons from the Our Changing World module. • Each module begins with an introduction that provides background information on the topic at an appropriate level for non-specialist teachers as well as advice on the misconceptions or alternative conceptions that research indicates that children frequently develop as they make sense of the world around them. • Each module then contains a sequence of lesson plans. Snap Science is designed around the principle that science should be taught at least once a week throughout the year, as Ofsted recommends. • The modules are divided into ‘core’ and ‘enrichment’ lessons. The ‘core’ lessons cover all the objectives from the Programme of Study. The ‘enrichment’ lessons provide extra breadth and depth for the topic.
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OCW
OUR CHANGING WORLD INTRODUCTION In this module children develop their understanding of the life cycles of plants and of reproduction as a specific stage of those life cycles. This module links to Module 2, Reproduction in Plants and Animals. It provides children with further opportunities to explore ideas from that module actively and practically, applying knowledge, understanding and skills, often within the outdoor learning environment. As they explore ‘Our Changing World’ of plants, children look for evidence of plant reproduction, for example, flowers, seed heads, berries and fruits on plants, throughout the year. They make observations of a wide links: variety of plants at different Working stages of their life cycles. links: They note all of this National curriculum scientifically detail in an Our Changing World diary, on plant maps and also on planting plans. Children explore Text Text practically some of the methods of growing plants without seeds and propagation that they learned about in Lesson 3 of Module 2, Reproduction in Plants and Animals. They design and carry out a Learning intention: planting plan to grow a range of plants using seeds,Success bulbs, tubers, rhizomes, corms and leaf, stem criteria: Text and root cuttings, ready for a summer term ‘produce sale’ oflistcrops. They investigate different ideas • Bullet about how to improvetype: crop yields and quality. Scientific enquiry In working scientifically children carry out a range of enquiries, often making repeated observations Text in order to develop a deeper understanding of changes that take place over extended time periods (days, weeks and months) and through the seasons. Children notice, analyse and interpret patterns in data that they and others have collected. They use this evidence, coupled with that from secondary sources, to draw conclusions about what they have found out about the life cycles, and particularly the stage of reproduction, in plants in their locality and in plants that they cultivate.
Key vocabulary: flower, carpel, stamen, pollen, seed, seed head, berry, hip, fruit, pollinator, pollination, fertilise, fertilisation, seed dispersal, male, female, organs, sex, propagate, propagation, stem/leaf/root cutting, runner, tuber, rhizome, bulb, crop, cropping, produce, yield, glut, names of fruit and vegetables being grown
FACT FILE: Sexual reproduction in flowering plants The reproductive organ of flowering plants is the flower. The broad term ‘flower’ can be used to describe both simple and compound flowers. A simple flower has petals and contains a single set of reproductive parts at the centre, such as a buttercup or lily. Compound flowers appear to be single flowers, but the flower itself is actually made up of numerous small flowers arranged within a flower head. Daisies, dandelions and sunflowers are good examples of this. Most flowering plants have flowers with both male and female parts – ‘perfect flowers’ such as apple, tulip, daisy, dandelion and rose. Some plants have separate male flowers and female flowers on the same plant, such as corn, courgette, marrow, squash and cucumber. A smaller number of plants have male flowers and female flowers on separate plants, such as willow, maple and holly. Children should learn that all plants do not produce ‘perfect flowers’ with both male and female organs, but that there are some plants with different sex flowers on the same or separate plants. The female part of a flower consists of the carpels, which is where the seeds are formed. It has three parts: the stigma, the style, and the ovary. The male parts of the flower are the stamens, which produce pollen. Each stamen has two parts: an anther and a filament. The anther contains the pollen and the filament supports the anther. When the flower is pollinated, a pollen grain sticks to the stigma. It then travels through a narrow tube which grows down through the style to the ovary. In the ovary, the pollen joins with the ovules. This fusion of the male and female cells is called fertilisation and the fused cells divide to develop into seeds. After fertilisation, the ovary usually swells and becomes the fruit.
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LESSON 1: WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT INTRODUCTION PLANTS?
Asexual reproduction in plants Many plants can also reproduce without forming seeds. This is called asexual or vegetative reproduction, which results in new plants that are genetically identical to the parent.
LESSON 1:
Plants may reproduce themselves naturally:
• Below ground – rhizomes, tubers, bulbs and corms. These are underground growths on the root LESSON SUMMARY: or stem of a plant and contain stores of food to provide for the growing young plant. Text • Above ground – the parent plant produces runners and new plants sprout along its length.
Common misconceptions: • Children may not recognise that reproduction is a characteristic of living things. • Some children think that plants do not reproduce sexually at all. • Children may think that bees and other insects visit flowers to pollinate them. They visit flowers to collect nectar; their role in pollination is accidental as far as the insect is concerned. • Children may think that bees fertilise flowers; they pollinate them. Fertilisation happens when male and female genetic material fuses.
Big Cat book links Star Gazing Celia Warren 978-0-00-746531-6 Band 12 Copper
A beautifully illustrated poetry book focuses on the delights of the natural world.
Jaws and Claws and things with Wings Valerie Bloom 978-0-00-746539-1 Band 14 Ruby
A poetry collection inspired by the strange and wonderful creatures in the natural world.
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OUR CHANGING WORLD LESSON 1: WHAT SIGNS OF PLANT REPRODUCTION CAN WE OBSERVE AROUND OUR SCHOOL? Key vocabulary:
LESSON SUMMARY:
reproduction, reproduce, flower, carpel, stamen, pollen, seed, seed head, berry, hip, fruit, pollinator, pollination, fertilisation, seed dispersal
During these lessons children identify a variety of plants to observe, visit them regularly throughout the year and look for evidence of plant reproduction, for example, flowers, seed heads, berries and fruits on plants. They also record the numbers and types of pollinators they observe, for example, bees, butterflies and moths, at different times of the year. Video 1 can provide some background on how different plants disperse seeds.
Resources:
Preparation required: Children need to draw (or be provided with) a simple outline map of the outdoor area around school to use in the Enquire part of the lesson. An outside visit should be organised if children are drawing this themselves. For the Reflect and review part of the lesson you need to collect a range of evidence of reproduction in plants, for example, a variety of flowers, seed heads, berries and fruits from plants, as you walk around the site with children.
Digital camera or iPad, magnifiers, sources of plant identification (for example, FSC resources or similar)
By the end of these lessons children are able to describe the specific evidence of reproduction in plants that they have seen, identify patterns in how and when plants of the same or different species reproduce, and suggest reasons why this might be important.
These lessons build on learning from Lesson 1 of Module 2, Reproduction in Plants and Animals.
Health and safety:
National curriculum links:
Working scientifically links:
Always wash hands after handling plants, seeds and soil. Some plants may have sap that will irritate a child’s skin. Some bulbs (for example, hyacinths) can also cause skin irritation.
Describe the life process of reproduction in some plants and animals
Recording data and results of increasing complexity using scientific diagrams and labels, classification keys, tables, scatter graphs, and bar and line graphs
Learning intention: To observe, record and collect evidence over time of life cycle changes to plants within the local environment
Scientific enquiry type: Key information: If the weather is sunny, warm and relatively still, children should see plenty of flying insects (for example, butterflies, bees and some beetles) visiting flowering plants and acting as pollinators. These insects, and other pollinators including birds, aid the pollination process by passing pollen from flower to flower, which ensures that fertilisation takes place.
Observing changes over different periods of time
Success criteria: • I can make detailed observations of plants at different times of the year, noticing the stage that they have reached within their life cycle. • I can look for patterns across plants of the same and different species (for example, are all the plants in flower or producing fruit?). • I can suggest reasons for differences in how and when plants reproduce.
EXPLORE: Show children the Reproduction in plants slideshow (Slideshow 1), which features a number of flowering plants and the different stages of their life cycles. Ask: What are we seeing evidence of here? Ensure that children use the term ‘reproduction’ in their descriptions of the different stages of a plant life cycle and other scientific vocabulary, for example, names of parts of the flower or processes such as pollination, fertilisation and seed dispersal. Prompt them to expand on their ideas. Ask: What signs of reproduction in plants might you see as you make observations around the school? What else would indicate that reproduction is happening? Encourage children to think about the likely presence of pollinators, particularly flying insects.
ENQUIRE: Tell children that they are going to take a walk around the school grounds (or a nearby green space). Provide them with a simple map of the area and ask them to take their Our Changing World diaries. They can also take digital cameras and iPads to record their observations. Tell them that on the first visit they should identify a number of different flowering plants, bushes
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LESSON 1: WHAT SIGNS OF PLANT REPRODUCTION CAN WE OBSERVE AROUND OUR SCHOOL?
and trees: these same sites will be revisited regularly during the course of the year. Explain to the children that they should mark on their maps what they have seen and where, using plant identification sheets (for example, FSC resources or similar) to research the names and types of plants. Tell them to look out for insects and other pollinators, and make a note of the weather, how many pollinators they see and where they see them. Children record all their notes in their Our Changing World diaries. Explain to children that on subsequent visits they will check for evidence of plant reproduction. For example, whether flowers have turned to fruit or whether seed heads have been produced and are dispersing seeds. Remind children to make notes about the pollinators that they see, to note which plants they saw them on and to record how numbers of pollinators vary, which may depend on the weather conditions and the time of year. The challenges are differentiated by the level of detail children are required to observe and report, and how they classify plants according to different reproduction processes.
Challenge 1: Children identify different plants and pollinators Support children to plan a route that includes a variety of different plants. Ask: What are the names of the plants? How could we find out? Do they have flowers at the moment? Do they produce fruits, berries or hips? Do they produce seed heads? Remind the children to look out for insect pollinators and draw their attention to plants on which pollinators are likely to be seen in higher numbers.
Challenge 2: Children make and record detailed observations of plants and pollinators Tell the children to add as much detail to their maps as possible, planning a route that includes a variety of plants. Prompt them to note the names of plants, together with evidence of plant reproduction they have seen, and other observations. Remind the children to look out for insect pollinators and note which plants attract higher numbers of pollinators.
Challenge 3: Children identify specific types of plants according to how they are pollinated, and how they disperse seeds and reproduce Tell the children that they should plan a route that includes as wide a variety of plants as possible. Identify some specific types of plants they need to locate, including: plants with flowers that are pollinated in different ways; plants that disperse their seed in different ways; plants that don’t have flowers, but that reproduce in another way. Remind them to record all their information in their Our Changing World diaries.
REFLECT AND REVIEW: On returning to the classroom after each visit to the plants that children are monitoring, use a visualiser to project onto the whiteboard either images of evidence of plant reproduction from children’s records or, preferably, actual parts of plants. Ask children to talk with a partner, choose three objects from the selection and decide which one is the ‘odd one out’, explaining their reasoning to each other. They can then challenge other pairs to work out which they think is ‘odd’ and why. An example of this might be: a dandelion flower, a rose flower and a sycamore key. In this case the rose might be the odd one out because the seeds of the other two plants are dispersed by the wind. Alternatively, the sycamore key may be the odd one out because it is a seed head, whereas the other two are flowers.
EVIDENCE OF LEARNING: Listen to children’s responses as they select plants to observe regularly and then as they make repeat visits to look for evidence of the plants’ life cycles over time. Look at their Our Changing World diaries: Do they select plants to visit systematically, ensuring that they include a variety of different types of plants? Can they identify evidence of the life cycle stage plants have reached, using appropriate scientific vocabulary to describe their observations? Do they notice patterns across plants of the same and different species (for example, are all plants of one kind in flower at the same time or producing fruit)? Do children note the different numbers (and types) of pollinators on different visits, identifying a link between, for example, the numbers of flying insects they see and the weather on that day or the numbers of flowers in full bloom? Can they use their observations to help identify differences in how and when plants of different kinds reproduce?
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OCW
OUR CHANGING WORLD LESSON 2: HOW CAN WE GROW MORE PLANTS, WITHOUT USING SEEDS? Key information: Depending on the time of year, different methods of propagation can be attempted. For example, stem cuttings from wood of varying hardness can be taken at different times of the year, as can leaf cuttings. Root cuttings should be taken in the winter when the plants are dormant.
Key vocabulary: reproduce, propagate, stem/leaf/root cutting, runner, tuber, rhizome, bulb
Resources: Variety of plant materials such as bulbs (autumn), rhizomes or tubers (spring), or stem cuttings from existing plants (summer) depending on the time of year, plants, for example, fuchsias, geraniums and begonias, herbs such as rosemary and mint, bulbs for spring flowering, potato tubers, strawberry plants, lily, iris and gladioli rhizomes
LESSON SUMMARY: During these lessons children explore practically some of the methods for growing new plants, which they learned about in Lesson 3 of Module 2, Reproduction in Plants and Animals. By the end of these lessons children have successfully grown a variety of flowering plants and crops without using seeds, and have observed carefully the similarities and differences between propagating plants from seed and from other plant materials,for example, stem, leaf and root cuttings, runners, tubers, rhizomes and bulbs. Preparation required: Video 1 is the video used in Module 2, Lesson 3 and is reused during the first lesson of this sequence. Children should revisit the sets of instructions that they produced during Lesson 3 of Module 2, Reproduction in Plants and Animals. These will help them as they begin to practically propagate plants for themselves. Plants propagated during these lessons could be planted out by children in their growing place (see Lesson 3 and Lesson 4).
National curriculum links:
Working scientifically links:
Describe the life process of reproduction in some plants and animals
Identifying scientific evidence that has been used to support or refute ideas or arguments
Learning intention:
Success criteria:
To observe first-hand how plants are able to reproduce themselves by using different parts of the parent plant to produce new plants
• I can describe a variety of ways in which plants are able to reproduce, without using seeds. • I can prepare plant material so that it has the best possible chance of growing into a new plant.
Scientific enquiry type: Observing change over different periods of time
• I can make observations of plants as they grow, comparing different methods of growing new plants without seeds.
EXPLORE: Show children Plant propagation (Video 1) which they first saw during Lesson 3 of Module 2, Reproduction in Plants and Animals. Ask: What different methods of plant reproduction and propagation did we hear about? What is the difference between natural plant reproduction processes and artificial propagation methods used by gardeners? Can you list the different types? Refer children back to the instructions that they produced during Lesson 3 of Module 2.
Health and safety: Wash hands after working with soil or potting compost or handling plant material. Some plants may have sap that will irritate a child’s skin. Some bulbs (for example, hyacinths) can also cause skin irritation.
Ask: Which methods should we use in these lessons to grow new plants without seeds? Which do you think would work the best? Why? Take feedback from children and ensure that as many of their ideas as possible are explored.
ENQUIRE: Explain to children that during the course of these lessons they are going to have first-hand experience of a variety of methods for growing new plants without using seeds. The methods that they use will depend on the season. The autumn term is a good time to plant spring-flowering bulbs and observe their development. This involves planting the bulbs, marking their positions and revisiting the site every week or so to check for signs of growth. During the spring term children may plant rhizomes and tubers for summer flowering. For example, plant early potatoes in containers or bags during March/April. These should produce a crop of potatoes during the summer term.
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LESSON 2: HOW CAN WE GROW MORE PLANTS, WITHOUT USING SEEDS?
Key information: The ability for a plant to reproduce by means other than by producing seeds saves energy – although the process of seed production and dispersal ensures more genetic diversity within the population. In the natural environment plants may reproduce underground using rhizomes, tubers, bulbs and corms. These are underground growths on the root or stem of a plant that contain stores of food to provide for the growing young plant. Above ground the parent plant may produce runners, along the length of which new plants sprout. The new plants produced by these underground and above ground means of reproduction are exact genetic copies, or ‘clones’, of the parent. Gardeners use techniques to reproduce plants from stem, root or leaf cuttings. When pieces of plant material are placed in soil or water new plants, complete with root systems, are produced. This is called propagation.
The summer term is a good time to identify runners on existing plants. Advise children that they should peg runners down to encourage new plants to root. Summer is also a time to propagate plants by taking cuttings, for example, from fuschia, geranium, mint and rosemary. The challenges are differentiated by the extent to which children organise independently the growing of new plants without seeds, the detail with which they record their observations and the requirement for evaluating the success of the methods they use.
Challenge 1: Children keep a diary to record the growth of their new plants without seeds Remind the children of the instructions for growing new plants without seeds that some of them produced during Lesson 3 of Module 2, Reproduction in Plants and Animals. Share these instructions with the class using a visualiser or photocopy them for children to use. Support the children, as necessary, as they prepare different kinds of plant material and get it ready to grow. They should make an initial sketch and record notes about the process in their Our Changing World diaries. Explain to the children that they then need to look for and record any signs of growth regularly. Prompt the children to look each time a change is visible, and ask them to draw and record what they can see in their Our Changing World Diaries. Ask: What can you see? What do you think is happening?
Challenge 2: Children make and record systematic observations of their different methods of growing new plants without seeds Explain to the children that they need to check for signs of growth periodically (how often, and what they observe will depend on the type of propagation being explored). For example, if stem cuttings are being rooted in water, children will be able to see the new roots starting to grow very quickly. It takes much longer to see signs of growth from cuttings in soil. However, one cutting might be carefully removed after 2 weeks, so that the root growth can be examined. Ask: What do you notice first? After how long? What can you see 2 weeks later? A month later? When do new leaves or flower buds appear? Encourage the children to draw what they see and make notes about what they notice, and how long it takes before changes are evident, in their Our Changing World diaries.
Challenge 3: Children use observation data collected over time to evaluate the effectiveness of different methods of growing new plants without seeds Explain to the children that across this series of lessons they should compare the plants that they have grown without seed, referring to evidence in their Our Changing World diaries. Ask: Which method seems to have given the best results? What makes you say that? The children might explain that the plants seem stronger or that they have grown more quickly, or have begun to flower sooner and produce fruit/seeds more readily. Ask them to compare these methods for growing new plants with growing seeds. Ask: Why might a market gardener choose to take cuttings, rather than grow plants from seed?
REFLECT AND REVIEW: Challenge children to summarise what they have learned and to produce a Top Tips Guide for budding gardeners, on growing plants without seeds. Ask them to talk to their partners and to come up with two ideas that they think should feature in the Top Tips Guide. Take feedback from children and help them to combine their best ideas. The completed list could feature on the school website and be shared with children in other classes, as well as their parents.
EVIDENCE OF LEARNING: Listen to children’s responses as they develop the Top Tips Guide, and observe and listen to them as they approach the challenges (particularly those children tasked with Challenge 3). Can they describe different ways in which plants reproduce, other than by producing seed? Can they access or follow instructions for different methods for growing new plants without seeds, preparing plant material carefully so that it has the best possible chance of growing into a new plant? Do children make detailed observations of plants as they grow, making notes, for example, about the speed at which cuttings take root and produce a new plant? Can they compare the processes of growing new plants from seeds and using other methods of reproduction? Do they give useful advice to budding gardeners in their Top Tips Guide on growing plants without seeds?
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