Emma Crawley

Email:info@staidansprimary.co.

uk

About our school:•Slightly below average size

•Serving an area of considerable social and economic disadvantage

•High proportion of pupils entitled to a free school meal

•More pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities than in most schools.

•Most pupils are of White British heritage and very few do not have English as a home language.

•Movement amongst the pupil population is high.

•Children enter the Nursery with attainment well below expectations for their age.

The Experiments

Rules•Groups of about 4•Children choose own groups•They can change groups at any time•Children can look to see what other groups are doing.

6th July 2009 (current Year 5 class)

•Children were given 5 GCSE questions relating to how animals adapt to their environments. •Children retested individually on 7th October and results showed that the children had retained all the information gathered. The children scored highly on this test.

13th Nov 2010 (Year 4 class)

Children were given a pretest, multiple-choice sheet on molecular structures, radiation and geography. In groups of 4 they answered the questions. Retested individually on 10th Feb 2010.

The results showed that the children had not only retained info from the group work, but had scored higher individually.

 

4th March 2010

•Children given 3 tests to complete on GCSE biology and physics questions.

•Retested individually on 7th June.

•The results are being analysed but are likely to be similar to those of the 13th Nov experiment.

Question examples•What was ancient Egypt really like?•What kinds of animal are endangered and why?•What is the function of the human skeleton?•How does a solid turn to a liquid then a gas? •Why do people slip on wet surfaces?•Did dinosaurs really exist?•What is the Greenhouse Effect?

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Why is everyone so worried about the environment?

Environment means, 'the natural world of land, sea and air'.

Climate is driven by the sun's energy.

Sea levels are rising because icebergs are melting, causing flooding of peoples homes and destroying communities.

40% of living creatures could be threatened because of changes in the environment.

Air is getting dirty because of carbon dioxide, dangerous gases and particles in it.

Carbon dioxide in the air is accelerating fast because of cars, planes and burning fuels.

People throw rubbish on the streets and into ponds, lakes and rivers which pollutes the water and kills wildlife.

Chopping down forests and rainforests for paper destroys animals homes. We get oxygen from trees so we shouldn't cut them down. We should recycle paper instead.

There are 6 billion people on the planet producing lots of waste each year and we are running out of places to put it.

Oil spills in water kill bird and marine life.

 

 

 

What is electricity?

•Electricity is hard to explain because we cannot see it although we can see what it does.•It is an invisible force.•Electricity is an energy which produces light and heat.•In your home, electricity runs the lights, appliances like televisions and freezers, toys and more.•It is hard to imagine life without electricity.•Electricity can be extremely dangerous.•We say that electricity is made by a generator.•A material that allows electricity to travel through it is called an electrical conductor.•A material which does not allow electricity to pass through it is called an electrical insulator.•Electricity can be generated from coal, water, steam, nuclear and solar energy.•Electricity is the flow of electrical power or charge. It is both a basic part of nature and one of our most widely used forms of energy.

Observations

        Valuable time to observe class dynamics

        Surprised by groups chosen, group leaders

        Children question their attitude towards others and their peers’ perception of them

        Children fall into a natural role easily without role being given

        No pressure to perform as an individual which gives children confidence to ask questions

        Children discussing ideas, making connections and extending knowledge to new areas

Progression• Children start to find key words rather than type in whole question

•Skim texts to find specific information, refining searches, choosing key words

•Check other sites to make sure information is correct

•Share notes gathered freely aiming for a common goal

•Follow leads which interest them

•Discussing the children’s notes and extending their understanding through questioning at the end of each session deepens the children’s understanding and allows the teacher to stretch the learning further

•The children begin to freely offer ideas as to where they would like their learning to lead them

 

Children’s comments during sessions

 

‘It might not be right so you’d better check it out’

 ‘This is like solving a puzzle’

 ‘Don’t ask, just do it!’ (about

looking at other children’s work) 

‘Don’t ask, Mrs. Crawley, she’ll make you find out for yourself’

‘I love it when we don’t have to do work’

Impact on other areas of learning

• The children begin to apply research skills independently to work at home, in other lessons or wherever the internet is available.

• The children become fast and efficient at producing detailed reports on topics and become familiar with text organization and the inclusion of pictures, photographs and diagrams

• There is an improvement in the quality of class cohesion as team work develops

• The relationship between the teacher and children becomes stronger as the children have the confidence to ask questions, discuss current affairs and suggest areas of learning which they know will be welcomed, discussed and shared

The Next Steps

This method has been used to start off science, history, geography and R.E. topics either by presenting the

children with a question to be answered, a statement to be researched or a country to be

explored.  

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