"Science is Boring"

[sittinginthesun]

According to my Year 3 DS1!

He LOVES science at home. Really into space, electric circuits etc. He watches grown up science programmes with me, and follows more than I do.

But he moans whenever it is science at school. He says it is dull, and easy, and boring.

I just don't want him getting it into his head that the subject is boring, because he is quite a natural mathematician.

We go to the Science Museum, have a lot of books around the house, but does anyone know any online resources that may inspire him? Is the Key Stage 2 curriculum actually as boring as he says?

Thanks.

What topic are they doing in Science?

I think that some areas can be dull (eg. my children did not enjoy learning about rivers and mountains) but others are really interesting (eg. my dd's class are learning about micro-organisms and growing mould on cheese which is yuck for adults but very interesting for kids.)

My children have found some topics to be basic- eg. they know that plants need water, light and soil so I have tried to expand their knowledge in terms of breadth. For example I have asked them questions like should I give the houseplants hot or cold water and why? How do I know that the houseplants need water?

My youngest is in KS1 and he was fascinated when I installed a new harddrive on the PC. He was interested in the names of the components, what they do and it led to interesting subjects like what is the Internet and so on.

The National geographic kids website has good resources. We recently used it for a volcanoes project by watching a movie then doing a quiz together about the movie.

Our kids have also picked up science when we do diy. They know information like plugs contain 3 wires (neutral, earth and live), what the inside of a toilet cistern looks like and why you shouldn't use a fork to free the toast that's stuck in the toaster.

My kids will watch some science documentaries like Frozen Planet but prefer Deadly 60 and Bear Grylls type programmes.

resources.schoolscience.co.uk/Salters/chemclub2_3.html

Take a look at some of these. I know the custard ones you can do at home. We have done lots of experiments at home, like putting an egg in some white vinegar to see what the egg looks like inside the shell ( it takes a few days for the shell to react), this keeps them interested in science even if the school science is boring.

ok, this may be a huuuuuge generalisation, but IME primary school teachers tend to be more artsy/humanities types than sciencey and so sometimes science is taught with not so much inspiration, as a series of basic facts.

Without doing-down your DS's primary school can you assure him that it gets much more interesting in secondary school (where they have bunsen burners, fume cupboards and dead animals to disect etc...), and at the same time keep up the investigations and explorations at home.

My DS (yr 4 now) went through a time of watching (and copying) a lot of science experiments from you-tube - where there are a lot of videos by kids and adult nerds....obviously it needs some supervision

On maths - have you read 'The Number Devil' with him? ...much fun. Also 'Is a Blue Whale the Biggest Thing there Is' which is a mind-blowing picture book.

There are some good online experiments on the bbc schools website under Science Clips. My daughter loves them.

The Big Bang Fair may be something to inspire him and show the fun in real life science. Saturday is open to families for the main event in Birmingham and there are local events around the country.

Is a Blue Whale the Biggest Thing There Is came home from school with DD a couple of weeks ago. I think I enjoyed it more than she did, as she's 4 and the whole comparitive size thing partly went over her head :o

The author seems to have a whole series of similar titles available I checked

Some of the Usborne 50 science things to make and do ideas are fun, too - we've made gloop, butter, seperated the colours in the ink of felt tip pens, made salt crystals, lots of stuff.

It is true, there is a whole series... Can you Count Up to Googol etc... But the Blue Whale one is the best

Is the Key Stage 2 curriculum actually as boring as he says?

Yes

It depends how hands on/interesting the school makes it.

I love primary science and it can be very exciting. However, there is usually too much written recording and less experimenting and discovery. A lot of the same low-level experiments going on, how many times can you grow sunflowers and get excited?
Too much telling the children what they are going to find out and not enough unleashing into the delights of finding out, and then looking for the reasons why.
I use a lot of different methods to record evidence, including photographs, group scribing and video recording of discussions. We have a lot of fun.

We are members of the Science and Learning Centres project which provides more stimulating science experiences for pupils through a national network
www.sciencelearningcentres.org.uk/centres/north-east/inspiring-science/introduction

www.nationalstemcentre.org.uk/elibrary/collection/1045/teaching-primary-science#collection-resources

Treas,

The National Curriculum for Science itself has scope to be very interesting.

The 'Units' that were developed by the QCA to 'cover' this curriculum' were really quite dull (understatement) and many schools, especially those where few staff have a strong science background, do still follow these. Particularly in the days of Science written SATs, there was definitely a focus on science as a body of knowledge rather than a set of skills set in the context of e.g. soil or rocks or the solar system or whatever.

By going back to the NC itself, and making certain that there's enough 'hands on' experimenting (we aim to spend the majority of every Science lesson using Sc1 - investigation - skills) it can be made much more exciting....but then I'm a scientist by background so do I find it easier to do this for science than I do for e.g. Geography....

Thank you all - lots of ideas to check out.

This half term they are doing "materials", which I know they have done before. It's all very basic stuff, hence his moan that if was boring, but we had a bit of fun looking at wood, fabric, metal etc under a little handheld microscope.

He reads a lot of reference/information books, as he's quite into his factual knowledge, so I'm steering him in the direction of the science sections.

I do love his school, and he is thriving, but there does seem to be a huge difference between literacy and maths teaching, which is quite challenging and pushes him, and the rest of the curriculum, like history and science, which is quite basic. I'm happy to stretch sideways with history and geography, but my science is a bit wobbly (o level chemistry seems a very long time ago...).

Popcorn for transformation?

Science museum kits are fun. Thsi is next on our list www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Gizmos-5603265-Science-Museum/dp/B000SAZTNK/ref=pd_sim_k_h_b_cs_17

DS in yr3 is looking at types of rock/soil this term as part of a wider theme on climate/habitats etc. They had Zoolab visit.

Most of KS2 teaching does seem to be geared towards KS2 SATs. KS2 Science is now assessed by teachers, rather than a written exam, so many schools seem to have downgraded it and only cover a basic minimum in order to concentrate on Maths and English. The rest of the curriculum: History, Science and the Creative Arts is so basic because many schools are gearing towards the SATs.

DH teaches science teaching to primary teachers (among other things)
many of them only have science to GCSE and find teaching stuff they dropped as early as they could truly terrifying
he and I are of the opinion that the primary science curriculum should concentrate on Natural History and observation as then the teachers would enjoy teaching it more and therefore do a better job.

Get the school to hire a science inspirer from this site
www.sciencelive.net/
and they might even pick DH !!

Mine like chemistry best though, with Natural History a close second.
Even if we can't use bunsen burners!

Why can't you use bunsen burners?

We have nowhere that I can think of where it would be safe enough to have a gas canister and a lit bunsen with a group of children. I've got as far as night lights before SMT had a panic about it.
Please tell me if there is a way I could....

We use the class kits from www.sciencelearningcentres.org.uk/centres/national which provide whole class resources for science on loan (costs £50 a year). Obviously we don't have laboratories permanently set up like we did in my secondary school but we can provide a reasonable alternative that allows children to conduct real experiments and not just watch virtual ones.

I shall investigate forthwith. I have crossed the border a few times with my love of first-hand experimentation with my class. Nothing too drastic, just enough to be considered eccentric and worth...monitoring by the more conservative elements. Just in case we do end up doing something too interesting.

content.sciencelearningcentres.org.uk/centres/national/prospectus/primary/index.html#/Primary%20Programme/10

The Science Learning Centres are great - DH used to run courses for them - but their funding is top down so do not rely on them long term

I do mad science with my DCs (and several visiting local children) in the school holidays. We made gloop "dance" in a wrapped up speaker cone. We found different ways to drop raw eggs out of the upstairs window without breaking them. We investigated the optimal number of mentos to put in cola, and whether diet was better than normal cola.
I emphasise creativity in science, and investigation over recording.
I have sent interesting science things to school with the DCs (giant theatre light bulbs, wasps nests etc), and try to expand on each term's topic at home to make it more interesting.