"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.

There are more and more science events happening now, which might inspire your son. E.g. National science and engineering week is in March which may well have events near you.

www.britishscienceassociation.org/web/nsew/

Or you could try experiments at home, like those here:

www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/content/kitchenscience/

BSA NSEW site : gets my vote because DH gets a mention ! not that I'm biased mind :-)

perhaps a meeting with the teacher asking them what they are doing that is turning your son off science? sounds like its the teaching to me! I have taught rivers and all sorts of science. With rivers we imagined a whole community who live by a river before dealing with all sorts of problems from toxins to saving people from the river!! It was tough but boy did we have fun! ask them how they are embracing science in a creative, immersive, inquiry based way! I am a massive believer that any science topic can be taught in an exciting manner!

It really can very much depend on the teacher. And some parts of the curriculum is more exciting than others too.

DD is in Y5 and is currently enjoying science a lot as it is chemistry and they are in the lab most lessons doing experiments with chemicals, test tubes and bunsen burners. Less keen on the write ups, but overall quite fun presently.

We have a "Science Park" more or less on our doorstep so pupils see science as relevant to them. There is an annual Brainwaves event where they have been able to show off their knowledge and they even had the opportunity to interview NASA astronauts.

Hi sittinginthesun

Many of the post have great suggestions - but agree that teaching of science/ mathematics can be weak to dismal (at least from our experience).

The Royal Society are in fact looking into this situation and trying to create resources to improve tuition of science/ mathematics KS1 - KS4 - royalsociety.org/news/vision-launch/.

They are seeking opinions on science/ maths teaching - anyone is welcome to submit their views here: royalsociety.org/education/policy/vision/

Personally I'd love it to be a requirement that at least one field trip in KS1/ KS2 has to be science related.

I'd also like to see more creative thinking - there's a lot of maths and engineering behind sports - it could be brought into teaching PE, teaching the Olympics, etc...

My DD1 (Y4) recently went on a field trip to walk a length of canal. Winter isn't ideal - not many canal boats. She learned about canals - what they were, when they were built, why they were built, etc??? I don't feel they've fully explored the history of canals (although possibly more will be done over the term), but they didn't even touch upon math/ science issues. They could have talked about where the water feeding into the canal came from, how to measure water flow, have gravity is used to move water, for example. They didn't even discuss how locks work (which I think would have been a lot of fun for the kids to actaully operate, with or without a boat). They could have worked out how many bricks are present in a given length of canal wall. They could have worked out how much building the canal would cost in today's money. They could have learned about water quality, pH, wild life around canals, vegetation surveys, etc... but no. They just walked for about an hour and then went back to school.

Thank you again - you lot are brilliant!

I have had a chat with DS1 and we have a plan. He has science on Tuesdays (with a regular supply teacher, which I think doesn't help, as she doesn't know the children as well as their normal class teacher).

He is going to try and remember what subject they covered, then we are going to look through all the books and websites and find a fun experiment to do at home.

He is hoping there will be a few explosions (unlikely!), but at least it will make him think a bit, and if he is planning experiments in his head, it might make the lesson less dull. Also, I hope I remember enough to extend him a bit. I had a good look at the NC topics last night, and it actually seems quite interesting. I hadn't really realised that "materials" was quite a wide topic, with a lot of scope.

Thanks again.

Hi Sittinginthesun

Once you have science subject - try this website: www.bbc.co.uk/schools/teachers/keystage_2/topics/science.shtml

BBC Learning KS2 Science topics. You can then search the specific topic for games/ handouts/ etc... to supplement what he's been doing at school.

I've found this very useful when I felt more could be done or when my DDs wanted to do more.

Sounds like you've got a good plan there!

My DD used to find primary school science quite boring too. I think this can happen if they are exposed to more interesting science out of school, so that the lessons are 'old hat' and easy. DH and I are both PhD scientists so we've been taking her to places like MSIM and Catalyst, and doing 'home science' all her life (mostly nature and kitchen chemistry. If she's bored in the car she'll demand we 'talk about something interesting' - which (more thanks to DH than me) can be extensive discussions about sewage, power transformers, subatomic particles...

Fortunately, it has evidently got a lot more interesting at secondary (she's yr8 now at a girls' GS with science specialism - perfect for her!) .

What events are you going to go to for National Science and Engineering week?

This was recommended on another thread too.

Hi again

Just wanted to say a big thank you to those who recommended "Is a Blue Whale the Biggest Thing There is?". I ordered it from the library, gave it to DS1 (thrown to one side as he only wanted to read the Beast Quest books he borrowed), and he has just told me that he read it last night in bed, and that it is brilliant. He read it to his 5 year old brother at bedtime, and now I have both of them trying to work out just how big the universe is..

Tried to order it on Amazon, out of stock, but the suggested books (you know, the ones that "other people who bought this also liked...") looked really interesting, so I have just gone a bit mad and ordered half a dozen. If they are good, I think I'll order another copy for school.

Oh, and the experiments are going well. He's been planning a few, and we've just made some real butter this evening (must admit, I though it wasn't going to work, but it did in the end).

Thanks again.