British Science Week kicks off on 10th March, and this year, the theme is ‘Connections’. The outdoor environment offers so many opportunities for making connections – whether it be understanding how humans are intrinsically linked, or understanding the connections that can be made between different species. Think food chains, habitats, life cycles and beyond!
At Teach Outdoors, we know that learning about science through reading and listening isn’t always the best way to engage students. As educators, we want to make sure that children truly understand scientific processes. The outdoor environment provides a real opportunity to ‘learn by doing’. Through structured activities and experiments, you can allow children to experience science in a real-life context – developing a deeper understanding as they go.
On our blog this month, we are showcasing three ‘connection-building’ aspects of your school grounds that will enable you to take your STEM learning outdoors.
Dandelions
It’s likely that you’ll be able to find dandelions on all school grounds – whether it be a patch of unmown grass or the edges of the playing field.
Understanding life cycles is a key component of the Science curriculum at KS1 and KS2, and dandelions can provide a perfect opportunity to demonstrate this in practice. Ask children to make observational drawings or take time-lapse photos of dandelions at different stages. They can then begin drawing connections between their observations and their scientific knowledge about life cycles.
There’s also an opportunity to draw connections with Maths here. Children could conduct an experiment to determine the best environments for growing dandelions. In the shade? In long grass? In mown grass? In the sunshine? Ask the children to measure the leaves of dandelions in each environment and record their findings. There’s even an opportunity to display findings in a chart or graph when they are back in the classroom.
You might think that dandelions can only be used to explore the ‘Animals and Plants’ section of the science curriculum – but actually, connections can be made to air resistance too. When dandelions have finished flowering, they take on a parachute-like structure in order to successfully disperse their seeds. Ask children to collect these seed heads and observe what happens when they throw the seeds in the air. They will notice that the seed heads almost ‘float’. Spend time with the children deconstructing the plants, and use them as a prompt to understand how air resistance works.
Trees
Your school environment and surrounding area most likely incorporates some trees – but have your students every REALLY looked at them? Learning the names of trees through experiential activities in a familiar environment will help to make learning ‘stick’ more firmly in the mind. Having ID charts and books available to help is a useful starting point, but another idea is to have the children make their own bespoke charts. They can collect leaves, make sketches and use bark rubbings to construct their chart, ready for use by other children in the future.
Once children have explored the trees in your school environment, they can start making connections between them – and a physical venn diagram is a great way to do this. Set up two overlapping hoops on the playground and ask children to collect a variety of leaves. Add categories to each hoop, for example, ‘green’ and ‘waxy’. The children can add their leaves to the hoops, thinking about whether they fulfil one, both or neither criteria.
For key stage 2, the children can use their science knowledge to make connections with current affairs – specifically issues like deforestation. To understand the importance of trees in providing the Earth with oxygen, children can observe what happens to leaves when they are submerged in water. Question how the children might know that oxygen is given off by their leaf. Then, submerge the leaves into water using glass beakers. The children will start to notice bubbles forming on the leaves – indicating that gases are being given off. The children can then hypothesise which trees they think should be planted to ensure an oxygen-rich environment.
Children
If you really are lacking in outdoor greenery, don’t panic! There is one resource that every school has – children!
During British Science Week, why not take the opportunity to encourage the children to carry out an experiment using themselves as the key component? Carry out a pulse rate experiment to compare pupils’ resting heart rates to their exercising heart rates. Children can experiment with a number of variables – length of exercise, type of exercise, speed of exercise. The opportunities are endless.
The children can also use the circulatory system as a basis for their PE lessons. Use coloured chalks to construct two giant circulatory system box-diagrams on the playground – with lungs at the top, heart in the middle and muscles at the bottom. Draw on red arrows from the lungs to the heart to represent oxygenated blood and draw blue arrows from the muscles to the lungs (via the heart), representing deoxygenated blood.
Now the fun begins! Place red balls in the lungs section and blue balls in the muscles section. In teams, the children must run a relay race around the circulatory system. Starting at the heart, they should collect oxygen (a red ball) from the lungs and return to the heart ready to be pumped around the body to the muscles. When they arrive at the muscles, they should swap their oxygen (red ball) for CO2 (blue ball) and take it back to the lungs. They can then tag the next player in their team.
Every year there are some great resources published by British Science Week. This year is no exception, you can find them by clicking here. Helen Spring our science expert, has identified which of the activities lend themselves to being taught outdoors.
These are the activities outlined in the Primary Activity Pack for British Science Week.
We really hope that this post gives you some ideas and inspiration for taking your classes outside for British Science Week this year – even if your outdoor environment is limited.
