Improving Science Together  (IST)

The IST project has been a collaborative enterprise between twenty primary schools and four secondary schools in Bristol, Bath Spa University College, South Gloucestershire LEA and Bristol LEA. The project ran between September 2000 and September 2002.

This project has had a considerable impact on the schools involved and has raised the profile of scientific enquiry within those schools. The participants have renewed their enthusiasm for teaching science and have established a strong, supportive local network that includes schools, LEAs and Higher Education. A key to the success of the project has been the collaborative ethos that was established.

Aims and achievements

The project aimed to develop approaches to the teaching of Scientific Enquiry with a particular focus on developing strategies for assessing scientific enquiry in meaningful and manageable ways.

Assessing Scientific Enquiry

Strategies for teaching and assessing of science, particularly of scientific enquiry, have been developed and strengthened across the schools. The £1,000 equipment grant to each primary school has enabled teachers to set up practical work so that more children have direct access to resources and can work more independently.

The project explored the need to focus teaching and assessment on particular aspects of scientific enquiry whilst maintaining a holistic approach to investigative work. This has particularly improved the children's attainment in scientific enquiry and there has been a significant increase in percentage of children attaining Level 5 in the Y6 SATs.

Models for the assessment of scientific enquiry have been developed and will be disseminated on this website .

Y6-Y7 Link Project

The project considered how assessment information on scientific enquiry could be passed from primary to secondary schools and as a result of this a bridging project linking Year 6 and Year 7 has been developed and implemented in the project schools. 

The process of primary and secondary teachers working together to develop this project has given secondary teachers a greater understanding of the content and level of work at Key Stage Two and has helped primary teachers to understand the issues of transfer from the point of view of Y7 teachers.

BAE Systems Airbus UK is local to the project schools and their engineers were involved with the development of this in the early stages. The project was first trialled in July-September 2001 and modified as a result of that. The new version has been tried in project schools in July- September 2002 and is currently being revised in the light of feedback. Children and teachers have responded very positively. The project will be disseminated across other schools in Bristol and South Gloucestershire LEAs this year. The link project will be available on this website.

Other achievements:

As well as working within the overall project aims each school identified priorities for action according to their own needs and developed materials that were appropriate for their children. These included:

• increasing use of elicitation strategies, such as floorbooks and concept maps
  

• developing the school grounds as a resource for science
  

• strengthening links between Science and ICT
  

• strengthening links between science and literacy .

Products that will be of use to other schools and available on the AZSTT website are:

• models for the assessment of scientific enquiry- plans for focused assessment linked to the QCA Units of work
  

• the Y6 - Y7 link Project
  

• professional Development Unit on Floorbooks
  

• electronic word banks providing vocabulary linked to units in the QCA Scheme of work .

What happened during the two years of the project?

The project strove to achieve a balance between giving teachers time away from school to develop their own thinking and share ideas with others in the team, and time within school to try out strategies in their own teaching and support their colleagues.

The project included:

• days and twilight sessions when the project team met as a whole group for input and discussion
  

• tutor visits to schools to work with teachers in and out of classrooms and provide subject
  

• non-contact time for teachers in schools
  

• visits between schools, including primary and secondary .

For further information please contact:

Kendra McMahon
BathSpa University College
k.mcmahon@bathspa.ac.uk

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