Brainwaves
Examples of pupil work - Gathering ideas and prioritising key words
There are many different ways to encourage and support children to begin to offer their own suggestions for scientific vocabulary and phrases that can be used to form their own explanations. Brainwaving can be done with a whole class, small groups or individually. The guidance for teachers in this section gives more detail about how to conduct a Brainwaves session.
This first video shows Mark Townsend working with his Y6 children from Harrison Primary School to gather their
ideas on sugar paper after they have seen the Floating & Sinking Oranges demonstration (the video of this can
be found in the Setting the Question section).
Two volunteers were chosen to act as scribes who then recorded the words and phrases from the group as they arose.
After the group was happy that their list was complete they were encouraged to prioritise their key words by
circling those that they felt would be the most useful within their explanations and discard any that were not
needed.
In this video Caroline Ahearn from Cams Hill School shows how a KS3 practical demonstration offers an ideal opportunity for the group to use the whiteboard to complete the brainwaves section of the Thinking Frame.
During the Brainwaves process the children are thinking and filtering their ideas. The teacher (and other pupils) initially allow all of the suggestions for vocabulary to be recorded and then prioritise them and filter them later through discussion. The Brainwaves section is a good way for teachers to identify any misunderstandings or misconceptions that individual pupils may have.