Welcome to the November News Letter Latest news and ideas from the ASE West of England Sub-committee and our regional members.
ASE WEST OF ENGLAND ASE West of England November conference 17-11-2012 9.30am
THE ASE WEST OF ENGLAND NOVEMBER CONFERENCE Our annual conference is held in November each year, kindly hosted by the South West Science Learning Centre above @Bristol. Please sign up using http://asewestinspiringscience.eventbrite.co.uk This year the theme of our annual
science teaching. Topics include “Be Amazed
conference is “Inspiring Science”. We hope that
by Apps”, “PSQM, Going for Gold”, and
all the delegates will be inspired by the key
“Physics using iBook Author” .
note and workshops on offer.
After the workshops @Bristol have kindly
Last year the ASE West of England
offered all attendees a free Planetarium show.
November conference had extremely positive
Then afterwards is the ASE West of
feedback and we are glad to welcome previous
England Regional Committee Annual General
visitors back as well as first time attendees.
Meeting. Joining the regional committee for the
Our keynote speaker, Aude Alapini-
AGM is a great way to find out about the work
Odunlade, from Exeter University will be
of the regional committee and offering any
speaking on the topic of "Hands on
expertise to support the work of the ASE in our
Astrophysics". She will give inspiring
region.
demonstrations that shrink astrophysics down
At the time of writing only a few
to lab scale, enabling hands-on learners to
secondary places remain for the conference,
literally grasp the subject. She will illustrate
but there is rom for additional primary
Finding Us Science Learning Centre South delegates. Please book via this link: http:// some fundamental physical concepts in the West is located on the first asewestinspiringscience.eventbrite.co.uk/ floor of At-Bristol. Our process, Aude’s presentation is highly entrance is located to the far If you are coming please note that parking recommended. right of the main At-Bristol After the keynote presentation follows two in Millennium Square Car Park costs are 'Up to doors. Look out for the Science 4 hours £6.00 / Up to 6 hours £8.50' (use BS1 sets of workshops. As in previous years, we Learning South West Welcome have a wide range of topics relevant across the 5LL for SatNav). An alternative may be sign above the door and please Wapping Wharf Car Park, which is '£2.50 for all press the buzzer to be let in. age ranges. The aim is to help inspire your day Saturday' (use BS1 4RW for SatNav).
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Community for Technicians: The Online Science PrepRoom http://www.preproom.org/ Preproom.org is a FREE comprehensive bank of resources for school science departments. We include searchable Practical and Equipment databases, a data and info library, thousands of downloadables, the largest CPD database in the UK, apps, forums, guides and much, much more.
USING SWEETS IN SCIENCE TEACHING
As recommended by our ASE West of England Committee Member Ann Sell
Helen Rogerson has found herself using sweets a lot in her science lessons recently: she discusses ways food can be incorporated into lessons. I enjoying teaching the Edexcel Physics units called Good
biscuits as cooking is turning into a big hobby of hers. This
Enough to Eat and Spare Part Surgery. As I teach in an all-
particularly caught my imagination when I saw the
girls school I want to ensure that my practicals appeal to
same thing being done by science teachers. For
the girls and using food to illustrate physics principles
example, I saw a teacher who asked students to
goes some of the way to achieving this.
make a model cell cake via a link on pinterest and
During this term I have used golden syrup to
another example when a student of a friend brought
calculate viscosity and strawberry laces in a Hooke’s Law
to school a “sweet” pathogen model. I am reliably
investigation. Using Crunchie bars to represent bones is also
informed that asking students (and indeed student
part of the scheme of work. The strawberry laces experiment doesn’t
teachers) to build models helps to bring out some
need to be restricted to an A-level scheme of work, and could be used
common misconceptions.
to extend Year 7 or primary students too. If you find the strawberry
In the past I have also seen “sweetie”
laces are not strong enough on their own then it is possible (if a bit
blood produced by teachers, a recipe I
sticky) to plait them to make them stronger. Of course, this also leads to
found on the internet suggests the
a second possible, experiment finding the
Science Experiments Good Enough to Eat
following:
relationship between ultimate tensile stress and
To represent plasma use water; To
number of strawberry laces used.
represent ions use sugar, salt, oil and protein
Some of the students I teach are from Hong
shake mix ; To represent red blood cells use red jelly beans; To
Kong. Using sweets as props to go over the
represent white blood cells use mini marshmallows and to represent
key language relating to material science has
platelets use white rice.
been very useful. One student explained
A colleague has also used sweets to create models of the atom,
to me that tough, strong and stiff all have
including strawberry laces for electron shells. Another model
the same meaning when using her translating device.
using marshmallows to represent NaCl is shown in the image
My experience using sweets doesn’t stop there. My
to the left.
step-daughter’s history teacher asked the class to create
Recently, I have been using golden syrup to demonstrate the
a model of a castle, she created one out of cake and
movement of plate tectonics using biscuits on golden syrup.
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This is an idea from the website: http:// www.earthlearningidea.com.
Putting
before and after immersing in water and salt
marshmallows into a
water.
vacuum flask and
Another example I have used is using
pumping out the air is a
sweets as an object for Year 7 students to
great way to
write keys about in their classification modules.
demonstrate the effects of
Quality street are good for this, or Dolly
air pressure.
Mixtures if you are on a budget. It gives
The National STEM centre has a great video explanation by Alom Shaha of the jelly baby wave machine here: http:// I feel that it shows brilliantly how the
www.nationalstemcentre.org.uk/elibrary/
something a little more interesting than lab equipment or pictures of aliens. A popular experiment with interesting results is investigating the effect of pH on chicken bones. I have never done this, but I am
tectonic plates move slowly as it is difficult to
seen the experiment in the prep-room.
see the pieces of biscuit move, yet taking a
A lot of my biology teacher friends talk
photo on a digital camera before and after can
about “Reebops”. The Reebops activity helps
show the the pieces of biscuit do move. I have
to demonstrate how genetics is responsible
used this demonstration already this year with
both for similarities and variation among
a group of Year 6 students who are following
members of the same species. There is a
the theme of “underground”.
worksheet here: http://www.bioedonline.org/
Physics Experiments
resources/files/bcm-reebops.pdf
Inspired by my own use of sweets I have Asked colleagues and searched the Internet,
resource/2096/wave-machine
which has revealed a huge
A brilliant way to demonstrate transverse
number of science
waves and their properties. Not quite sweets, but I also love
experiments that either
demonstrating the luminescence of
involved food directly or have an alternative that
tonic water under UV light, tap water
uses foodstuffs and sweets.
doesn’t glow. Lastly in my list of possible physics
Several colleagues use skittles or (chocolate) M&Ms to model radioactive decay. This is
experiments a colleague has suggested using Oreos (as an alternative to jaffa cakes)
especially useful if the school doesn’t have
to model the phases of the moon.
enough dice to share between the students
Creativity in Biology
and overcomes the issue of students putting the dice that have “decayed” back in with the “unstable” dice, as the students will eat those that land writing-side up. An alternative is to
During my career I haven’t taught many biology units, so I turned to my colleagues and friends for ideas of where sweets can be used
And the practical biology website has a good example too. http:// www.nuffieldfoundation.org/practical-biology/ making-reebops-model-meiosis
Chemistry Practical Activities If you use the Wikid scheme of work in Year 7 then you will be aware that there is an entire scheme of work dedicated to food called
use ditalini pasta, which students would not
“Cook”. Some of the topics covered relate to
be as keen to eat.
heat transfer and change of state, but students also get to make ice cream, investigate British
Measuring the speed of light is possible
vs American pancakes and look at cooking in
using a microwave with the turntable turned
the context of physical and chemical changes.
upside-down to disable the turning effect. For those who haven’t seen this experiment, the standing waves inside the microwave cause two melted spots on a slab of chocolate (cheese slices can also be used). The melted spots are half a wavelength apart. The frequency of the microwaves can either be found in the manual or on a sticker on the back. Speed of light = frequency x wavelength.
during biology practical activities: It is possible to create DNA from sweets as the image above shows. There are various different methods for this activity And http://cmaste.ualberta.ca/en/ Outreach/AlbertaIngenuityResources/~/media/ cmaste/Documents/Outreach/ AlbertaIngenuityResources/Carbohydrate/ AICCSLabActivityCandyBloodCells08.pdf is a
I am a big fan of the majority of the Wikid scheme. Using food as a context for science is not
link to a worksheet for an activity using sweets
just restricted to key stage 3. I teach the OCR
to model antibodies and antigens.
Gateway specification at GCSE and there are
You could use gummy bears in osmosis experiments by measuring the gummy bear
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sections of the first chemistry module dedicated to the chemistry of cooking.
One of the examples involves baking
See http://chemistry.about.com/od/
powder. Instead of heating and showing the
foodcookingchemistry/tp/
decomposition of sodium hydrogen carbonate,
kitchenscienceexperiments.htm for more
it is also possible to make sponge cakes in the
ideas.
microwave during a lesson, with and without
A colleague recently set the homework
baking powder, to demonstrate the purpose of
“what is an atom” and
adding baking powder when baking cakes.
received this cake as
I love carrying out the experiment where the students boil potato and see how its consistency changes with time and I
one of the answers. Lastly, a big
demonstrate cooking pieces of potato in a
favourite of a
microwave. I enjoy it because the potato
chemistry teacher
usually gets so dry it sets on fire in the
colleague is making
microwave, which excites the students. Since the specification
elephant dung using concentrated sulphuric acid and
change, this lesson now occurs
sugar.
in the middle of the term rather
Practical Investigations
than at the start. The scheme of work also involves students using egg white as an emulsifier. The last link between food and my science teaching this term is with Year 7. They have been studying Acids and Alkalis, and there are a lot of links to food in the this topic. Whether it be eating foods to establish that acids are sour, to investigating the perfect sherbet recipe, my students have found the link between chemistry and real life interesting at this early stage in their secondary education. I also really enjoy the lessons where students test different vegetables to see which one makes the best indicator. (I really like Ribena, but it isn’t as much fun as making indicator using red cabbage). Of course there are lots of “kitchen chemistry” experiments that involve food, from volcanoes to making invisible ink and creating crystals with sugar.
USING FOOD IN PRIMARY SCIENCE
A colleague told me of an experiment she carried out with a class to establish if a Jaffa Cake is a cake or a biscuit. Cakes get drier as they get older and biscuits go soggy. 300,000 students per year complete Bronze Crest Award projects and these often have food-themes. For example: citric acid levels in commercial and freshly squeezed lemon juice; whether pumpkins cook more quickly with the lid on the saucepan; the effect of modified atmosphere packaging on the shelf
Food is a great context for teaching science
life of refrigerated food; and the accuracy of milk expiry dates. There are more ideas here: http:// www.britishscienceassociation.org/crestawards/project-ideas I have really enjoyed using food stuffs with my classes this term, and I hope they have enjoyed seeing the link between science and food.
A cake made to look like a cell. Pizza cells are also popular.
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Sarah Earle Suggests Investigations that Primary Students Can Do Using Food: - Which melts first in your hand - a smartie or a chocolate button? Why? - Why did the gingerbread man climb onto the fox's back? - What happens to ginger biscuits in water? - How long does it take to dissolve a jelly baby? How can you make it dissolve more quickly? - Warm the following over a tea-light: an egg (out of its shell), an ice cube, a chocolate. How do they change? Which changes are reversible? - Put a skittle in a shallow dish of water. What happens?
#ASEchat: A method of using twitter to connect with other science teachers and gain some valuable ideas. I joined twitter quite a few years ago and found NASA and BBC news to follow. It quickly
ideas or resources for an upcoming lesson they may tweet a question to #asechat. And teachers may use the #asechat hashtag to express their opinion on a political matter. Here are some of the usernames of ASE members and organisations on twitter. Follow them and make yourself known:
got boring so I forgot my password and didn’t
The ASE @theASE (official twitter feed)
use it again. My only followers were my partner
Annette Smith @aseceo (The chief
and a good friend from university. I didn’t really
executive officer of the ASE, follow Annette to
know what to “tweet” myself.
keep up with ASE news).
However, a few years later my partner
Alastair Gittner @agittner
began using twitter to follow some people
Schoolscience Editor @schoolscience
involved in ICT. I could see him looking at
Lorna Monroe @LornaMonroe
twitter feeds and wondered what he was
Alaric Thompson @AlaricThompson
doing. I went to the twitter website and
Linda Needham @NeedhamL56
requested to reset my password, then tried
Helen Rogerson @hrogerson
again.
Mary Whitehouse @MaryUYSEG
This time I found the twitter feeds of
Tanya Shields @t4ny476
@schoolduggery and @cleverfiend. I
Joe Wright @Bio_Joe
recognised @cleverfiend as someone who
Dr Katherine Forsey @DrBiol
comments on the TES forums and gives sound
Anne Goldsworthy @afgoldsworthy
advice. @schoolduggery had a list of UK based
Stuart Farmer @stuartphysics
educators. I started to follow these people too.
James Williams @edujdw
Soon I had a rather large personal learning
Angela @Ange_K1
network of teachers whom I could share ideas
Doug Cremin @sciteachcremin
with via twitter.
MissMolecules @MissMolecules
Just over a year ago a group of ASE members lead by Anthony Hardwick, who had met via twitter, decided to use the hashtag
Katy Bloom @bloom_growhow Liz Lawrence @LizLawrence3 (Present Chair of the ASE)
#asechat to have discussions. The use of the
Lucie @LGolton
hashtag means that we can filter our twitter
Steve Marshall @stevethedoc1
feeds or search so that only posts with that
Arakwai, Glaws @Arakwai
particular hashtag will appear.
Richard Needham @ViciaScience
These discussions occur between 8pm
ASE CONFERENCE READING 2013
Liverpool 2012 After attending the annual conference for the first time in 2012, I can’t recommend it highly enough. Great value, so many ideas and the best CPD I have had in the past 8 years. Helen Rogerson
Ian @teachingofsci
and 9pm on Monday evenings. They have a
greg seal @gregtheseal
focus which can be management, pedagogy or
Sarah @MrsDrSarah
subject knowledge based. We try use topic titles that will include teachers of all age groups. Archives of the discussions are made along with summaries of the most important points and published on the ASE
Who should attend the Reading 2013 Conference?
website here: http://www.ase.org.uk/news/ ase-chat/ However, the #asechat hashtag
Everyone with an interest in science education from teachers and technicians to advisors. It attracts over 3,000 science educators from all phases of science education. ASE members and non-members are welcome. http://www.ase.org.uk/ conferences/annualconference/
doesn’t fall quiet during the week as science teachers (ASE members and non-members) use it throughout the week. Twitter users who find an interesting news story that could be of use to science teachers tweet the link using the hashtag.
Chemistry Cat http://chemistrycat.tumblr.com/
If a teacher needs some
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PRACTICAL SUPPORT AND IDEAS
THE CALL: AN NQT’S FIRST EXPERIENCE OF AN OFSTED VISIT Karen Duxbury-Watkins describes her personal experience of a recent Ofsted visit. I arrived at school thinking about the
planned to the max. But first, I had to teach the
getting to next holiday, still feeling a little
last two lessons of the day without losing the
bruised from my bullets from the previous
plot.
week, but determined to do better this week. I was sitting at the desk planning for the week ahead while my Head Teacher was
http:// www.nuffieldfoundation.org/ practical-biology A collection of experiments that demonstrate a wide range of biological concepts and processes.
days where each and every lesson has to be
next few weeks of hard work ahead and
At about 1.15pm, I check my emails again and yes, they are on their way. An urgent meeting was called for 4pm
teaching a Year 9 PHSE lessons that I take
to discuss the way forward. I attended and the
over next term once I have finished my NQT
Head Teacher gave us a positive pep talk, yet
year.
you could see the worry in his eyes. I try not to check my emails too often,
I returned to my room to re-look at my
as it is a bit of a distraction, but I thought I'd
lessons for Tuesday. Luckily, I had already
have a peek, and there was: a message from
prepared my data and seating plans so they
the Head's PA marked “urgent”.
were ready for scrutiny. I checked all my
It was the call everyone is waiting for
groups to make sure I had the IEP's and
but nobody wants: Ofsted had called to speak
everything ready for the big day. I could easily
to the Head Teacher and will be ringing back
identify the groups in my classes; use SISRA to
after the lesson. “Right, so this is it”, I thought,
check on the progress of my tutor group, and
“the call”, Ofsted were coming.
to find other relevant data so I was sure I knew
First of all, I picked my stomach up off
levels and targets. Not easy for over 270 kids.
the floor and thought about what was ahead of
Data is not my area of expertise, but I do my
me. Two days of hell, nine lessons over two
best to understand the myriad of graphs and
http:// www.nuffieldfoundation.org/ practical-chemistry A collection of experiments that demonstrate a wide range of chemical concepts and processes.
I check my emails again and yes, they are on their way.
http:// www.nuffieldfoundation.org/ practical-physics A collection of experiments that demonstrate a wide range of physical concepts and processes.
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comparisons that are sent out every six weeks.
overwhelming. So many tweachers re-assuring
(CAP 1 hadn't been done yet so we had no
me, and supporting to be the best I can. Just
with inactive Year 10's and 11's, an interesting
current SIMS information).
do what I do normally would do and remember
Year 9 group and my “group from hell”. I was a
it's their privilege to be in my room. I was re-
little worried about how the day would go.
We were told that we didn't need to do lesson plans but were encouraged to prepare
My day comprised of two KS4 lesson,
energised.
them as it looked better and it would cover our
Upon arriving home, I quickly checked
A recommendation from @Ljrn42 to get
my emails to find one from the Head Teacher.
behinds if things went awry. I worked until
a play list of motivational songs instigated
In hindsight I realise it was sent in good faith
gone 9pm making sure the room was as I
another frantic tweet. The call went out and I
and meant to encourage, however the tone
wanted it, resources were printed, lessons
was inundated with ideas from; @LGolton,
was more of the “what aren't we doing and
differentiated, and co-operative learning was in
@KevBartle, and pearls of wisdom from
make sure lessons had these covered for
place. On and on and on the list went.
@Gwenelope, @hgalinoshea,
tomorrow” kind. This had the effect of sending
Eventually, exhausted I
@scieteachcremin, @aegilopoides,
me a tail spin; re-looking at all my lessons.
returned home to check
@hrogerson, @sciencetchr12, and many
Wondering what have I missed? What haven't I
my twitter feed. For
others. I compiled my list and was ready. I
covered? What could I be doing better?
those who are unfamiliar with Twitter, or believe Twitter to be the devils work where celebrities post inane comments constantly about their lives, I would like to clear up a few misconceptions, (like all good science teachers do). I came to Twitter through a CPD course
staggered off to bed fairly late, alarm set for 6am.
Once more my Twitter colleagues came to the rescue and I retire to bed for another
At 4.30am I thought that I wouldn't get
restless night.
any sleep, however the next thing I know the alarm went off and it was 6am time to get up. Having arrived at school early prepped
Wednesday arrives, with no amount of rock music seeming to rise the blood or confidence. Just a deep down feeling of dread.
and pumped after listening to my Ofsted play
I read through the tweets to
list, I was ready to start my day. First meeting
encourage me. SLT are
I went to about using 21st Century Technology
the inspectors in the hall and an impromptu
looking harassed,
at St James School in Exeter. Here they
staff briefing.
worried, exhausted
promoted the use of Twitter as a way of
(Here is where I lose it a bit; they traipse
and it’s not even
expanding your personal learning network and
in looking like a bunch of sinister Hobbits, all
8am yet!
a great method of collaborating with your
black suits, and clip boards and stern faces).
The rumours flying
students and teachers. I created my account
around are that
@KDWScience, with the thought that I would
Science will be first to
connect with my students and help them on
be seen, in particular that they are after Biology
their learning journey, answer questions and
for a change. I take my tutor group into
generally relate to them on their level. However
assembly, hoping the rumour-mill was wrong. I
that isn’t quite what happened, I connected
hot foot it back to my little lab only to find a
with a network of other teachers ranging as far
'hobbit' waiting outside my room. She
afield as New Zealand. We discuss current
introduced herself and explained she was
thinking through Twitter streams, following hashtags such as #ukedchat, #asechat,
coming to see what I will be doing. Here I get Then onto lessons. Lesson one,
the chance to point out my knowledge of my
#scichat, #globalclassroom and many others.
passed, lesson two, lesson three still no sign.
Year 10 group, I have a dyslexic pupil and one
This has resulted in me developing a personal
My lessons are going well. Most of the
FSM in this group. I also let her know what
learning network of likeminded teachers
science department have been observed, and
went before, I only had half the group the
(tweachers) who are happy to share their
still no sign. I reached my PPA time so now
previous day as many were out on a school
experience, knowledge and sympathy when
started planning for Wednesday, which is my
trip.
needed. You can call out for help and it comes
worst day. Period 5 passes, still no visit.
We teach OCR Gateway Science and
I attend the literacy meeting with the
this was my core group, we have covered B1
great ideas that others are using in their
inspectors, as I am part of a cross curricular
a, b, c and now were on Drugs and You. The
classrooms across the world, like the work of
team, where I am the only NQT in the room, I
half of the group that were present the day
Tait Coles @Totallywired77 on Public Critique
try not to look too inexperienced or nervous. I
before had done a market place activity where
or @LGolton on SOLO or @hrogerson and her
get to say my bit and hope it made sense. I
the information on the types of drugs,
work with the ASE. As well as finding out about
was relieved to be in line with the SEF, which I
categories etc were around the room and they
Teachmeets like the one at Clevedon School
had only had chance to revisit in the 15
had to create a presentation to give to the rest
run by the amazing @ICTEvangalist.
minutes before the meeting. I leave thinking I
of the group.
back in spades. Plus you get to find out about
So back to the week in hand. I had tweeted “Ofsted are coming, any
had hopefully done my bit but worrying about tomorrow.
I decided to start the lesson with a Sage session, where those that had been in the
I retire home about 7-ish thinking that
lesson day before taught the missing ones the
support and twitter love from the collective that
Wednesday will be hell as it is 5 lessons day,
information so that they could then do a True/
are the amazing teachers out there was
plus a break duty and a bus duty to boot.
False quiz on whiteboards. This, I will say,
suggestions?” and there they were many. The
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didn’t go too well due to the fact that those
and noisy it passes well. Using outside space,
to evaluate their practical, and run up against
who were the Sage’s couldn’t or were reluctant
group work, discussion,
the same walls; so once I have visited all the
to pass on their knowledge. So what was
numeracy, everyone on task,
tables, being very clear on what they need to
supposed to be a good 10 minutes turned into
it ticks all the boxes. I
5, with me quickly drawing this to a close. I
check the clock, only 25
plenary together discussing our evaluations
might point out that the ‘hobbit’ liked the fact I
minutes left of the
and improvement. I have never been so
recognised this and changed the plan! We
lesson. We'd been told
happy to hear the end-of-lesson bell.
conducted the quiz with lots of good
that they were doing 25-30
questioning from both me and the pupils,
minute observations and I
although worryingly, some of them
think: “well, as they have seen me
seemed to know far more than I
period 1 I am done and dusted”.
do about drugs!
Oh how wrong, at exactly 22 mins
do, off they go. I manage to pull a quick
Feedback was given and the lesson was judged 'GOOD' with a suggestion of modeling the evaluation before asking them to do. I was relived and waited till lunch to hear the verdict on the first observation, which
We then moved on to
to go the end, the door opens
again was a 'STRONG GOOD'. Upon reflection
studying smoking. Using an
and in walks 'the Hobbit’ who
I should have asked loads of questions as to
outline and some pictures
also resembled a Meerkat',
what I could do to make it even better, but the
to sort and stick around the
inspector number 2! To say that I
brain was in overload by this time and nerves
body on the effects of
nearly passed out was an
smoking, pupils were able to
understatement, but on I went.
discuss some of the issues and
The group had entered their data on a
were so frayed I couldn't even construct a sensible sentence. The rest of my lessons, passed by with
pictures and their effects, which some hadn’t
class spreadsheet and we were about to
an ever watchful eye on the door, as who
even been aware of. A diamond 9 then
analyse the results, so quickly thinking I do a
knows, they could be back again. But we got
followed with the best reason to give up and
‘What have we been looking at today’-type
the least important reason to quit as their
question. We attempt to create graphs
ranking.
from the patchy, not very well
The lesson progressed with more
to lunch to be told no more observations. They were now deliberating.
collected, data. There was a lot of
I conducted my bus
questions and answers and general discussion
discussion about the types of
duty, returned to the
about smoking, this took about 35 minutes
graphs could we draw however
lab to plan my cover
with the ‘hobbit’ exiting the room after this,
we got there in the end: Pupil, vs
work for period 4
leaving my lesson plan, seating plan and data
time to recover in a bar chart finally
Thursday and all day
on the bench.
get plotted.
Oh, by the way we finished the lesson
Friday, as I was out for
Meanwhile ‘Mr Meerkat’ is
carrying out some calculations of the cost of
quizzing the pupils on my marking, how is
smoking.
it helping them, what do they do with the
Lesson 2 starts, in come a rather hyped
the remaining part of the week. I was still in school when the
feedback, what are their levels, what do they
meetings concluded: it looked like SLT were
Year 9 group ready for fitness testing in the
have to do to get there, the list was endless. All
happy with the outcomes. The school could
quad. We were doing the Fitness and Health
the time I am dealing with the ‘I don’t get its’
hold its head up and say we did OK! (I am not
unit. They had planned their fitness tests for
and the ‘what are we supposed to be doing’ in
allowed to say exactly what our verdict is until
the first part of the lesson. Although chaotic
the best way I can. I then attempt to get them
the official report is released and it takes two
Please contribute to this newsletter We would love your input to this newsletter. and allow us use it to share practice and make contacts within the West of England Region. ASE is an association and the knowledge an enthusiasm of the members is one of our massive strengths.
Have you got useful teaching tips? • • • • • • • • • • • •
In the following column is some ideas of the things you could contribute. Nothing is too small or big.
• • •
Starter or bell work ideas Favourite practical activities STEM club activities Science subject Ofsted experiences Theme based curriculum Interview tips Introducing learning objectives Use of ICT, software and strategies CPD sessions you would recommend CPD advice for technicians Ideas of great science based school trips Strategies for supporting or mentoring other staff members Using Bloom’s taxonomy in lessons Science jokes and puns Anything else you can think of
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ASE REGIONAL COMMITTEE If you would like to be more activity involved in the ASE on a regional level please contact: SarahAEarle@gmail.com the ASE West Regional Chair. Newsletter Edited by: Helen Rogerson Contact with article submissions helenrogerson80@googlemail.com