thinking
in science
Figure 1
Discussing the
qualities of a
good scientist
using the
prompts
Gareth Metcalfe shares
how this project is
bringing the big ideas of
science education to life
in his school
Key words:
Thinking skills
Nature of
science
8
W
hat are the overarching
aims of an effective
science education?
How can we provide the children
with a genuine experience of
carrying out an extended scientific
investigation? And can we change
the perception of what it means
to be a scientist? These were
the three key questions that lay
behind ‘The Human Condition’
project, an initiative funded by the
Primary Science Teaching Trust
(www.pstt.org.uk) to explore a
new approach to science teaching.
One of the main objectives
for the project was to help the
children to develop a more
positive perception of science
Think
The Human Condition project
as a subject: to see science as
an inquisitive, creative and
evidence-based way of thinking
rather than a body of knowledge
and skills that need to be learned.
I wanted to show the children
that they all have the capacity to
think and act scientifically.
I also wanted the children in
my class (ages 10–11) to have the
opportunity to plan, carry out
and evaluate an extended ‘nonstandard’ scientific investigation.
The Human Condition project
would force the children out of
their normal scientific enquiry
comfort zones as they would
be investigating, testing and
measuring patterns of human
PRIMARY SCIENCE 134 Sept/Oct 2014
behaviour – an extremely
complex process! In this
project, the children were not
investigating a fixed, universal
property (such as gravity and
air resistance), but looking at
the strength of cause-and-effect
relationships, where they have to
examine the validity of their data,
a critically important scientific
principle.
Big ideas
The report Principles and big
ideas of science education (Harlen,
2010) had a profound effect
on the thinking behind this
project, particularly principles 3
and 5 (Box 1). It focuses on the
overarching aims of an effective
THINKING IN SCIENCE
Box 1 Extracts from Principles and big
ideas of science (Harlen, 2010)
Box 2 The skills and attributes of a
scientist
Principle 3:
Science education has multiple goals. It should aim to
develop:
understanding of a set of ‘big ideas’ in science which
include ideas of science and ideas about science and its
role in society
Can communicate well with other scientists
When investigating, excellent at making
predictions
Willing to learn from mistakes made in
experiments
scientific capabilities concerned with gathering and
using evidence
scientific attitudes.
Progression towards big ideas should result from study
of topics of interest to students and relevance in their
lives.
The report goes on to outline what it means by the ‘big
ideas’ of science education:
[We need to] conceive the goals of science education not
in terms of the knowledge of a body of facts or theories
but a progression towards key ideas which together
enable understanding of events and phenomena of
relevance to students’ lives during and beyond their
school years.
What makes a great
scientist?
To begin with, before the children
knew what the project was about,
we had a session where we
looked at the general qualities of
outstanding scientists. First of all,
the children discussed and then
Have an amazing scientific knowledge
Ask lots of questions before, during and after
investigations
Principle 5:
science curriculum and the
qualities that we need to develop
in our children to help them to
think scientifically.
Care deeply about what they are investigating
Keep going even when their research has not
produced useful results
Willing to listen to other people’s ideas
Able to think about how accurate and reliable
their findings are
Able to organise investigations well
Able to think creatively about different
approaches to a problem
Work precisely, taking accurate readings
ordered 12 different statements
(Box 2) in terms of which were the
most important skills or attributes
for a scientist (Figure 1).
Then the children were
shown a range of quotes, ideas,
disagreements, discoveries and
yet-to-be-discovered thoughts
from famous scientists (Box 3).
They were asked to think about
what this information tells them
about what it means to be an
outstanding scientist and to make
a poster entitled ‘The Qualities
of a Great Scientist’, using their
favourite snippets from this
information.
These activities were used
to introduce the key scientific
principles of the project:
Science is an incomplete ‘best
fit’ body of knowledge.
Scientists find ways of turning
theories and ideas into evidence.
Box 3 Snippets of information about scientists
Quotes
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the
one that heralds new discoveries, is not ‘Eureka!’
but ‘That’s funny …’ (Isaac Asimov)
If I find 10,000 ways something won’t work, I
haven’t failed. I am not discouraged, because
every wrong attempt discarded is another step
forward. (Thomas Edison)
Incorrect things scientists used to think
The liver pumps blood around the body.
Smoking helps to reduce headache pain.
Things that scientists don’t know for
certain
What gives us consciousness (the ability to be
aware, wakeful and experience things).
How many species of animals live on Earth
(we have discovered about 2 million species;
it is estimated that between 3 and 100 million
actually exist).
Things that scientists don’t agree on
How migrating animals know where to go.
What dark matter is (dark matter – whatever it
is – makes up about 84% of the universe).
Scientific discoveries
Why discus throwers become dizzy, and why
hammer throwers don’t (study by Perrin, Perrot,
Deviterne, Ragaru and Kingma).
What the forces are that shape and move
the hair in a human ponytail (study by Keller,
Goldstein, Warren and Ball).
PRIMARY SCIENCE 134
Sept/Oct 2014
9
THINKING IN SCIENCE
QUESTIONNAIRE
head teacher.
We are carrying out a sur vey for the
answer you agree with most.
For each question please circle the
Please answer every question.
on
1. Have you ever been late for school
purpose?
2. Do you enjoy school?
is not
3. Have you ever taken anything that
yours or somebody else’s?
4. Have you ever lied to get out of
trouble?
r
5. Have you ever been cheeky to you
parents or teacher?
6. Are you a leader in your group of
friends?
are
7. Do you find it hard in school if you
doing a test or work?
yes / no
strongly agree / agree /
sometimes / disagree
yes, lots of times / once or twice
/ never
all the time / a few times / never
all the time / a few times / never
yes / no /we are all equal in our
friendship
yes /no / sometimes
other people who are giving
incorrect responses to the questions
– the sheep principle! Examples
such as the Asch line test helped the
children to appreciate that human
behaviour is not – to our collective
surprise – entirely rational! The
following key principles relating to
the study of human behaviour were
exemplified to the children in this
phase:
Human behaviour is
extremely complex and is
affected by a huge range of
factors.
Changing one factor may
not cause a behaviour, but it
may make that behaviour more
likely.
When you see a pattern in
human behaviour, you have to
analyse the different factors that
may have caused this pattern.
To measure human behaviour
you need to use large,
representative sample sizes and
use a control sample to counter
the placebo effect.
After a period of immersion
in the basics of psychology,
including important ethical
considerations, the children were
Thank you for your time : )
charged with the task of coming
up with their own investigations
Figure 2 The questionnaire about attitudes towards school
into human psychology. They
had to take into account the
Scientists specialise in small
introduction to psychology. This
fact that these would be carried
areas and build on the work of
was the chosen focus mainly
out on their fellow pupils in
other scientists.
because it is such a complex
the school and also that their
subject to study accurately,
When drawing conclusions,
research should help the school
giving the children a truly unique to understand the nature of
the validity of the evidence
collected needs to be analysed.
challenge. Also, I thought that
children’s behaviour in some
the children would enjoy – and
I wanted to make two points
meaningful way. Before the
benefit from – reflecting on
explicit. Firstly, you don’t have to
investigations began, their plans
the different factors that affect
be a genius to be a scientist – just
would have to be approved by a
human behaviour, and how this
armed with a curious mind and
scientific panel, which included a
some context-specific knowledge. relates to the children and their
member of the school governing
own actions.
Secondly, and crucially, science is
body.
With the help of senior
incomplete: we are still striving to
Human research
psychology lecturers from
find out more. After this lesson,
And so the investigations
Manchester Metropolitan
the children made comments
took place. They were varied,
University,
we
introduced
the
such as ‘I didn’t realise that there are
interesting, purposeful and full
children
to
some
of
the
things
so many more things for scientists
of great ideas, but they were
that
influence
human
behaviour,
still to do’. I hoped that these key
affected by various unforeseen
such
as
compliance,
priming
ideas would help to empower the
difficulties. The children had to
and
social
dynamics.
We
also
children during the project; we
looked
at
some
of
the
most
wellplan, think on their feet, pick
would continually refer back to
known pieces of psychology
painstakingly through piles
these principles.
research, like the Asch line test
of results and try to work out
Human behaviour
(Asch, 1951). This fascinating
what, if anything, they had
test showed how people are
Having established these
discovered. It was a long, difficult
inconsistent in identifying the
fundamental ideas, the project
but ultimately rewarding process.
itself was introduced: the scientific longest line in a set of lines when A brief synopsis of four of the
study of human behaviour, a basic they are answering alongside
investigations is included in Box 4.
10
PRIMARY SCIENCE 134 Sept/Oct 2014
THINKING IN SCIENCE
Evaluation
Of course, one fundamental
question remained: how
successful was this approach in
altering the children’s perceptions
of what science is and what it
means to think scientifically?
The children who took part in
the project gave the following
thoughts once the project had
been completed:
Now I realise that scientists go much
broader into their investigation, and
you can find out stuff that you never
imagine.
I thought that scientists were really
clever and got things right all the
time, on the very first time because
they are clever and make no mistakes.
I think it was hard because the people
you were testing things on there
were lots of things that could have
gone wrong. They could have had a
late night, they could have been too
warm, too cold, so that’s a really hard
issue to avoid, getting everything
perfect for your experiment.
In normal lessons the teachers will
plan the lessons and the experiment,
and they already know what will
happen. But with this you had to
make up your own experiment, find
your own data, and nobody has ever
experimented on it before.
This project has shown me the
importance of giving children a
genuine experience of science,
and by that I mean the freedom
to experiment and develop
their own lines of enquiry in
increasingly complex scenarios.
That, more than anything else,
was the success of the Human
Condition project. In giving
children these experiences, I
believe we will develop young
people with the tenacity,
creativity and inspiration to
become the ground-breaking
scientists of the future.
References
Asch, S. E. (1951) Effects of group
pressure on the modification
and distortion of judgments. In
Groups, leadership and men, ed.
H. Guetzkow, H. pp. 177–190.
Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Press.
Harlen, W. ed. (2010) Principles and
big ideas of science education.
Available at: www.ase.org.uk/
documents/principles-and-big-ideasof-science-education/principles-andbig-ideas-of-science-education.pdf
Figure 3 Does music affect
how fast you can run?
Box 4 Examples of the investigations
Is your answer affected by who
will receive your report?
Children were asked to complete a
questionnaire about their attitudes
towards school (Figure 2). They gave
every child an identical questionnaire,
but changed to whom they said the
results were going to be sent. One
questionnaire was being done ‘for the
head teacher’, another for ‘a maths
project’ and a third for ‘school records’.
From the evidence collected, the group
concluded that people’s perceptions of
whom they were communicating with
affected the honesty of their answers
to a significant extent. For example,
80% of the children, when filling in
a questionnaire for the head teacher,
ticked ‘strongly agree’ when asked
whether they enjoy school. However,
only 55% said the same when filling in
a questionnaire for a maths project.
How does information about how
easy something is affect your
outcomes?
Children in three classes were split
into two equal-ability groups. They
were each given an identical – and
relatively difficult – test to complete.
Prior to completing the test, one group
was told that the test was easy and
the other group was told that the test
was hard. The investigation intended
to measure how the anticipated level
of difficulty of the test affected how
well the children performed. No strong
correlation was found and the group
concluded that they needed a larger
sample size.
Does music affect your
performance?
This investigation was into whether
people run faster if they are listening
to certain types of music. The
participants completed shuttle runs at
different times with and without music
playing. The children completed 10%
fewer shuttle runs while listening to
classical music, and 20% more while
listening to fast-tempo modern chart
music, as compared with running with
no music (Figure 3).
How does a teacher’s status affect
performance?
One class were split into two equalability groups to test how their work
ethic would be affected by the status
of the teacher taking the lesson. The
same supply teacher took each half of
the class. When she introduced herself
to the first half of the class as a supply
teacher, the children persevered on
a task for an average of 16 minutes.
When she introduced herself to the
other half of the class as a high school
teacher, the children worked on
average for 40 minutes.
Gareth Metcalfe is an assistant head teacher at Bradshaw Hall
Primary School, nr Stockport, and a member of the Primary
Science Teaching Trust (www.pstt.org.uk). Email: gareth.
[email protected]
PRIMARY SCIENCE 134
Sept/Oct 2014
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