The Royal Society of Chemistry, the Institute of Physics, the Royal Society of Biology and the Association for Science Education have published recommendations for reforming the primary school curriculum in a bid to reduce inequalities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) education.<\/p>\n
Children with limited first-hand experiences are \u201cundeniably at a disadvantage\u201d, the report suggested.<\/p>\n
It said: \u201cThis is a fundamental equity issue, and the provision of rich essential experiences for children (particularly in the early and lower primary years) will go some way in addressing this.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThese concrete experiences form a basis from which children can draw evidence for their ideas, making children ready for the more abstract learning they will encounter at secondary school.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aylin Ozkan, a teacher and education policy specialist at the Royal Society of Chemistry, said: \u201cOne of the recommendations for chemistry is that by the age of 11, all children should start to understand how temperature works and how heating and cooling can change things. What better prop is there for a teacher to help explain this than an ice lolly?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a cheap solution, and will allow children the opportunity to develop their scientific confidence whatever their background\u201d<\/p>\n
Charles Tracy, senior adviser in learning and skills at the Institute of Physics, said all students should be given access to \u201cgenuine scientific experiences that are currently the preserve of a lucky few\u201d.<\/p>\n
Lauren McLeod, head of education policy at the Royal Society of Biology, said: \u201cNot all children have access to a garden or school fields and we want children to experience the world around them while empowering teachers to bring science in to everyday activities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sarah Hannafin, head of policy at school leaders\u2019 union the NAHT, said: \u201cUsing real-life scenarios and objects can help bring science to life for pupils, and this happens in schools across the country, even under the current curriculum.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pepe Di\u2019Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: \u201cMaking science relatable to children\u2019s real-world experiences in a hands-on way is an excellent approach to learning and something that primary schools are pretty good at doing.<\/p>\n
A DfE spokesperson said the curriculum and assessment review will \u201cconsider how to ensure young people get the opportunity to access a broad and balanced curriculum, as well as the crucial work and life skills necessary to succeed in both the workplace and throughout their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
This post appeared first on sky.com<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Primary school pupils should have the chance to eat ice lollies, plant vegetables and knead…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3093,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}