Examples of straight, non-contextualised science topics
Night and Day, The Solar System, Human Body, Heat and Burning, Air
Resistance, Water, Solids, Liquids and Gases, Planet Earth, Electricity,
Minibeasts, Energy Sources
Examples of contextualised science topics
Our school garden, Return to the moon? Olympics, Keeping safe with fire,
Flight, Playground Safari, Light show, Our school goes renewable
Examples of interdisciplinary topics that include science
Whacky wheels - enterprise project where the classes started a toy kit car
company) – main curricular areas: technology, science, literacy, numeracy
Rapid Response – project run in conjunction with the Institute of Engineers
where the children have to solve problems around a scenario where they have
been asked for emergency help with food, shelter, water and so on from an
area that has been hit by an earthquake (main curricular areas: science,
technologies, social subjects, numeracy)
Water is for life – project where children compare and contrast their
community with one in a third world nation in relation to issues like access to
safe clean water, water cleaning, hygiene and health (main curricular areas:
science, technologies, social subjects, numeracy, literacy, health and wellbeing)
Examples of cross-curricular topics in which science is included
Castles (science challenges around an imaginary context of the King’s court
relating to kitchen chemistry), Rainforests (biodiversity, food chains and webs,
plants, interdependence, soil science), Robots (electrical circuits, topical
science)
Examples of topical science topics
Gene Jury (workshops from the University of Edinburgh, looking at human
reproduction and discussing issues around gene therapy and selection), E-bug
(looking at microbes, respiratory illness and health messages), The Great Plant
Hunt (Kew Gardens Darwin centenary resource relating to plants and
biodiversity)