Develop pupils’ skills to ask - investigate - share

Great Science Skills are a collection of direct-to-the-classroom videos that teachers can play and pause at the start or during a lesson.

Focused on each aspect of the working scientifically cycle, these videos are narrated by Dr Jon Chippindall, and model a science skill. Each inspires pupils to practise and apply the skill related to pupils’ own scientific enquiries.

Teacher notes accompany each video providing relevant information to inform their use, and to share and discussion with other teachers and educators in your organisation.

Great Skills Starter 5-7 videos focus on:

• asking scientific questions

• gathering and recording evidence

• interpreting evidence, and

• drawing conclusions.

Click, play and pause the videos to introduce and discuss the information shared about each skill.

ASKING SCIENTIFIC QUESTIONS
Scientific questions mark the start of the scientific process.

In this video pupils are shown how to develop their own questions that can lead to an investigation.

Use the Question Makers to accompany this video.

GATHERING EVIDENCE
Collecting data by measuring and observing change.

This is what makes science special and inspires use of key scientific vocabulary and application of mathematics skills in science.

INTERPRETING DATA
Developing and using simple charts to analyse evidence.

Another area where pupils apply their mathematical skills to review, think about and discuss what their evidence tells them and how that helps them to answer their scientific questions. The application of Venn diagrams and Carroll diagrams to sort and group, as well as using tally charts, block diagrams and pictograms.

DRAWING CONCLUSIONS
Considering what the evidence really means related to the question asked.

Pupils learn different ways to analyse and interpret their findings, supporting them to develop a conclusion. The GSSfS Toolkit - Focus Frames and Conclusion Creator are ideal to support this activity.