Day 1 Session 1 90 minutes

Learning from practical work 1:

The role of practical work

Objectives
By the end of the session, subject leaders and teachers will:
• be able to write learning outcomes;
• know about the different types of practical work;
• understand the purpose of different kinds of practical work.

Resources

For the trainer

• Computer with data projector, Microsoft PowerPoint and Presentation 1.ppt
• Copy of Curriculum Standards for science: Grades K to 12
• Whiteboard or flipchart and marker pens

For each teacher

• Teacher’s pack
Handout 2.1
copy of Presentation 1.ppt
• Poster (or flipchart) paper and pens

Session outline

The role of practical work 1 Whole group presentation 10 minutes

Slides 1.1–1.3
The role of practical work 2 Small group work 40 minutes
Handout 2.1.1 Activity 2.1.1: The role of
practical work
The role of practical work 3 Whole group presentation 35 minutes
Slides 1.4–1.13
Plenary Whole group presentation 5 minutes

15 | Science workshop 2 | Trainer’s notes | Session 2 © Education Institute 2005

The role of practical work 1 10 minutes

Before everyone arrives,

Remind everyone that you are focusing on the role of practical work in science.
brief any interpreter about
the key points of the
Show slide 1.1 to introduce the objectives for this session.
session.

Load Presentation 1.ppt.

Aim to start promptly.

Slides 1.2–1.11 form a presentation covering the role of practical work. Show
slide 1.2.

Make these points about scientific enquiry, relating them to the points on the
slide.
• Scientific enquiry is an important aspect of science and must be part of
planning.
• The Curriculum Standards for science: Grades K to 12 specify what
students will be able to do as a result of teaching and learning in relation to
scientific enquiry.
• The scientific enquiry strand is subdivided into four areas:
– methods of scientific investigation;
– how scientists work (starting in Grade 7);
– processing and communicating information;
– handling equipment and making measurements.
• In the early grades, scientific enquiry has a greater weighting.

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Show slide 1.3.

Make these points about the role of practical work in science, relating them to
the points on the slide.
• Practical work is an important part of science education because it helps to
develop the different areas listed on slide 1.3.
• It is important that students engage in practical work; although there is a
place for teacher demonstration, students must be given opportunities to
engage in hands-on practical work themselves.

The role of practical work 2 40 minutes

Activity 2.1.1: The role of practical work

Refer teachers to Handouts 1.1–1.3 and ensure that everyone is clear about the
task. Ask them to work in small groups.
Allow 15 minutes for the teachers to carry out the task and make the time-scale
clear. Groups might require some individual assistance in carrying out this task.
It often helps to remind teachers that they should think about the things that a
scientist has to do and the things a scientist has to think about when carrying out
a research activity. It might be useful to ask for an example of each from
participants to show how to complete the table in Handout 1.3, for example:

What does the scientist have to THINK What does the scientist PHYSICALLY
about? have to DO?

What kind of measurements to take, Use equipment to take

what to use, how many to take … measurements

Take feedback and complete the table on a flipchart or whiteboard, taking ideas
from participants. When completed, indicate that scientists have to engage in
specific thinking and practical activity. When students are taught science we
need to engage them in this kind of thinking and working scientifically by
offering them a range of activities that will allow them to develop a range of
skills and understanding.

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The role of practical work 3 35 minutes

Continue with the PowerPoint presentation and allow time for participants to
comment on or ask questions about each slide. Where appropriate, draw their
attention to links between the material on the slide and the outcomes of
Activity 2.1.1. Show slide 1.4.

Tell teachers that you will return to each of the different kinds of practical work
listed, one by one, on the rest of the slides.
Show slide 1.5.

Reiterate the key points on the slide by explaining that observation and
measurement both have a place. Observation enables students to look for
features, changes, similarities and differences, while measurement quantifies
some observations, ranging from length to temperature and acidity.
Show slide 1.6.

Reiterate the key points on the slide by explaining that classification focuses on
similarities more than differences, since we classify according to things that are
similar.

18 | Science workshop 2 | Trainer’s notes | Session 2 © Education Institute 2005

Show slide 1.7.

Reiterate the key points on slide 1.7 by explaining that skills activities relate to
such processes as measuring, drawing a graph or creating a table.
Show slide 1.8.

Reiterate the key points on the slide by explaining that illustrative activities are
those designed to illustrate a concept, such as students following instructions to
dissolve different substances. Teachers should be careful about using these all
the time, since giving students instructions for every activity can lead to them
carrying out tasks automatically without thinking about the concepts or what
they are doing.
Show slide 1.9.

Reiterate the key points on the slide by explaining that research activities refer
to those tasks in which students are asked to find out information using sources
such as books, leaflets, CD-ROMs, the Internet, posters, videos. Research
activities should be carefully managed to ensure that the students engage with
the information and do not copy material verbatim.

19 | Science workshop 2 | Trainer’s notes | Session 2 © Education Institute 2005

Show slide 1.10.

Reiterate the key points on the slide by explaining that survey data is data that
students have collected themselves by surveying such things as food
preferences, height, shoe size and hand-span. Secondary data is data that
students analyse but which has been collected by someone else; for example, it
might include data collected by other students, statistics from environmental
groups or information from the Internet.
Show slide 1.11.

Explain that exploration activities are activities in which students try something
out to see what happens, and that they are important at all levels of learning.
Examples of such activities include a young child putting an object into water to
see what happens and an older student connecting six bulbs in a circuit to see
what effect it has on the circuit. Tell teachers that the slide shows young
children exploring drain pipes, guttering, watering cans and plastic spiders in
the water tray. The children were taught the rhyme :
‘Incy Wincy spider climbed up the spout,
Down came the rain and washed poor Incy out,
Out came the Sun and dried up all the rain,
And Incy Wincy spider climbed up the spout again.’
The children explored using the force of water to push the plastic spiders down
drainpipes and along guttering.

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Show slide 1.12.

Explain to teachers that exploration activities require effective teacher

intervention in the form of questions or modelling what to do.
Show slide 1.13.

Explain to teachers that the final slide shows how fair test investigations are
structured. They involve students in planning and carrying out a fair test to
collect data from which they can draw conclusions to answer a problem or
question. In order to carry out fair tests students need to:
• use conceptual knowledge about topics such as forces or dissolving;
• use skills, such as handling equipment correctly;
• understand the need to collect evidence to analyse so that they can draw
conclusions and answer the question.

Plenary 5 minutes

Draw together the different points from the discussion and end the session by
restating:
• the importance of practical work in science;
• that students must be engaged in hands-on practical activities;
• that practical activity must be planned for as part of a science topic.
Finish by indicating that the next session will continue the theme of practical
work but focus on how to manage practical work in the classroom.

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22 | Science workshop 2 | Trainer’s notes | Session 2 © Education Institute 2005