Scince and Technology


How can science and technology activities be made engaging and relevant in primary education?

Rachael Dunn, 17th April 2018

Science and technology are commonly use together through education, education in science can involve different technologies and various technological equipment to explore many areas of science through experiments and observations that are fun and engaging, this approach to science provides an alternative approach to just copying from a board or learning from a text book.

As there is an issue with the economy in the 21st century the importance of the teaching of STEM(Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) has increased, incorporating these subjects together rather than looking at them separately provides area for innovation and the ability to solve complex problems(Kennedy & Odell, 2014).By integrating STEM (science, technology engineering and mathematics) across the curriculum could help improve the shortage of STEM qualified students, STEM in early education will help to encourage students away from the belief that science is extremely difficult and jobs such as being a scientist aren’t out of reach (Gurney-Read, 2014). If children are shown how important science and technology is for their future, they become more excited and interested in the subject (Green, 2016).

The welsh government invested more than 1.6 million into STEM between 2016 and 2017, this funding will aim to improve the experiences of technology and science for pupils in wales, help children to use science to reason and understand how valuable science is (Williams, 2017). The 2015 NAP science literacy report highlights that although students are interested in learning new knowledge and taking part in science and technology experiments, many can not relate science to their lives (Tytler & Prain, 2017).

So as science and technology are so important to a forever advancing technological world, science and technology needs to be made fun and exciting, so how can science and technology in primary education be made relevant and engaging for students?

As a child and a parent, I can remember numerous trips to techniques, a facility that provides exciting, engaging exhibits and experiments that involve science and different technologies and various equipment’s. Exciting experiments bring science to life, students who witness how different objects float or glowing water are more interested, when students take part they are more excited and engaged (cox, 2014).

By incorporating personal into science it becomes more relevant to all students, there are different methods to making scientific topics more exciting, changing names of topics and lessons from scientific terms to easily relatable terms such as “what are we made of” instead of “atoms”, this helps students what and why they are learning topics, another method to engage students attention is to relating stories to the particular scientific topic(Green, 2016).

When trying to remember science in my early education is difficult, I cannot remember specific things being taught although I have a good knowledge of scientific facts, I do however remember using a Bunsen burner to carry out different experiments, and drying out liquid to make salts and different elements, although I know much of what I learnt was probably through learning from the board or a text book, the only fond memories I have was when engaging in experiments and how salt was formed.

A key component into engaging children into science and technology is to help them recognise how science has created many of the technologies in their day to day lives, students are interested in how science is behind the creation of their mobile phones, tablets and games consoles,(Cox, 2014) this means they can relate to science and technology and understand the importance science has on developing new technologies. Asking students to answer scientific questions or solve problems, by creating drawings, models, animations or digital creations using different technologies can help students stay engaged for longer, spark different ideas and lead to discussions and provide deeper meaning (Tytler & Prain, 2017).



This video on Glowing Water shows how children can find science fun, using different equipment and different technology to make glowing water which is exciting and engaging for young children, it involves children being hands on and experimenting with new ideas and techniques and learning that there are different outcomes from different materials and methods being used together. The video on safe water experiments for the classroom shows fun engaging ideas that all children (myself ) would be interested in doing, they combine day to day, relatable objects such as balloons, water and pepper etc, that provide all different outcomes, methods and provoke different ideas and can spark imagination. These scientific experiments I feel would provoke children to ask questions, and provide a desire in students to want to explore different materials and technologies as they would enjoy taking part and being hands and never knowing what outcome might come of different scientific experiments and experiences.

Blending maths, science, technology and engineering is cross contextual learning, incorporating mathematics work sheets and different environments, using different objects I nature to count, this strengthens the learning, taking students outside to explore nature, can promote different questions, various answers allow students to make comparisons, experiment, discover and share with peers, exploring different materials, environments shapes and objects are all engaging to children(Sneideman, 2013).





References

C. Green, (2016), How to make science relevant to students. Available online at: https://eic.rsc.org/ideas/how-to-make-science-relevant-to-students/2010041.article , accessed 3rd April 2018.

 J. Gurney-Read, (2014), STEM skills should be 'integrated across the curriculum. Accessed online at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10706162/STEM-skills-should-be-integrated-across-the-curriculum.html , accessed 12th April 2018

T. J. KENNEDY*, M. R.L. ODELL, (2014), Engaging Students In STEM Education. Available online at: http://www.icaseonline.net/sei/september2014/p1.pdf , accessed 9th April 2018

J. M. Sneideman, (2013),Feature Story. Available online at:http://naturalstart.org/feature-stories/engaging-children-stem-education-early , accessed 1st April 2018

WhizKidScience, Published on 2 Dec 2012, Available online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM6UU6QTt4M , accessed 12th April 2018.

J. Cox, (2014), How to Motivate Students to Love Science, Available online at: http://www.teachhub.com/how-motivate-students-love-science , accessed 3rd April 2018.

K. Williams, (2017), New national network of excellence for science and technology to be established. Available online at: http://gov.wales/newsroom/educationandskills/2017/new-national-network-of-excellence-for-science-and-technology-to-be-established/?lang=en , accessed 3rd April 2018

R. Tytler, V. Prain, (2017), Science curriculum needs to do more to engage primary school students. Available online: https://theconversation.com/science-curriculum-needs-to-do-more-to-engage-primary-school-students-74523 , accessed 1st April 2018.

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