Teaching Primary Science: Chemistry

Syllabus

• Week 1

  From 4 May 2020

  Understanding materials and their properties

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  • Getting started

    Welcome to the course. We start by establishing what chemistry is and where it fits in the primary science curriculum.

  • Subject knowledge

    Gain an understanding of the concepts needed to effectively teach materials and their properties in the primary classroom.

  • Misconceptions: materials and their properties

    Identifying and addressing misconceptions is an essential part of successful teaching. But, what exactly are they and how do they arise?

  • Eliciting misconceptions

    Making time to discover whether children hold misconceptions is crucial for planning future learning. Throughout the course we’ll look at different ways to do this.

  • Reconstructing the learning

    After misconceptions have been elicited, they must be addressed through our teaching.

  • Reflect on your learning this week

    Time for you to reflect on what you’ve taken away from the course so far.

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• Week 2

  From 11 May 2020

  States of matter

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  • Subject knowledge: solids liquids and gases

    Extend your own subject knowledge about the three states of matter and their properties

  • Eliciting misconceptions

    Discover some suggested activities to elicit children’s misconceptions around states of matter.

  • Reconstructing the learning

    See how to address common misconceptions through challenging children’s ideas. Here we look at discussions to define a solid, looking at sand under a microscope and creating a water cycle in a bag.

  • Reflect on your learning this week

    Time for you to reflect on what you’ve learnt this week about the states of matter.

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• Week 3

  From 18 May 2020

  Changes of materials

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  • Subject knowledge

    In the following steps we look at the science behind dissolving and why it is often confused for melting. We also examine changing materials where a new material is formed.

  • Misconceptions

    Here we take a look at some of the most common misconceptions about changes in materials.

  • Eliciting misconceptions

    Discover how to find out if children think that dissolving and melting are the same thing, a dissolved substance has disappeared and if they have an incomplete understanding of irreversible changes.

  • Reconstructing the learning

    Challenge children’s misconceptions about changes of materials and reconstruct incorrect ideas.

  • Reviewing your learning on this course

    Overall review of the course

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