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September 3, 2010 10:39 am

I posted a request for feedback asking people what they thought should follow a two year KS3 course (in my case Wikid Science).

Thank you those people who took the time to respond – I’ve posted a brief summary of the responses below.

• Only 14% of respondents took three years to complete KS3
• 57% of people who responded already followed a two year KS3
• 64% of respondents thought starting KS4 was the better option to follow a two year KS3
• Of people who thought a skills year was best, most thought fun experiments and applying science were the most important things to include.
• Project work and KS3-KS4 bridging units were suggested as important for either KS3 or K4 work.
• One school talked about doing BTEC in Y9, then Diploma or more GCSE in Y10/11
• Two schools had negative experiences with a two year KS3, one was reverting to a three year KS3

So what did I decide to do?

I decided to take the best of both models and take the more skills based parts of the BTEC and spend more time on them, enriching students’ experiences through year 9.  We will then complete physics, chemistry and physics KS4 modules through year 10 to 11.  Students will complete more modules than required for Certificate but no where near enough for Diploma.

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August 26, 2010 10:21 am

I followed Wikid Science thinking it would be a three year course but it evolved into a 2 year course because many people are starting GCSE in year 9.  I teach in a special school (which ability wise isn’t that far removed from the lower ability end of a mainstream comprehensive) and I’m now in a position where we have year 9 to fill – either with accredited courses or something else.

I’m torn between stretching the BTEC level 1 course over three years (with suitable enrichment and development activities) or writing a skills-based course for year 9 to revisit the skills/content which didn’t get the time they deserved in a two year course. 

With a fluid population my instinct is to keep the BTEC as short as possible (possibly easier to manage coursework since our students have to do everything at school and with support) and go for a skills based year – but I’d be interested to hear what others have to say

I’d be grateful if you could complete the brief questionnaire here – it’s anonymous and won’t take more than a few seconds of your time.

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August 21, 2010 12:00 pm

Podcasts are short audio programmes that you download and play at a time convenient to you.  You can listen to them on your PC, on your MP3 player or even your mobile phone.  I download mine using the built in ‘Podcast client’ on my Nokia phone, but iTunes is perhaps the simplest and easiest way to access podcasts for most people.

I tend to listen to podcasts on my drive to school and when I’m walking the dog – and I’ve picked up ideas for experiments and lessons as well as broadening my scientific knowledge.  My favourite science podcast is ‘The Naked Scientists’ and I’d recommend if you only listen to one podcast you listen to theirs.

I’ve listed below some of the podcasts I find/have found useful – let me know if you know of any good ones I’ve missed out.

The Naked Scientists (Podcast link/iTunes link)

BBC Science in Action (Podcast link/iTunes link)

Science Weekly from the Guardian (Podcast link/iTunes link)

Lab Out Loud (Podcast link/iTunes link)

Dr Karl and the Naked Scientist (Podcast link/iTunes link)

Scientific American (Podcast link/iTunes link)

Nature (Podcast link/iTunes link)

The Tech Teachers (Podcast link/iTunes link)

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August 20, 2010 12:50 pm

Science websites provide two opportunities – access to content to keep subject knowledge up to date, and specific information about teaching science.  Many of these are written by teachers for other teachers – often as a blog (a website where entries are in date order).  Note as with Twitter, not every article you read on these sites may be Science related.

I’ve listed below some of the more useful science websites I’ve found – if you know of any I’ve missed off, do add them in the comments below.

Some of the websites will offer you RSS feeds (with a little orange symbol) which means you can read updates from these sites without having to visit them – you just need an RSS reader.  Google Reader is my RSS feed reader of choice – you simply ask Reader to follow the sites you are interested in and you can read the updates for all the websites you subscribe to within one tool (from any computer).  Look here for helpful videos.

You can click here and see the articles I’ve read  and thought were worth sharing (and you can even subscribe to this list in Google Reader!).

Feel free to leave a comment or use the ‘Contact Me’ option if you have any questions.