Kent College and Capel Primary Science Project

Over the course of last academic year (2017-2018), Years 4, 5 and 6 at Capel Primary School have carried out joint Science workshops with Kent College, Pembury. The Year 6 session in the Autumn Term was a Chemistry activity based on forensics where the pupils carried out identification procedures, including flame tests. The joint Year 4 and Year 6 session in The Spring term was a Physics activity. The pupils built and tested circuit boards, using cross-curricular questions from their Geography and History work. The Year 5 activity in the Summer term was Biology based with the pupils creating cheek cell slides and onion cell slides and observing and drawing them using microscopes, a resource not available to them at Capel. This year, the plan is to work with Year 6 pupils on a longer-term project to improve their investigative science skills, on the topic of “Can Scientists tackle plastic pollution?”

Aims

To raise the profile of Science at Capel Primary school and to share resources between Kent College and Capel teaching staff. This was achieved by working with three year groups across the academic year, across three science disciplines.

Background

The profile of Literacy and Numeracy at Capel had been raised through various teaching initiatives and the aim was to raise the profile of Science in a similar way. This was to be achieved by doing activities both on-site at Capel and also by the pupils visiting Kent College to be able to use laboratory facilities and equipment not previously experienced.

Resources

Regular meetings were held throughout the year to discuss which activities would be most suitable for the Year 4, 5 and 6 pupils and resources were provided by both Kent College and Capel. Next year’s project will use resources from the July 2018 edition of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s “Education in Chemistry” publication.

Impact

The sessions were a success for all year groups, pupils and staff alike.

“It was great to see the different colours for the different metals”

“I answered all the questions to make the circuit board work”

Pupil Involvement

Boys and girls in Years 4, 5 and 6 

Frequency

This collaboration will continue next year with the aim of running project based activities.