Teaching science skills

Explore strategies and classroom activities to help your learners master essential scientific skills

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Explore by skill

Literacy

A boy in school uniform confused by science words

Improve your students’ literacy in science skills

Use these tips to help your pupils write and talk like a scientist

Example pages from teacher notes and example slides from the presentation that make up this resource

Structure and bonding: exploding exam questions | 14–16 years

Present and practise a technique to help learners understand the language used in extended-reponse questions and improve their answers

Discover more literacy resources

Hypotheses

A girl in school uniform considers how concentration might affect a reaction

Boost student confidence constructing hypotheses

Ideas to help you teach this essential scientific skill

Example pages from teacher notes, student worksheets and example slides from the presentation that make up this resource

Candle burning investigation: planning an experiment

Concept cartoon and example investigation to practise developing a hypothesis, planning an investigation and evaluation skills

Ethics

A student in a wheelchair reading Frankenstein while thinking about gene editing

Help your students understand ethics in science

How to develop learners’ moral problem-solving skills

Example pages from teacher notes, student worksheet and character cards that make up this resource

Toxic socks: nanotechnology, ethics and society | 11–14 years

Use the example of nanotechnology in socks to introduce ethics in science with this structured practice debate

Risk

A girl in school uniform with a headscarf heats a testube of liquid over a bunsen burner

How to teach risk assessment skills

Help your students learn how to keep the laboratory safe

Example pages from the teacher notes and student worksheets that make up this resource

Student risk assessment: preparing a salt | 14–16 years

Two worksheets to guide learners in recognizing hazards, evaluating risks and identifying control measures

Planning

A student planning a crystalisation experiment with lab equipment

How to teach practical planning skills

Being prepared is the best way for learners to successfully do practicals

Practical planning resource index image

Practical planning: spot the mistakes | 14–16 years

Use these exam-style questions to check your learners’ understanding of experimental skills and strategies

Models

A carton of a student comparing a 3d model of methane to its flat structure diagram

Help students solve problems by using models

Improve learners problem-solving skills in the classroom and in life

Example pages from teacher notes, student worksheet and example slides from the presentation that make up this resource

Using multiple models in science | 14–16 years

Interpret and evaluate multiple models of a molecule of hydrogen to develop understanding and discuss limitations of models in science

Practical

A cartoon of a girl in school uniform doing a titration. She is correctly swirling the liquid in the conical flask but she has forgotten to put her white tile underneath.

How to help students develop their practical skills

Use a model, feedback, reapply loop to develop students’ practical skills

Example pages from resource to show skills tracker, teacher notes and student forms

Practical skills tracking | 16–18 years

Use these editable tools to help learners develop their practical skills using the Common Practical Assessment Criteria (CPAC)

Numeracy

A student taking reading during a practical thinking about the graph she will draw with the results

Improve learners’ confidence with numbers

Engage your students with data and boost their maths skills in the science classroom

Example pages from the worksheets in this series of resources

Maths skills for chemistry

Resources to help your students apply their maths knowledge in their chemistry lessons

Evaluation

A boy pours liquid into a large measuring cylinder while considering which size cylinder would be best

Successful students evaluate every step

Train your learners to get the best marks

Example pages from teacher notes and student worksheets that make up this resource

Evaluating experiments worksheet | 14–16 years

Improve your learners’ evaluation skills by breaking down the experimental process

Scientific process

A school student thinks about the scientific process of hypothesis, experiment, results, publishing.

Show students how to grasp the scientific process

Three teacher-tested approaches to building this skill successfully

Index image Scientific process v2

Tricky tracks: observation and inference in science | 11–14 years

Presentation, worksheet and lesson plan to help learners understand the difference between observation and inference as you build their understanding of the scientific process

Presenting

A school student making a poster showing an experiment and results

Creating posters to present information

Help your students learn how to communicate their results effectively

Skills presenting index image

Presenting investigations: academic-style posters | 14–16 years

Using this resource, learners create an academic-style poster summarising the key information and data from an investigation

Observation

A student observing a microscale reaction as two different crystals diffuse through a droplet of water to react and create a yellow line

Explicitly teach learners how to make observations

How to give students the skills to describe and explain what they see scientifically

Example pages from teacher and technician notes, plus student integrated instructions from this resource

Microscale neutralisation and precipitation reactions | 11–14 years

Hone your learners’ observation skills with two microscale reactions: neutralising citric acid and creating a lead iodide precipitate

Writing

A high school student in uniform correcting a sentence she has written about climate change

Strategies to help students write scientifically

Essential advice from an English teacher on how to successfully model the writing process and boost your learners’ skills