The science community, under the SCORE banner, launches framework for practical science in secondary schools
At the ASE national meeting held in Reading SCORE, the Science Community Representing Education, launched Getting practical: a framework for practical science in schools. The publication is designed to encourage schools' heads of science and their science teaching staff to reflect on the practical work in science they offer, identify the attributes of best practice in practical work and plan how the quality of practical work in science can be improved.
To support teachers through this process SCORE has published an accompanying booklet for secondary schools, Explore, inspire, discover: practical work in science. The booklet includes six exemplar practical activities for each of the three sciences. For each example there is an introduction to the activity, guidance on how to organise the lesson, kit requirements, technical notes and safety advice, the procedure for the activity, and teaching notes with links to websites for further information. The examples are drawn from the Nuffield Foundation-supported practical websites such as the RSC-managed Practical chemistry website, which hosts some 200 experiments in chemistry.
These publications are part of SCORE's practical work in science action programme in the Government's national STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) framework, which aims to improve the quality of practical work in science offered in schools. SCORE's action programme has been informed by its report on practical work in science, which is based on evidence collected from a literature review, online surveys with teachers and technicians and workshops with the science community during September 2007 and June 2008.
Getting practical: a framework for practical science in schools, the supporting booklets for primary and secondary schools and the report Practical work in science: a report and proposal for a strategic framework are available to download from the SCORE website.
Related Links
Provides all teachers of chemistry with a wide range of experiments to illustrate concepts or processes as starting-points for investigations
Science Community Representing Education
SCORE partnership provides a coherent voice for the science education community on the long-term issues in science education
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