Ice lollies on the curriculum?

We are calling for a host of new experiences in class to improve STEM accessibility and engagement, as the new Government begins a curriculum and assessment review in England.

As the summer holidays are in full swing, four of the UK’s most respected scientific associations want teachers to show children that science is cool – by dishing out ice lollies in lessons.

And that’s just one example of what school time science could look like for students aged 3-11, with other suggested lessons including playing with shadows, digging in soil and kneading bread dough.

'Essential experiences' including using ice lollies to explain the effects of temperature will allow children the opportunity to develop their scientific confidence whatever their background.

Aylin Ozkan, a teacher and education policy specialist at the Royal Society of Chemistry, said: “One of the recommendations for chemistry is that by the age of 11, all children should start to understand how temperature works and how heating and cooling can change things. What better prop is there for a teacher to help explain this than an ice lolly? Essential experiences like this promote learning on a personal level, so we believe they should be part of the curriculum. It’s a cheap solution, and will allow children the opportunity to develop their scientific confidence whatever their background – this is exactly what curriculum reform should be aiming to do.”

We are aiming for our findings to inform the new Government’s recently-announced review of curricula and assessments. In England this review will be led by Professor Becky Francis, Chief Executive of the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), whereas in Scotland, Professor Ken Muir has recommended a renewed vision of the curriculum with the aim of putting learners at the centre of Scottish education.

And it’s not just us chemists who want to inform this review, with physicists wanting light and music to feature in lesson time and biologists advocating for growing vegetables and recycling in class.

Charles Tracy OBE, senior advisor in learning and skills at the Institute of Physics, said: “Many children enjoy making noise – but harnessing this in the classroom can help teach the basics of concepts such as pitch and volume. We want to help the review team to make the primary science curriculum as inclusive as possible. We are recommending that teachers should be supported to bring global, historical, and societal context into their science lessons and that they should build science capital equitably by giving all students access to genuine scientific experiences that are currently the preserve of a lucky few.”

Lauren McLeod, head of education policy at the Royal Society of Biology, said: “By celebrating green spaces, growing vegetables in the classroom, and visiting the local garden centre children can experience the life-cycles of living things and be involved in making healthy and sustainable choices. Not all children have access to a garden or school fields and we want children to experience the world around them while empowering teachers to bring science in to everyday activities. This report and our recommendations set out a way forward for science education in primary school, and we are ready to put that into action.”

The curriculum framework is designed to prepare children to understand their world and meet individual and societal needs, both individually and globally. The four scientific associations say the primary science curriculum should:

1. Have a strong emphasis on purpose, considering not just what is taught and learned, but why and how, so that children develop a coherent and cognitively appropriate understanding of how the world works and their own agency within it.
2. Help children identify with the sciences by providing opportunities for teachers to choose contexts that are relevant to their pupils.
3. Help all children to feel included in the sciences through the experiences that they have, and the perspectives put on science narratives and by encouraging teachers to use contexts that are familiar to primary age children.
4. Ensure the curriculum plans for progression to avoid content being taught before it is appropriate for the age/development stage of the child.
5. Encourage children to think scientifically, to discuss and explain their thinking and, through practical experience, gain a sense of the nature and practices of the sciences.

Marianne Cutler, policy and curriculum development at the Association for Science Education, said: “We recommend the report’s knowledge maps for biology, chemistry and physics with their conceptual boundaries – focusing on what is age and development stage appropriate; and essential experiences – in the classroom, school grounds and/or beyond into their own locality for all children, regardless of their circumstances, by the age of 11 years. It’s crucial that we support primary science leaders, curriculum leaders and senior school leaders in providing an equitable and meaningful experience of science and this report will inform ASE’s policy, curriculum and professional development work. We anticipate that the Government curriculum and assessment review team will find it useful too.”

View the recommendations alongside relevant extracts of the modern curriculum framework drawn up by the expert group of primary educators.