Using the environment 3: tackling problems part 2

The activities described in the Science 5/13 units Using the environment 3: tackling problems are designed for children aged 9-13, when they are becoming more capable of thinking logically and begin to speculate about the causes of phenomena and how their ideas could be tested. The work described takes children and teachers beyond collecting information about the world outside the classroom. The author makes a distinction between experience and experimentation. Through experience children gain knowledge of events and objects. Experimentation involves using information from past experience and other sources to suggest possible explanations (hypotheses) and test them.

Part two continues the focus on the impact on living things of environmental factors begun in part one. Here investigations concern problems arising due to variations in environment conditions, such as weather, the slope of land, the depth of water and conditions created by human intervention.