SPACE Research Reports

The Primary SPACE reports comprise a series of 10 research reports produced by the Primary Science Processes and Concepts Exploration project. Carried out between January 1987 and 1990, the research investigated primary students' ideas about  science concepts.  The results were used to give teachers descriptions of what they were likely to find if they explored the ideas of their students. The findings were also used to develop trial materials which helped teachers to plan activities to take students' ideas as a starting point in classroom work. The evidence from the trials provided the basis for the aims proposed and the methods suggested in the Nuffield Primary Science teachers’ guides.

The results of the research were used to develop materials in the form of the Nuffield Primary Science teachers’ guides which helped teachers to plan activities to take children’s ideas as a starting point in classroom work.

The reports were published between 1990 and 1998 by Liverpool University Press and arose from a research project based jointly at the University of Liverpool and King’s College London, directed by Wynne Harlen and Paul Black.