Mini-Projects

These materials, from the Association for Science Education (ASE), are part of a pilot for a series of Key Stage Four Mini-projects aiming to breathe life back into investigative work for students and teachers. This resource is a part of the SYCD Who am I? collection.

The resources are produced by The University of York Science Education Group (UYSEG).

The intention of the series was to provide opportunities for linked practical investigation and reading research, allowing students greater autonomy than previous models used for course-work assessment.

The studies are open-ended, offering the possibility for various students or groups to follow different lines of enquiry. The studies are based on applications of science met during GCSE courses. The contexts are chosen to motivate students, either because the applications are used in everyday life or appear in intriguing phenomena, which are counter-intuitive. Thus, they should be suitable for use by individuals in science club sessions, or with classes as part of the GCSE course.

Each project is based on some property that is intriguing or counter-intuitive e.g. plants grow faster in the dark, if only for a short time. There are opportunities for a variety of different lines of investigation (including finding information on the Internet). It should be possible to link the activities to some explanatory theory which is accessible at Key Stage Four. Each study provides several different possible lines of enquiry, each of which could be covered by students in about 4 - 6 hours work, leading to an investigation report or presentation to the class or club.