This issue of the primary magazine includes articles on:

• Evolve your teaching of evolution and inheritance by Karen Brunyee
• Sailing ahead: the Polar Explorer programme by Bryony Turford
• Beyond the partnership by Steve Thurgur
• Outdoor learning with astronomy and space by Tom...

What happens when we add a pinch of salt to a lump of ice? This activity provides a chance for children to investigate the phenomenon and to find out how it relates to their everyday lives.

A study published in 2016 in Educational Researcher looks at the profile of science achievement gaps to the age of 14. The researchers used data from the US Early Childhood Longitudinal Study,
Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999 (ECLS-K), which followed 7,757 children from kindergarten (Year 1) to eighth...

From the British Nutrition Foundation, in partnership with the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB...

In this activity children explain that different fruit and vegetables grow during different seasons and assemble their own seasonal salads. These resources include an advice sheet to support setting up cooking with your class, cards showing which fruits and vegetables grow well in the various seasons and cards to...

Our first activity introduces children to the fakebot (a printed or drawn Beebot). It allows your child/ren to explore through play what something can or cannot do. This is known as tinkering.

Please see the session plan for further guidance. 

This week's activity continues to use a fakebot (a printed or drawn Beebot) to create numbers. 
Many of the concepts and approaches built into this lesson support computational thinking (problem solving):
• They use decomposition to break down the numerals into sections, making it easier to write the...

This week we continue to use a fakebot and review the terms ‘algorithm’ (a set of steps, instructions or rules) and ‘debugging’ (fixing an error) as the children learn to create instructions for a programmable device. We make the fakebot travel around shapes and then stars.

Please see the session plan for...

This final activity allows your child/ren to create their own fakebot mat. This activity brings together the vocabulary and skills from the last three lessons whilst having lots of fun, commanding the fakebot to complete various challenges.

Please see the session plan for further guidance.

This resource, from the Royal Observatory Greenwich, is all about helping pupils get to know the solar system.

• There is a lively song and animation in a...

This resource, from the Royal Observatory Greenwich, is a video explaining an elegant method of creating a small model of the solar system, using very simple equipment.

Using a small torch and a transparent ball (for example from a...

This activity encourages children to appreciate how much science has gone into developing a range of different packaging materials and to highlight how easy it is to take disposable packaging for granted.

Starters for STEM consists of lots of easy to run activities suitable for children from 4-11. Designed for parents to use at home they help children develop their science, technology, engineering and maths skills. These activities are easy-to-resource and provide children with the stimulus to talk about the world...

Starters for Science consists of lots of easy to run activities suitable for children from 4-11.  Designed for use in school or at home they help children develop their science knowledge and...