Pupils as Scientists
‘Too much teaching fails to convey what scientists regard as the intellectual discipline of science and the excitement of exploring the unknown.’ Nesta report on science education, BBC news, 27.11.05
This project focuses on young people doing science – experimenting, exploring, and using scientific method to find answers to real questions – rather than passively ‘learning about science’.
There is considerable evidence that pupils who are actively creating knowledge, rather than being told, or reading about it, have not only a more thorough grasp of that knowledge, but are also better able to apply scientific method to other problems and, in many cases, to other subjects.
The first two projects of this one year pilot, involve pupils working on a newly created land art feature by Chris Drury called Heart of Reeds on the Lewes Railway Land Local Nature Reserve in East Sussex.
This project focuses on young people doing science – experimenting, exploring, and using scientific method to find answers to real questions – rather than passively ‘learning about science’.
There is considerable evidence that pupils who are actively creating knowledge, rather than being told, or reading about it, have not only a more thorough grasp of that knowledge, but are also better able to apply scientific method to other problems and, in many cases, to other subjects.
The first two projects of this one year pilot, involve pupils working on a newly created land art feature by Chris Drury called Heart of Reeds on the Lewes Railway Land Local Nature Reserve in East Sussex.
By increasing the borderlands between water and land, Heart of Reeds has provided a richer habitat and therefore a larger diversity of species in an area already rich in wetland wildlife. This unique resource is now the focus of the first stage of Pupils As Scientists.