ASE 2025 Annual Conference

In early 2024, the Department for Education announced additional funding to schools and colleges offering the Level 3 Core Maths course for post 16 students. Building from GCSE Maths, Core Maths develops students’ ability to apply maths to real-world contexts they will meet in other areas of study, work and life. In this workshop, secondary science teachers will gain an insight into the Core Maths qualification and why it is important for teachers and students to be aware of it from KS3 upwards.

This event is being run in partnership with the Advanced Mathematics Support Programme (AMSP), with support from the Dept for Education.

Starting to teach post 16 physics can be a daunting prospect. It often falls to experienced colleagues to help coach colleagues who are at the start of their post 16 journey. Time however is short, and coaching can often be reduced to prep-room chats about content and teaching order. This session is designed to help make coaching time more effective.

It will draw on the content of the Institute of Physics’ post 16 Physics Central programme by looking at key messages, demonstrations, and concept development required within each topic. Delegates will get to explore several areas of the post 16 physics curriculum from the point of view of an experienced teacher coaching a colleague.

They will get the opportunity to identify the key concepts and difficulties within topics and explore strategies and demonstrations essential to concept development.

Experience of teaching A level chemistry in a large sixth form college, involving students with a wide range of previous experience and attainment, has led to the identification of several threshold concepts which students must work hard to understand.  

New teaching sequences that help students overcome their misconceptions in chemistry and make better progress in the course have been developed. A strong emphasis on scale has been successful, and to date has been applied to topics such as bonding and structure, rates of reaction, equilibrium, polymers and biochemistry. Ideas, strategies, and resources which can be applied to classroom teaching will be presented.

Interesting misconceptions which relate back to science learning in earlier key stages, such as electricity, temperature and chemical bonding, will also be discussed.

This presentation will introduce PhysChemTechTrainer as an online resource available for senior secondary (ages 16-19) students studying STEM subjects, principally Physics. The resource is entirely free and provides level-appropriate questions and full solutions relating to those questions where the questions vary in terms of context and details each time. It has been designed to complement other teaching and learning strategies in the classroom.

The system was developed in Tasmania, Australia and has been used to successfully boost student outcomes in Tasmanian schools. It is available for use worldwide to teachers and students in English-speaking countries. Students have used it both in the classroom and for homework practice. The system is not an example of AI, but instead is a purposefully curated resource of physics and other STEM problems which can be used to progressively improve student understanding as they study these challenging topics. Following a high impact teaching approach that has been adopted by many schools in the south of Australia, the system assists teachers in structuring lessons, explicit teaching and providing worked examples. It allows for students to gain multiple exposures to the same core material (but in varied ways), access to many styles of questioning and will provide immediate help or feedback when appropriate.

The developer of the system is the presenter. During your session, he will explain how to use PhysChemTechTrainer, how he has used it as a learning tool in his own classroom as students are grappling with new ideas and later on as a revision tool for students consolidating their newly acquired skills and knowledge. He will show how it can be used standalone or incorporated into a school’s learning management system. If you bring an internet-connected device to the session, you will be able to use PhysChemTechTrainer then and there to see how it could benefit students in your classes. Finally, he will provide data on how the system has improved student attainment.

A workshop for those teaching GCSE and A-level chemistry with time to try out and discuss the approaches to tricky topics, such as back titrations, NMR, dynamic equilibria and electrolysis.

Using visual references that students are familiar with, such as making a calculation layout look like a spreadsheet or treating a practical set-up like a recipe in a cookbook, the session is intended to break down the barriers that prevent some students from engaging in the trickier questions, whilst making them fun to teach and easier to mark due to logical structures taught for presenting the answers.

The session is focused on higher tier chemistry GCSE content as well as A-level content, and is suitable for anyone in their teaching journey who would like to try out and share different approaches. Bring a calculator!

Come along to explore the approved Alternative Academic Qualification Cambridge Advanced Nationals in Applied Science and in Human Biology. These exciting, accessible, inclusive and applied qualifications will start teaching from September 2025. Join the team to discover the opportunities for your students and how to make it part of your curriculum offer.

Do you have sets of iPads that you are not sure how to include in your science lessons?  Do you want to find out how technology can be used to enhance teaching and learning?  We will show you some practical ways that you can use iPads within your science teaching.  This session will leave you with ideas to use next week in your classroom.

Mathematical and data sciences are everywhere, and their influence is growing. Our education system must adapt’ – A new approach to mathematics and data education, Royal Society 2023. Using authentic scientific data sets this workshop will give delegates experience of how they can use free technology in the classroom to help their students explore and understand data sets from the natural world.

This ASE event is being run in partnership with the Advanced Mathematics Support Programme, with support from the Department for Education.

Whilst there is plenty of existing research on microscale chemistry and its benefits, much of this focusses on logistics of how and the why. Currently, no research exists on what pupils actually think of it. This led us to a pupil-voice research project on practical work on the microscale.
Students have performed the same practical both full-scale and microscale, and have discussed their views on the process: how easy it is, how useful it is, whether it aids their understanding, and most importantly, whether they prefer it! Both qualitative and quantitative data has been collected using focus groups, lesson observations and % positive response surveys.

This session aims to:
Provide the background of the research project
Discuss early findings of the students' perspectives
Suggest how to make the most out of microscale practical work in your lab

This session relates to the book on Microscale Chemistry sold by ASE/Millgate House

This session will equip attendees with the tools needed to effectively challenge high-ability A-level biology students.  Strategies to improve learning and increase engagement will be discussed and illustrated with specific examples.  Approaches covered will include higher-order questioning techniques, enrichment activities, project-based learning and the use of AI tools.

Research suggests that teaching which is tightly focussed on achieving success in A-level Biology examinations might not be helping students transition to university life. Although most students achieve this successfully, a significant minority (maybe up to 30%) struggle and some leave University. This session explores the possible reasons why and proposes a pedagogy designed to support students interested in studying life sciences and medicine at university, based on the series of Oxford University Press Biology primer books.

Rich contexts, taken from children’s literature, can be used to give pupils a purpose for scientific learning. Stories promote emotive responses - leading to children being more invested in their learning. By using drama conventions, children become real scientists; help well-known characters and understand the breadth of STEM careers available. In a post-lockdown world, this re-builds resilience, problem-solving, collaboration and metacognition.

In Ted Hughes’ The Iron Man, local farmers are outraged by a giant metal man destroying their livelihoods and are desperate for help. As electrical engineers, can pupils learn the substantive and disciplinary knowledge required to stop him in his tracks?

Delegates will step in to fictional contexts and solve problems as working scientists. During the workshop, they will learn how to carefully select age-appropriate texts for purpose and build a progressive sequence of substantive and disciplinary knowledge for a range of topics across the primary science curriculum. There will also be opportunities to consider wider, meaningful curriculum links and outdoor learning opportunities.

The relationship of mathematics to science subjects continues to evolve; from the 2010 SCORE report, the ASE’s Language of Mathematics in Science, through advanced qualification reforms, and General Mathematical Competences in the T-levels.

The Royal Society’s Mathematical Futures Programme proposed a greater focus on Domain Specific Competences, imagining that with a more mathematically literate workforce, all teachers will become teachers of Mathematical and Data Education. This session will trace these developments and consider what they mean for science education in the future.

This workshop on the Nature of Science, given the ‘green tick’ on the ASE’s accreditation scheme addresses questions like ‘Why did I really go into teaching? What future do I want for my students? How can I help them get there?’   Cathy Priest passionately taught secondary school science for 20 years, her students excelled in their exams and loved science, but she rarely got a chance to think about these questions. She now works in teacher training at the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, aiming to help busy teachers find ways to reach beyond day-to-day curriculum requirements, and inspire their students about the deeper, wider, and more wonderful reaches of science. She aims to equip teachers to help their students develop the scientific literacy to thrive in a world filled with complex, interdisciplinary questions and issues.

The workshop delves into topics including the underlying curiosity and creativity of the scientific endeavour, and aspects like the history and philosophy of science. Here’s why it is so exciting to help students better understand this and other aspects of the nature of science.

Young people today face many deep and important questions, such as those about identity and meaning; humanity’s response to issues like food security, the climate crisis and natural disasters; and the ethical considerations of different technological developments. Helping students to appreciate the nature and role of science including its power but also its limits and therefore the need for other perspectives to approach society’s big questions with wisdom, knowledge, curiosity and confidence is something that science teachers can do to help prepare young people for using their science well beyond the world of exams. This is helpful whether they are going to become brilliant scientists and thought-leaders, or simply citizens able to thrive in a complex, science and technology-filled society.

We do know however, that exams, syllabuses and inspections are important, so the workshop addresses the OFQUAL requirements ‘to appreciate the power and limitations of science; the ethical considerations which may arise from science; the everyday and technological applications of science; and the personal, social, economic and environmental implications of science”. Furthermore, an aspect of CPD identified by Ofsted in their recent science review: ‘Evidence suggests that CPD should align with the curriculum and include teachers learning about the nature of science and its methods. So, it supports teachers to help their students to develop scientific literacy, critical thinking and an understanding of how science can interact with other subjects to offer holistic solutions to world problems and big questions.

In summary, delegates will be supported in understanding that students come to their science lessons with different experiences and personal beliefs that should be considered when planning and delivering science lessons.  It enables them to explore through an interactive presentation, the power and limits of science to answer, 'Big Questions' and the value of other perspectives and it will also support science teachers in reviewing and considering strategies and resources which help students learn about the nature of science.

This session will introduce the ideas presented in Markwick and Reiss (2024). Reconceptualising the school curriculum to address global challenges: Marrying aims-based and ‘powerful knowledge’ approaches. Published in Curriculum Journal, BERA.

We argue that our science curriculum must be re-thought to consider how we prepare students for their futures in such uncertain times and that the ideas presented by Young's 'powerful knowledge' and Reiss and White's 'aims-based curriculum' should be integrated as they are complementary in such contexts.

If you’re keen to identify the benefits and opportunities of taking an engineering-approach in your primary classroom, the Engineering in Primary School Stakeholder Group (EiPs) are the people to meet. A cross-sector group working to improve awareness and quality of provision through the mainstream and enrichment curriculum.

This is a one-stop shop for all you need to know about engineering education opportunities for 5-11 year olds.

The session will give a brief overview of the Assessment Companion for Thinking Skills (ACTS) developed as part of a transnational Erasmus project. The main part of the workshop will be interactively using the Exploratory Talk Tool from this project and discussing how relevant this is to Science Teachers

In this workshop, participants will explore the innovative capabilities of state-of-the-art motorized structure kits and systems. Throughout this hands-on workshop, gain comprehensive insights into constructing and controlling the Motorized Crane, Motorized Structure System, and StructureBOT using advanced stepper and servo motors.
Participants will delve into building and programming these dynamic structures, discovering how to effectively demonstrate real-world engineering principles through engaging interactive projects and challenges.

There is also an opportunity for discussion and collaboration to explore how to align these tools most effectively with educational objectives and enhance student engagement and learning outcomes.

This workshop will empower participants to use these innovative tools to bring the excitement of real-world engineering principles into the classroom, fostering a dynamic and hands-on learning environment.

Quantum technologies are developing much faster than the classroom curriculum evolves. How can we bring quantum ideas into the secondary school classroom and still deliver our required curriculum content? How can a laser pointer and a prism demonstrate quantum effects?

The new, free resource book from the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics provides hands-on activities for your students that will do just that.

This workshop will show some of the fun and simple activities in the Quantum Technology resource and you will see how easily they can be used in your own classroom, and how strongly they connect cutting edge physics with the standard high school curriculum. Waves and superposition, charged particle beams, light, diffraction, refraction, interference, dispersion, lens optics: all parts of the curriculum addressed by these resources, with connections to quantum effects illustrated whilst still highlighting the classical curriculum content.

Diffraction patterns can be interpreted as ‘probability maps’ and this has a direct connection to the quantum world – could dice be used to develop a diffraction pattern? The quantum tunnelling that can produce these probability maps has uses in electron microscopy, but comparing with optical microscopes, including issues with resolving power can take us through optics ideas that our students need to understand. You will try this yourself in this workshop, including making the links to wavelength and the Rayleigh criterion using cheap LEDs and pencils.

If you like the workshop, we can even turn the round of applause at the end into a laser!

Join a dynamic Fireside Chat hosted by VITTA Education, discussing the evolving post-16 technical education landscape. The esteemed panel, comprising education providers, industry links, organisations, and regulatory bodies, will gather to discuss the introduction of Alternative Academic Qualifications (AAQs) and the continuous evolution of T Levels for Health and Science.

This engaging discussion aims to explore the transformative potential of these reforms in shaping the landscape of technical education. Panellists will share their insights on how AAQs and T Levels align with industry demands, foster skills development, and prepare students for successful careers in diverse sectors. We invite educators to participate in this interactive session, where they'll have the opportunity to engage directly with our panellists, share their perspectives, and gain valuable insights into the future of post-16 technical education.

Together, let's shape the future of education and empower the workforce of tomorrow.

Can the whole of the Atomic Structure GCSE unit be taught and learnt in one hour? This workshop will explore the impact of Spaced Learning within lessons in physics education. This statistically significant study shows how recent advances in our understanding of neuroscience can be applied to the classroom to maximise learning rates.

Delegates will explore evidence-based approaches to implement Spaced Learning in their teaching, as well as gaining insight in this exciting area of cognitive science. Although the research study and associated peer-reviewed article presented is focused on physics teaching and learning, the strategies discussed are highly transferrable to other areas of the curriculum.

Metacognition is a hugely powerful pedagogy. In fact, it is the highest rated impact that EEF have researched. Beyond this, it is also a key part of ITT and high-quality CPD, as defined by OFSTED. However, it is quite a complex theory, and often ignored by schools and teachers alike.

This session will look to address these difficulties, by presenting a number of high-quality metacognitive strategies which can be introduced quickly and successfully into the STEM classroom.

These strategies build from work undertaken with OUP, around the ideas of planning, monitoring and evaluation. No teacher will leave this session without new or improved strategies that they can instantly introduce into their classroom.

Changing seasons, changing states, growing and decaying all provide rich learning opportunities for pupils in the EYFS. This session looks at engaging activities for observing over time enquiries spanning minutes, hours, days and weeks.

This session will delve into the concept of retrieval practice and its transformative impact on primary science teaching and learning. Designed for primary teachers and teacher developers, this session provides actionable strategies, supported by robust research, to improve memory retention and comprehension in young learners, including:

•Cognitive science about retrieval.
•Practical ideas for retrieval examples from key stage one and key stage two
•Results of a teacher survey about retrieval - which strategies are people using and what are the barriers to retrieval ?
•Overcoming obstacles for retrieval.
We will explore the definition and cognitive benefits of retrieval practice, with some background neuroscience, underpinned by educational research, and investigate practical examples for use in the classroom – giving you a toolkit of strategies to embed retrieval practice into your daily teaching to support engagement, address misconceptions, make meaningful and relevant links, and reinforce learning to boost pupil outcomes.

In 1925, a high school teacher, John Scopes, was found guilty of violating the state of Tennessee’ Butler Act which made it illegal to teach human evolution in state-funded schools. We introduce interdisciplinary (science and RE) classroom resources which revisit the 1925 Trial through a role play and help students learn how our understanding of fossils and evolution have developed since. 

Engaging students in the practice of science is fundamental for learning. Debate persists over how this can be achieved in the classroom and the research reveals the potential and caution required if teachers are to utilise practical science activities effectively, as ‘hands-on’ and ‘minds-on’ learning opportunities.

In this keynote, we will review and discuss the importance of facilitating practical work that supports students’ deep intellectual engagement with the practice of science during inquiry-based activities and how this translates into improved learning.

We will reconsider research around inquiry-based learning, cognitive acceleration in science education, and classroom dialogue through a practical science lens. This body of research provides valuable insights into how this can be achieved in your classroom. Drawing from the real-classroom experiences of KS2-KS4 teachers (like you) who have adapted their pedagogical and assessment practices, we will illustrate how practical science activity can engage students in minds-on learning.

We are living in an Age of Misinformation – much of it scientific.  The problem is compounded by: a) the hubris that comes from the belief that Google can provide all the answers; b) the fallacious belief that we have no need of experts; and c) a science education which deludes itself that it can educate students to be scientifically literate. Yet nothing could be further from the truth as we are all dependent on the expertise of scientists as we are on the expertise of a plumber, lawyer or doctor.  Most of the science that we encounter from how to mitigate climate change to the risks of vaccination are too complex and way beyond the boundaries of school science.  The issue, it will be shown, is not one of evaluating the science but rather make judgements of credibility of scientific experts and the claims they put forward. What can and must school science do to help?

This workshop will present the findings of an international, interdisciplinary team which explored this issue and the recommendations that emerged from their work in the report – Science Education in an Age of Misinformation (available from https://sciedandmisinfo.stanford.edu/) . The workshop will be interactive drawing on classroom examples for participants to discuss and explore requiring the use of foundational media literacy strategies and the use of three key questions that must be asked of any scientific claim. These are: Is there a conflict of interest? Does this person/organization have the appropriate scientific expertise? And is there a scientific consensus on this topic?

Participants will have an opportunity to consider what they can do in their classrooms and discuss the arguments for why current curricula are woefully inadequate in addressing scientific misinformation which is undermining belief in science, and more broadly, belief in democracy.

DNA is a fundamental principle in biology and it is never too early to get students talking about it!

Yourgenome.org is a one-stop shop for information about DNA, genes and genomes. Recently updated it offers a great range of teaching resources suitable for primary science.

This session aims to introduce and demonstrate a selection of resources from yourgenome.org that can be easily applied to the teaching of topics around variation, evolution and living things, as well as some great Science Week Activities!

The presenters will walk participants through a selection of resources, highlighting curriculum links and how they can be applied in the classroom. From this session participants will be able to:
- Locate a range of resources on the Yourgenome.org website
- Understand how to integrate teaching resources into teaching plans
- Deliver different DNA-related content in their teaching

A crime has been committed. There has been a theft at the ASE conference! In this session the participants will become Forensic Scientists. We will find out how Scene of Crime Officers (SOCOs) collect DNA evidence from the crime scene and how the evidence can be used to solve this case. As part of our analysis we will reveal how the thieves in this case are all part of the same family. We will see how information contained in the DNA has been inherited from the mother and father and how this evidence builds to create a strong case to convict them. This is a fantastic way of directly demonstrating the process of inheritance to children in an engaging and fun way. It will help with their understanding of the topic and to see how inheritance can be used to solve criminal cases in the real world. Come along to see some fantastic novel approaches for helping to teach Year 6 pupils about "Evolution & Inheritance".

Could the inclusion of the science of early brain development in the national curriculum build the skills and knowledge we need to close the attainment gap and build the next generation of parents and citizens? This session will take the form of a panel discussion on the science of early child development and the long-term impact that early experiences can have on the life chances of every child.

It will talk about the changes we could make to society and education through teaching children about early child development and hear from teachers who have done this by teaching the SEEN Curriculum. Speakers will be key players in education, and science leads/teachers who have taught the Kindred² SEEN programme to KS2/KS3 students.

The session will end with a Q&A and discussion with delegates, and we will be keen to hear your thoughts and questions

• Suitable for early years, primary, secondary or policy audience with an interest in curricula and new approaches to teaching.
• The SEEN Programme was developed in collaboration with Oxford University and two Expert Advisory Groups.
• Kindred² is a charitable foundation working collaboratively with partner organisations to improve early education and early child development.
  
  Kindred² is proud to be sponsoring this session for the ASE at its' 2025 Annual Conference.

 

Frames for Learning (F4L) is a CPD programme for teachers and their teaching assistants which aims to improve science attainment by scaffolding how teachers and pupils approach multi-staged science tasks. F4L is an EEF funded pipeline project that recently completed its pilot phase (September 2023- July 2024).

The F4L programme aims to increase pupils’ recall, knowledge, and understanding in science, by supporting teachers to use the F4L approach. This approach can be integrated into the existing curriculum, and supports teachers to develop and deliver lessons which optimise the amount of information children must process at once (cognitive load), whilst building on pre-existing knowledge and understanding (schema development) to support learning outcomes.

Y5 teachers from 20 primary schools in South Yorkshire and neighbouring regions participated in the pilot. Training took place through a mix of face-to-face and online CPD sessions. Initially, teachers were trained to use worked examples that they could apply immediately. The training programme culminated in teachers planning and delivering their own lessons using the F4L approach. Alongside these applied skills, attendees gained an appreciation of how applied psychology and cognitive science can make a difference to teaching and learning in the primary classroom.

This interactive workshop is hosted by the lead developers of the F4L programme: Andy Bullough and Diarmuid Verrier. The workshop is suitable for teachers and teaching assistants. It will cover key issues that arose during the pilot phase as teachers applied the F4L approach within their classroom and will describe the ways in which the approach supports primary science education.

The ‘frame’ itself is an elegantly simple and readily accessible approach and curriculum tool used to develop a scaffolded pedagogy to science enquiry in KS2 science activities that supports the progress of all learners, including disadvantaged learners.

During the session an exemplar frame activity will be used to consider how the frame can help good practice in the classroom, through the application of cognitive science concepts and principles such as focus, attention, cognitive load theory, schema development, dialogic approaches and meta cognition in the classroom setting.

Building the frame into lesson plans can help ensure that children are ‘on task’ and focused on the intended activity, that they are learning the required curriculum content, and that they are successfully achieving the learning objectives of the task.

By attending this workshop, delegates will develop an enhanced appreciation of how cognitive science approaches can be applied in the classroom.  In addition, this is an opportunity to learn more about the frames approach in particular, as well as possible future F4L CPD opportunities.

The focus of our research is to inform how classroom science practice can be improved through effective engagement with parents in an out of school science club.

The focus participant samples are families from ethnic diverse backgrounds from The Meadows in Nottingham. Both parents and their children explore different scientific concepts from the EYFS or National Curriculum and develop their use of scientific vocabulary.

Parents are an important factor to the collaboration of home-school communication. In the session, they reflect on their school experiences and reflect on their science learning. They use their own unique experiences and life journey to present scientific learning in the classroom.

Providing contextual learning linked to the seasons/weather/local habitats allows the children to experience science daily and engage in everyday conversations using their scientific literacy.

By providing effectively engaging sessions, we are building a community of families that can envisage careers for their children in the world of science. The children build confidence in themselves as scientific explorers and can feel what it means to think like a scientist.

The co-collaboration of parents has enlightened us on their invaluable support for encouraging and supporting their children’s learning away from school.

As the majority of our families have English as a second language and some children also have SEND, we are proactive in promoting effective use of scientific literacy and scientific vocabulary.

We have observed children’s and their parents’ engagement and enthusiasm grow over the past 18 months. We have identified language as a barrier for communicating abstract concepts but have found that using the right approach and apparatus, we are able to teach the learning objectives clearly.

The approaches we have used are self-narration; short simple direct instructional language for processes and challenge; verbal feedback from the parents, praise and encouragement for the children. Importantly we have found that reflection on the learning also helps consolidate the new learning, ready for the next session.

Interestingly, we have applied adapted approaches to the input but have retained the same outcome for all of the children in attendance. We have noticed that the competency of children’s first language at home also correlates with the engagement of science learning. They can be imaginative and support this with language. They can create pictures mentally with the support of their parents in their first language. We call this ‘family learning’. Many of the families from the marginalised backgrounds express their desire for social mobility for the children and they believe that a firm grounding in science is essential. Many of our parents are highly qualified from the country of birth and apply their knowledge to the sessions explaining what is happening to their children.

The children have developed essential skills such as listening, following instructions, asking questions, sharing, turn taking, drawing, explaining, relating their understanding to others, developing writing skills and collaborating in family learning.

This work is based on research about Cognitive Acceleration in Science Education (CASE) and recent trends in science teaching, related to the integration of scientific practices and the development of critical thinking and high-order skills in students (Kuhn & Lerman, 2021; Merta Dhewa et al., 2017; Oliver & Venville, 2015; Osborne, 2014). The work describes a proposal for science teaching at a public high school in the United Kingdom (St Joseph’s Catholic High School, Slough, UK)

The proposal encompasses 15 teaching units that engage students in inquiring, modelling, and argumentation practices around challenging learning scenarios found in the National Curriculum for Physics. The learning scenarios confront students’ initial ideas and engage them in outlining initial models that will be confronted with the results of hands-on work that creates a need for exploring and understanding. The teacher’s guide is essential to trigger the social construction of knowledge and the development of metacognitive skills in students, through small-group and whole-group discussions. Argumentation is carefully scaffolded to stimulate students’ logical reasoning and to support them in the development of evidence-based conclusions.

In addition, the teaching units integrate specific episodes of the history of science providing meaningful contexts to understand how and why particular scientific explanatory models around big ideas related to energy, forces, or the properties and structure of matter were built. These episodes are meaningfully connected to the topic explored in any teaching unit and in combination with the experimental work and guided reasoning, provide a powerful approach to support the reconstruction of students’ initial models.

This work is part of a PhD thesis using a pre/post-research design to evaluate the impact of the intervention on students’ knowledge and skills. In addition, qualitative and quantitative methods will be applied to analyse students’ artefacts and the teacher and students interactions to develop a better understanding of the process that fosters cognitive development and scientific reasoning in students

References:
Kuhn, D., & Lerman, D. (2021). Yes but: Developing a critical stance toward evidence. International Journal of Science Education, 43(7), 1036-1053.
Merta Dhewa, K., Rosidin, U., Abdurrahman, A., & Suyatna, A. (2017). The development of Higher Order Thinking Skill (Hots) instrument assessment in physics study. IOSR Journal of Research & Method in Education (IOSR-JRME), 7(1), 26-32.
Oliver, M., & Venville, G. (2015). Cognitive acceleration through science education: The CASE for thinking through science. In The Routledge international handbook of research on teaching thinking (pp. 378-387). Routledge.
Osborne, J. (2014). Teaching scientific practices: Meeting the challenge of change. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 25(2), 177-196.
Suprapto, E., Sumiharsono, R., & Ramadhan, S. (2020). The Analysis of Instrument Quality to Measure the Students' Higher Order Thinking Skill in Physics Learning. Journal of Turkish Science Education, 17(4), 520-527.

In recent years, education in England has seen a move towards ‘evidenced-based’ practice with the Department for Education privileging ideas and practice drawn from cognitive science.  

An area that has gained significant interest is that of ‘retrieval practice’. On the face of it, retrieval practice appears to be an intuitive and easy to implement strategy for a teacher, as it requires students to retrieve (remember) information from their long-term memory, rather than passively restudy it. The act of deliberately retrieving information then improves the retention and later retrieval of that information, which is often referred to as the ‘testing effect’.

Despite there being strong evidence that retrieval practice supports learning, there are a number of issues that teachers should be aware of when translating the research into effective classroom practice.

This session aims to share some of the issues that retrieval practice research raises for teachers and discusses some key consideration for teachers who already use or want to use retrieval-based strategies in their practice. Drawing on findings from two recent research projects, the concept of retrieval-based learning will be outlined, along with key ideas to support the development of effective and efficient strategies.

Rationale:
This workshop addresses two important themes in primary science education:
•the effective application of oracy to the teaching and learning of science;
•the need to teach conceptual disciplinary knowledge (to develop an understanding of what science is and how the scientific community works) more effectively.

The materials to be shared are being developed as part of a project funded by the PHG Foundation and led by Professor Rupert Wegerif at Hughes Hall, Cambridge. They build on the legacy of the Thinking Together project which set out to enable pupils to make better use of spoken language to think well, both socially and individually. It is hoped that teaching pupils to think well about the nature of science and the scientific community will enhance their appreciation of science as a way of knowing about the world, make the subject more relevant and meaningful to them (build their science capital), and support them to better understand and evaluate information they are exposed to online. We also hope that engagement with the materials will support pupils to feel more ‘present’ and valued as co-constructors of their own understanding of science.

Outcomes:
Each participant will be given a set of materials developed as part of the project.
The session will enable participants to:
•use a set of detailed lesson plans and accompanying resources to teach pupils how to talk and think effectively in small groups and as a whole class (with benefits that extend beyond science lessons!)
•use the materials to explore key ideas about the nature of science and the scientific community with their pupils, mainly through the medium of talk;
•engage students in dialogues that connect the science curriculum to their lived experience, building their science capital;
•develop their own confidence to teach conceptual disciplinary knowledge;
•more confidently facilitate classroom dialogue so that pupils are more actively engaged in co-constructing their own understanding.

Session details:
Participants will be given an overview of the project materials and the opportunity to engage in a number of the activities. There will be time to reflect on the value of the materials and different models for their integration into the science curriculum. These discussions will be informed by feedback from rigorous in-school evaluation. The presenters will draw on their extensive experience of oracy-based pedagogy to model and discuss the effective use of the materials (Neil Phillipson is a SAPERE P4C trainer, an associate of Oracy Cambridge, and an author on dialogic education, as well as being an experienced Primary Science Quality Mark hub leader.  A practicing teacher from our teacher-evaluation team, will also attend).

How can non-specialists teach high-quality, inspiring, and accurate science lessons confidently in the primary classroom? This session looks at ways to deliver the curriculum and give your pupils a rich science experience even if the last time you were in a lab was your own secondary-school days.

Science and stories, fact or fiction, are means to engage, inspire, enlighten and provoke. Jules and Lynne explore how using story as a pedagogic tool for primary science teachers. Join us for discussion and reflection on the space and place for stories in children’s science learning wherever you are in the world.

The biennial Science on Stage Festival took place in Turku, Finland in August 2024.  The Science on Stage Festival brings together hundreds of teachers from across Europe and beyond to share innovate strategies for teaching science from all levels from early years, through primary to secondary.  

In this session, members of the Science on Stage delegation which represented the UK at the Festival will describe and demonstrate some of the best bits from Turku.

The author of the new book "Science Fix: Science Made Easy for Primary Teachers", Danny Nicholson, will discuss how to use a variety of cheap and free tools for teaching primary science. Using examples drawn from the book, Danny will guide you through the use of these tools, looking at how they can be mapped to the science curriculum as well as computing skills.  The session will look at digital storytelling tools, virtual field trips, data collection and more.

You will leave with knowledge, new skills and a range of ideas to immediately slot into your science plans.

Teaching Primary Science Outdoors

This hands-on outdoor session will support you in planning and teaching science lessons outdoors. We will focus on planning for, and teaching, conceptual understanding and working scientifically objectives outdoors. We will look at assessment and recording in science lessons that take place outdoors as well as considering some of the specific practicalities of outdoor learning. You will leave with lots of ideas, as well as renewed confidence and enthusiasm to take your science lessons outdoors!

This session related to the book Teaching Primary Science Outdoors sold by the ASE/Millgate House.

We are proud to share with you the new primary science curriculum recently launched by Oak National Academy, in partnership with The Centre for Industry Education Collaboration (CIEC), from the University of York.
Oak’s new fully-resourced is built upon the exploration of big questions and employs the latest research-based pedagogical strategies to address common misconceptions while enhancing pupils’ substantive and disciplinary knowledge and vocabulary effectively.

Teachers can access adaptable, sequenced resources, including new and improved slide decks, practice tasks, quizzes and guidance, that provide them with a high-quality starting point for planning their lessons. These have been created to emphasise the development of practical skills, mathematical proficiencies and an understanding of scientific practices, all while embracing diversity as a fundamental principle.

Come and find out about how these high-quality resources can be used to build great curriculum plans and lessons, reduce your lesson planning workload and ultimately improve pupil outcomes.

The first recommendation in the EEF Improving Primary Science report is that teachers should explicitly teach new vocabulary and its meaning, creating opportunities for repeated engagement and use over time.
In this session, delegates will explore a range of engaging activities and games which will support children to understand, use and remember scientific vocabulary. The approach is non-threatening and accessible to all, while encouraging children to take ownership of their own learning and to reach their full potential. The session will include the vocabulary needed for both content knowledge and working scientifically as well as to promote science capital. Delegates will consider how vocabulary can be used within practical lessons to support children to discuss and explain their science as well as thinking about how it can be pre taught prior to science experiences and reinforced afterwards.

Save planning and marking time and raise student attainment and confidence with Isaac Physics (Key Stages 3,4 and 5). Extend and challenge with Isaac Physics and the British Physics Olympiad (BPhO).

Isaac Physics is a free online open learning platform to support the development of problem-solving skills in physics from 11 to university. Now offering resources for maths at GCSE and A Level (including further maths) and chemistry and biology at A Level. Work is auto-marked with feedback. Regular use of Isaac Physics is evidence-based to improve student skills, attainment and success in meeting offers for high-tariff universities for STEM degree courses; additionally, on average teachers save 3-4 hours on planning and marking. This session will introduce attendees to the features of an Isaac Physics Teacher account and explore the many resources on Isaac Physics for secondary science teachers.

Attendees will learn about Isaac Physics’s ready-made lesson resources, tests and mentoring to raise student attainment and confidence, support revision and develop problem-solving skills. All free and auto-marked with feedback!

Attendees can access Isaac Physics free weekly online CPD, suitable for ITE trainees, ECTs and more experienced teachers and subject leads. Delivered by the Isaac Physics Teacher Support Manager, an IOP-accredited Physics Teacher Educator. Sessions are designed to be welcoming, supportive and inclusive of all teachers of science, irrespective of age, gender, sexuality, disability, beliefs, race, teaching experience and subject specialism. Save planning and marking time and raise student attainment and confidence with Isaac Physics (Key Stages 3,4 and 5). Extend and challenge with Isaac Physics and the British Physics Olympiad (BPhO).

Isaac Physics is a free online open learning platform to support the development of problem-solving skills in physics from 11 to university. Now offering resources for maths at GCSE and A Level (including further maths) and chemistry and biology at A Level. Work is auto-marked with feedback. Regular use of Isaac Physics is evidence-based to improve student skills, attainment and success in meeting offers for high-tariff universities for STEM degree courses; additionally, on average teachers save 3-4 hours on planning and marking. This session will introduce attendees to the features of an Isaac Physics Teacher account and explore the many resources on Isaac Physics for secondary science teachers.

Attendees will learn about Isaac Physics’s ready-made lesson resources, tests and mentoring to raise student attainment and confidence, support revision and develop problem-solving skills. All free and auto-marked with feedback!

Attendees can access Isaac Physics free weekly online CPD, suitable for ITE trainees, ECTs and more experienced teachers and subject leads. Delivered by the Isaac Physics Teacher Support Manager, an IOP-accredited Physics Teacher Educator. Sessions are designed to be welcoming, supportive and inclusive of all teachers of science, irrespective of age, gender, sexuality, disability, beliefs, race, teaching experience and subject specialism. Wherever possible we aim to accommodate teachers' caring responsibilities.

The BPhO complements Isaac Physics in developing problem-solving skills, confidence and curiosity in physics with a range of challenging competitions which allow students to compete against other aspirational students. There are fourteen annual physics competitions for students in Year 10 to Year 13 (although some students in Year 9 may participate). These aim to encourage the study of physics and to recognise excellence in young physicists. Attendees will learn how to get their students involved and find out about the range of competitions, including the Computational Challenge, Astro Olympiad and international teams!

The BPhO complements Isaac Physics in developing problem-solving skills, confidence and curiosity in physics with a range of challenging competitions which allow students to compete against other aspirational students. There are fourteen annual physics competitions for students in Year 10 to Year 13 (although some students in Year 9 may participate). These aim to encourage the study of physics and to recognise excellence in young physicists. Attendees will learn how to get their students involved and find out about the range of competitions, including the Computational Challenge, Astro Olympiad and international teams!

Play is key for young children’s learning, and the world around them is a source of wonder and interest. Using play based methods, NUSTEM have developed a resource to help early years educators introduce young children to STEM careers. The resources are designed to support adults without a science or STEM background to confidently engage children with science and careers.

In this session we will look at why it’s important to introduce STEM careers into early years and how we can help children playfully explore the world around them through the award winning Play, Be, C resource.

Join us for this practical session that looks at how to ensure meaningful learning happens when awe and wonder experiences are brought into the primary classroom. We'll look at some familiar and some new 'wow factor' activities and consider how these can be linked to the curriculum, how the science applies in the real world and how learning can be made relevant to children's own lives.

This session related to Kathryn's book Wow! But Why though? Sold by the ASE/ Millgate House bookshop

This workshop aims to equip teachers in KS2&3 with the knowledge and tools to effectively integrate games into their science teaching. By demonstrating the educational potential of games and providing practical strategies for implementation, we can help educators create more engaging, interactive, and effective learning environments for their students.

Bothered that your pupils only investigate questions that you give them? Concerned the quality of questions is poor when they’ll left to develop an enquiry?

In this session we’ll take you through an approach that improves your approach to scientific question-asking.

The publication of the EEF’s Improving Primary Science report led us to reflect on our own practice and collaborate with 14 local schools to develop and trial a range of activities that provide explicit opportunities for pupils to engage with vocabulary over time both within science lessons and across the wider primary curriculum. Our "STREAM" approach aims to add breadth and depth to science vocabulary retrieval using authentic contexts such as stories and real-world problems that connect to pupils’ experiences. Linking high-quality class texts, STEAM challenges and playful vocabulary activities gives teachers and pupils the opportunity to contextualise and practice new vocabulary, improve engagement, build positive attitudes towards science and improve academic outcomes for all pupils. In this session, participants will have the opportunity to explore the activities and provide feedback, reflect on their own teaching strategies, and discuss whole-school planning ideas.

As we approach a likely curriculum review, the IOP has been considering the design principles and structure of a physics curriculum that develops deep and enduring knowledge and understanding of some big ideas of physics, capability in its practices and ways of thinking, and positive lasting impression of the subject. In this session, we will explore and discuss how those principles might be put into practice.

The need to improve literacy skills is widely recognised, not only as a way to support outcomes in science but also to support pupils more widely as a lifelong skill. Evidence also shows that literacy is a major barrier for disadvantaged learners making more progress in science (https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/evidence-reviews/science/), hence literacy has become a focus for most schools.

In a packed curriculum, tackling literacy can feel like another job to do and so this session explores how we can integrate the development of literacy skills with building both substantive and disciplinary knowledge in secondary science.

Many schools now have a whole school approach to developing literacy, with suggested strategies sometimes feeling that they don’t quite lend themselves to the science classroom. Science teachers may also lack confidence in their ability to develop literacy when faced with whole school approaches developed by ‘literacy experts’. Having a science-led approach can promote buy in of both staff and students in overcoming the barriers to literacy.
This session explores how we can take ownership of literacy development either within our own classroom or across a department, gain confidence in approaches and ensure that activities enhance the science as well as the literacy.

Practical, science-relevant strategies will be shared to develop a range of aspects of language and literacy, including at word, sentence and paragraph level. Links will also be made to reading comprehension and application in an unfamiliar context, still a challenge for many learners at KS4.

Intended outcomes

•Consider the challenges and barriers to developing literacy in secondary science
•Develop approaches to improving a range of literacy skills whilst also building knowledge and understanding in science
•Develop confidence in overcoming barriers to literacy in science

This session is sponsored by Collins.

Why do some students struggle to draw graphs?
This session summarises the research around graph research and interpretation providing simple solutions for the classroom.

By the end of this session delegates will have a better understanding of the complexities of graph construction and interpretation alongside a series of simple strategies to implement immediately in the classroom.

Chemistry Professor Sir Martyn Poliakoff FREng FRS will talk about his experience of using YouTube videos to bring chemistry to a wider audience and to inspire a new generation of chemists.  Physics teacher Simon Poliakoff (Sir Martyn’s son) will then share a variety of practical strategies to effectively use videos to support science teaching in schools and colleges including using videos to reduce cognitive load.

This session will look at how to engage EYFS pupils of all abilities with science without introducing misconceptions. We will consider some key topics and ways to teach them through simple but correct explanations and practical experiments. This will be linked to the English National Curriculum, but with applicability to other curricula. There will be an opportunity to share ideas with other EYFS teachers.

We will introduce and model a simple framework for sequencing Explorify activities to help build children’s long-term memory. We will use new and updated activities which elicit children’s existing knowledge and provide opportunities to practice tier 3 science topic specific vocabulary. The Education Endowment Foundation’s research into teaching primary science advocates using vocabulary approaches that promote rich language connections. Explorify’s award winning activities provide this, together with the opportunity for children to verbally explain their thinking. This helps the children refine their understanding and particularly benefits pupils from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. We will try practical activities that help build children’s science understanding and experience in the trickier parts of the materials curriculum. Then we will consider how children’s knowledge can be deepened using Explorify activities for retrieval practice and making links with prior learning.