Primary Science for Trainee Teachers
- Judith Roden - Canterbury Christ Church University, UK
- James Archer - Bradford College
With chapter sequencing following the new Curriculum, this book supports trainee Primary school teachers to make use of the opportunities presented in the new National Curriculum for effective and engaging Science teaching.
Covering all of the areas of the new National Curriculum for primary science and offering insight into effective teaching, it helps you connect what you need to teach to how it can be taught. This comprehensive guide to teaching Primary Science will help you secure your subject knowledge, understand how children learn about science and know how to plan and teach effective and inspiring science lessons. Exploring opportunities in the new curriculum for creative and imaginative teaching, it shows you how to capitalize on opportunities to teach Science in a way that sparks children's interest.
Includes the full National Curriculum Programme of Study for Science, key stages 1 and 2 as a useful reference for trainee teachers.
Other books in this series include: Primary Mathematics for Trainee Teachers and Primary English for Trainee Teachers
It focusses on working scientifically throughout which is a key thread that students need to plan into each science lesson. The subject knowledge is clear to understand and curriculum links help students to appreciate the 'bigger picture'.
There is a very promising statement on the front cover 'Transforming Primary QTS' and this is somewhat lived up to by the inclusion of the 2014 Primary Science curriculum and an emphasis on Working Scientifically. It is probably an issue of cost, but some of the black & white / grey scale diagrams and photos are not particularly inspiring and sometimes the captions could be more specific e.g. the plant 'stem' picture on p196 shows both leaves and stem and has the caption ' the stem takes the food and water up the plant' with no mention of the stem also taking food down the plant. The photo of 'sieve trays' on 127 does not show the key element of a sieve i.e. the grids, so is perhaps not very good use of half a page. Some good case studies are included e.g. chocolate. The inclusion of self-assessment questions and further reading is helpful. It is surprising not to find anything about STEM in the index.
A fantastic book which has been particularly used by the primary undergraduate students.
Good knowledge base. A lot of different aspects, the students used it to prepare their seminar paper.
This book is a useful overview for trainee teachers. It is up to date with current thinking in biology as well as the new national curriculum. I have added it to my bibliography of recent seminars I have led and have recommended it to trainees.
Very useful book.
