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SCIENCE BASELINE assessment from level P4 to 4a (old NC levels)
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SCIENCE BASELINE assessment from level P4 to 4a (old NC levels)

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I have used this assessment with students over the years and modified/improved as time went on. I believe it to be a good way of assessing students when they are new to the school or even at the end of each year or indeed at any time you wish. It is based around 4 small assessments for Biology, Chemistry & Physics, so a total of 12 mini-assessments. Ideally the teacher or assistant spends up to 30 mins (can split the assessment over a few days if you wish but best results have been when the entire assessment is completed at one time) in a ONE TO ONE session. The teacher/assistant reads the script (this is important as it reduces leading questions and clues to answers), the responses are noted down but in most cases a tick will indicate if the student has understood fully, partially understood or not understood at all. Minimal resources are needed and are kept in a tray for use at any time. I believe doing or demonstrating science is a beautiful way to engage students, so the assesment uses this. You will need to source basics like balloons, toy car, rocks etc. I chose to set up 4 trays so 4 assessments could be completed at the same time (perhaps different classes) The levels assessed are from P4 up to 4a old levels (which I believe are still useful) you may wish to change the names of the levels to suit your own school. The script states which resources to use in each question as well as appropriate answers that should be expected for fully, partially and not at all levels of understanding. This allows staff that are not science trained to be able to complete these assessments with the students with relative ease. Good luck
What am I quiz sheet
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What am I quiz sheet

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Very simple worksheet to get students thinking and visualising living things With blank table on the back for students to make up there own
Skeleton quiz
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Skeleton quiz

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Short simple quiz that allows you to judge the understanding and level of your students
Drawing small things
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Drawing small things

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Students use hand lenses, magnifiers, whatever you have available....this can lead to a "not fair" discussion as some students only have low magnification. The worksheet contains pictures of very small living things with varrying amounts of legs, antenae, wings, spots, colours...students must use the magnifier to draw as carefully as they can the pictures. The students can then mark their own efforts after you tell them what detail you expected and they should have spotted..be prepared for lots of moaning and a bit of banter.
PERISCOPE template
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PERISCOPE template

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A simple A4 template that allows students to make a small but useable periscope, you will need the mirror card to glue onto the periscope. Challenges to make them longer...ie make an extension tube...does not need to be square! could be tin foil tube etc...periscope is cut in half and the ends slipped over the extension tube. I have had students make a "sea" out of tables, they crawl around underneath and pop up a periscope in gaps between tables to look around.
Build a bridge challenge
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Build a bridge challenge

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A simple challenge where students in small groups or on their own must decide which materials and much of them they should "buy" to build a bridge that must span a 15cm gap(between 2 chairs or boxes) They are allowed a budget and must not spend more than allowed so must choose wisely. The bride is tested to destruction by hanging masses (100g at a time) until the bridge fails
Parachuting eggs
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Parachuting eggs

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A simple activity which gets students thinking about how things fall and how they can be protected when they hit the floor
CRATERS
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CRATERS

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A set of experiments designed to get students thinking about possible VARIABLES that may make craters bigger or smaller. This can lead to a full investigation once the student has chosen a "good" (more controlable variable)
Building Electric circuits challenge
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Building Electric circuits challenge

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3 activities which I use in turn. As soon as the student has completed the first activity and had it checked, they get the next one. Students love the challenge. It is not a race! Students learn through trial and error as well as each other
Speed of Light vs speed of sound
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Speed of Light vs speed of sound

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A beautiful demo with students timing with stopwatches. I typically do this around bonfire night, but if you buy some rockets (the banging type) you can do this anytime. You really need a school playing field with no sports or the like going on. Wedge the wooden stick of the rocket (any size will do) into the ground in one corner of the field, get students with stopwatches as far away from the rocket as poss (yes for safety..but more importantly the further the better results you get) YOU light the rocket and let students 200/300m away know that by usual jumpimg up and down or arm waving...students prepare to start stopwatches as soon as they see the FLASH (on the ground because the rocket is wedged into the ground)...the sound of course eerily does not get heard until a second or so later. Do this as many times as you have rockets, all results can be pooled and averaged later on. There is scope for this demo to be done a mile or 2 apart..using mobile phones and taking students to a nearby park..the rocket is released and explodes high up above school field...students do the timing thing from as far away as is practicable...Google maps will give you an accurate distance to calculate speed of sound should you wish
Microbes
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Microbes

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Straight forward worksheet that can be used to introduce the world of microbes, especially the fact that they multipky so quickly and can cause proiblems for us, as well as benefits for us quickly
20 tips to engage students
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20 tips to engage students

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Having taught in mainstream primary and secondary schools for 25 years and in special education for 14 years I have realized that there is no "fairy dust" that solves the many problems & challenges of everyday teaching. As Basil Fawlty would say most of this originates from "the bleeding obvious", but it does not harm any of us to be reminded of what is often overlooked, ignored and even considered unimportant as it is difficult to "evidence". These are my 20 most important “tips”, not “tricks” to help you engage students, although you may well think it is magic when one of these “wins over” a student you thought lost forever to “the dark side”.
FORCES powerpoint
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FORCES powerpoint

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Simple visual introduction to FORCES should generate discussion and relevance to student's lives. All slides have lovely movements and funny stuff
How big are your lungs
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How big are your lungs

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A measuring lung capacity activity, staff lead. You will need a large plastic bottle, I used a 5litre (windsreen wash topup bottle-empty and washed, and for smaller children a 2 litre coke bottle), mark the volumes with permanent pen on the outside of the bottle (add 100ml of water at a time to see where the marks should go. Have a steriliser solution in a beaker(baby bottle tablet types are great, as well as a rinse beaker to clean the mouth part of the pipe each time. In one big breath students blow into the upturned bottle and their lung volume is recorded. For younger students you can give each student an identical balloon (care with latex allergies) and get them to blow in one breath, tie up and stick "same size" balloons on board like a bar graph but made from balloons. Different colours look great. Visualy you see a bar graph on the wall made from balloons with the most common lung capacity having the tallest column of balloons.....then you can work on "real" bar charts
Growing seeds
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Growing seeds

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I love these activities...you must be prepared for all sorts of ideas from the students...but more importantly allow them to try it out..PLEASE DO NOT tell them "this won't work because" and then give them all the answers that are required by law and the curriculum....let them excercise their own problem solving skills and love you for letting them try it out..in a controlled way of course. Basically they need to find out/ try out/ explore what conditions seeds need to germinate successfully I have had students burn some seeds with a bunsen as they had seen plants growing after a forest fire..indeed you can discuss thet some seeds need extreme heat before they germinate. Other ideas students have had: put in freezer overnight, soak in water, hit with rock, put in acid, keep in dark, keep in light, and so it goes on
Forces quiz
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Forces quiz

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Short simple quiz that allows you to judge the understanding and level of your students
How Concentrated?
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How Concentrated?

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A lovely challenge to get students thinking about what concentration means. At basic levels the expt can be used to determine which acid is the more concentrated (Mg reacts more quickly) On the higher level you can use the apparatus suggested to calculate pretty much how much more concentrated one is than the other (determined by you) but calculated by the ratio of the times taken to react equal amounts of Mg