Trust Projects

Digitally Resourced Engaging And Motivating Science - Stranmillis College, Belfast (Cluster Project)

Children’s use of digital technology in their everyday lives far exceeds its application within today’s classrooms as a means to explore and communicate. This may well restrict the extent to which learning and teaching is made accessible, relevant and engaging. In an age of ever developing digital technologies classroom practices are in danger of falling behind, failing to seize the opportunities which these technologies present to develop children’s skills in both enquiry and communication in science.

The strategy for ICT in schools in Northern Ireland ( -emPowering Schools- 2004) identifies the need for schools to understand more fully the profound impact of technology on literacy and numeracy and to appreciate more clearly the knowledge, skills and understanding that comprise digital and visual literacy and to develop more uses of ICT for creative purposes. This strategy recommends closer working relationships between all traditional agencies ( Education Authorities, ITE institutions) in supporting teachers and schools, and highlights the importance of each school identifying its own professional development programme.

 

Aims

The project aims to:

  1. To work with principals and management to identify and support, for each school, opportunities for developing the use of ICT in science provision.
  2. To develop teachers’ appreciation of the opportunities for developing science enquiry skills and communication skills through ICT.
  3. To enhance teachers’ confidence and competence in using ICT (data-logging, computer microscope, movie-maker, digital camera) within science lessons, as a means of recording, evaluating, reporting and communicating.
  4. To support schools in integrating science throughout the curriculum, particularly with respect to the areas of ICT ,Communication, Problem Solving and Handling Information.
  5. To provide a structure for disseminating best practice across all schools in Northern Ireland in the form of shared resources within the LearningNI’s ‘Courserooms’, posters and website.

 

Programme

The project will comprise three phases.

Phase 1: Planning and preparation (September 2008-February 2009)
Planning meetings will be held with school principals to identify areas for development. Student teachers will be trained in the use the digital resources and on the use of the Learning NI environment in order to support the training of their partner teachers. During the autumn term the first seminar at Stranmillis University College will introduce the project and provide training in the digital resources. A second training day will be followed by a day’s in school planning prior to the teaching phase in the spring term.

Phase 2: Teaching (March 2009-May 2009)
The teacher-student teacher pairs will teach over a period of six weeks. During this period they will be visited and supported by the project team. During this period teachers, student teachers and pupils will use Learning NI portal to exchange resources, experiences and to discuss progress.

Phase 3:Evaluation and dissemination (May 2009-June 2009)
Seminar 3 will provide the opportunity for resources and examples of best practice to be shared across all participating schools. The findings of the project in the form of exemplar materials, resources and evaluations will be made available through Learning NI. A website will be produced for dissemination beyond N. Ireland. An A3 poster/ booklet will be created and posted to all 950 primary schools in N. Ireland.
 

Evaluation

The project will be evaluated by the use of questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, focus-group interviews, classroom observation and video-recording.
The evaluation will involve principals, ICT coordinators, science coordinators, teachers, student teachers and pupils.
 

Outcomes and Success Criteria

As a result of this project school principals and governing bodies will have :
• Devised a school development plan for developing the use of ICT within science.
• Developed their teachers’ and pupils’ use of the Learning NI virtual learning environment.
• Shared examples of best practice and engaged with on-line discussions and data sharing with the other project schools and project team.
• Identified and developed strategies for further integrating science within their delivery of the Revised Curriculum for Northern Ireland.

As a result of this project science coordinators will have:
• Developed their appreciation and understanding of the opportunities and advantages of integrating ICT within science and incorporated this practice into schemes of work.
• Identified opportunities for promoting communication in science through ICT and incorporated this practice into schemes of work.
• Disseminated and adopted the best practice approaches throughout their entire school.
• Enhanced the profile of science within the school.

As a result of this project ICT coordinators will have:
• Extended the range of ICT provision within their school.
• Devised strategies to integrate ICT across the whole school curriculum.
• Increased their schools’ use of the Leaning NI virtual portal.

As a result of this project teachers will have:
• Developed their expertise and confidence in using ICT within science lessons.
• Increased their awareness and practice regarding the use of science as a context for developing children’s reporting, communication and evaluation skills.
• Adopted teaching approaches which set science enquiry, recording and reporting within a pupil-friendly relevant context (e.g a story, news item, problem solving).
• Integrated science more widely across the whole curriculum.
• Engaged more fully with the Learning NI portal and taken part in reciprocal learning with other teachers.

As a result of the project pupils will have;
• Experienced challenging, engaging stimulating and accessible science lessons.
• Developed a more positive disposition to both the carrying out and the reporting of science.
• Developed their science process skills, ICT skills and their ability to work independently and as part of a team.
• Made connections between classroom science and everyday life with respect to how data or evidence is collected evaluated and communicated.
• Had enjoyable science lessons!

As a result of the project student teachers will have;
• Developed their classroom teaching skills by working alongside their partner teacher.
• As for teachers (see above).

 

Additional

Dissemination strategy
The findings of the project in the form of exemplar lessons, resources and evaluations will be disseminated by:

  1. Poster/booklet to every school in N. Ireland
  2. Website (cited on poster)
  3. Learning NI virtual learning environment
  4. ASE workshops
  5. The five Education Board’s dissemination of best practice workshops
  6. Conference presentations
  7. Peer reviewed publications

 

Contact

Contact email: J.McCullagh@Stran.ac.uk

Update

This project involved Y3 children using digital resources to enhance X-curricular science lessons. At a recent dissemination seminar delegates learned how the use of video movie-makers, data-loggers and computer microscopes totally transformed children’s disposition towards enquiry-based science. The seminar also provided opportunites for participating schools to incorporate these approaches into their schemes of work. See more at http://anu.stran.ac.uk/cetl/DREAMS.htm.