Science | Centre for the Use of Research & Evidence in Education (CUREE)

Creative science

Aim: The aim of the project was to explore the impact of innovative teaching methods on attainment / achievement and attitudes in science. This project focused on the teaching of sound through music. The overall aim of the project was to encourage teachers to be more creative in their approach to science teaching in order to make science more interesting, exciting and engaging for the children.

Using peer assessment to deliver content in Science

Aim: To improve pupil engagement with learning and reduce the extent of low-level disruption in lessons, to develop pupils understanding of national curriculum levels through the use of peer assessment and to enhance their ability to set targets and to use peer-assessed assessment for learning activities as a means of delivering content.

Teaching children to generate questions designed to improve their capacity to think critically about scientific problems

Aim: To teach children to generate questions designed to improve their capacity to think critically about scientific problems.

Improving science achievement by raising self-esteem

Aim: To assess whether students' performance in science could be improved by increasing their self-esteem and generating positive support and feedback from their follow students.

The effect of professional scientist intervention in primary school

Aim: To explore ways in which industrial expertise can be most effectively deployed within the primary school classroom and the effect on teachers and pupils. Attitudes; CPD; Primary; Science

Do children have similar models of understanding for seeing, hearing and smelling?

Aim: Many curricula include information about seeing, hearing and smelling, and an appreciation of these senses is related to an understanding of the behaviour of light, sound and gases. The National Curriculum for England requires sound to be taught in Year 5 and seeing to be taught in Year 6. It states that pupils should be taught that vibrations from sound sources require a medium through which to travel to the ear and that we see things only when light from them enters the eye.

The Use of 'Diagnostic Probes' to Aid Teaching and Learning in Science

Aim: To discover if the use of diagnostic probes can increase teacher effectiveness and pupil learning in Science.

Using computers to improve performance in science

Aim: To ascertain whether computers can improve the results of students in a Year 10 science programme and whether students in other subjects can benefit.

Science teaching and attitudes to health and environment

Aim: To examine the impact of primary science teaching on children's attitudes to, and understanding of, health and enviromental issues.

Cross-curricular work involving mathematics using hand-held technology

Aim: To improve standards and achieve greater curriculum coherence in mathematics, science and related subjects by exploiting the opportunities that exist for collaborative approaches to teaching and learning using low cost, portable and easily accessible technology.