School children

Explore, Engage, Extend

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Animals, Biodiversity & Habitats, Electricity, Energy, Evolution & Inheritance, Forces, Light, Plants, Properties & Uses of Materials, Rocks, Fossils and Soils, Sound, Space, States of Matter

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Assessment

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7-9, 9-12

Eliciting children's knowledge and understanding in science to inform the planning of new learning experiences

Explore, Engage, Extend includes twenty sets of highly engaging practical activities to support teachers with assessment for learning in science. The activities generate rich assessment data, enabling the teacher to plan the topic in response to the children’s specific needs. The topics presented cover the upper primary age range, but they are also transferable across year groups, and can be easily adapted for the particular curriculum being followed by the school. The activities are intended to be used at the start of a topic, but are equally valuable for providing a practical approach to learning at any stage of a topic.

Teachers from the trial project say:
“Explore, Engage, Extend is excellent assessment for learning.”
“The children are more engaged and motivated and make good progress.”
“Science in my classroom is now much more child-led.”

Explore, Engage, Extend was written by Tracy Tyrrell (PSTT Fellow) and edited by Ali Eley (Outreach Director).

Explore, Engage, Extend overview

Written by PSTT Fellow Tracy Tyrrell, this fantastic new book supports teachers to elicit children’s knowledge and understanding in science and use this to inform the planning of new learning experiences.

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Resource cover

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Acknowledgments page

Acknowledgements & contents

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Rock and soil page

Rocks and soils

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Free Sample Units

Safety Notice & Disclaimer

PSTT advises teachers to refer to either the CLEAPSS website or SSERC website for up to date health and safety information when planning practical activities for children.

PSTT is not liable for the actions or activities of any reader or anyone else who uses the information in these resource pages or the associated classroom materials. PSTT assumes no liability with regard to injuries or damage to property that may occur as a result of using the information contained in these resources. PSTT recommends that a full risk assessment is carried out before undertaking in the classroom any of the practical investigations contained in the resources.

All materials are ©Primary Science Teaching Trust (PSTT) and are freely available to download and share for educational purposes. Whilst educators are free to adapt the resources to suit their own needs, acknowledgement of copyright on all original materials must be included. Rights to images included in the resource have been purchased for PSTT use only – as such, these images may only be used as part of this resource and may not copied into or used in other materials.