Educating Colchester with science

The school with the best performance in A-levels and other academic qualifications was Colchester Royal Grammar School (this was a statistic taken from an article produced within the Telegraph). This is a fantastic piece of data for Britain’s oldest recorded town.

Is our education system preparing our pupils?

Education needs to always be improved; it is a valuable asset to have and future generations need to be able to learn from older generations so that mistakes can be prevented from happening again, this is the learning process. However there is a sense of questioning involved when thinking about what our pupils are being taught in schools; are academic subjects important? Should more focus be emphasised on maintaining organisation and communication? These are certainly questions worth thinking about.

Science and thinking

At this current day and age we are still learning and will always be learning. We need to learn about the world, how things work and what we can do to improve our own existence, this is where science comes in; the question: ‘Why do we need science?’

Science is defined as:

‘The intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment’.

Now that is a mouthful and quite boring; it is not a true reflection on how science should be taught.

All pupils require a sense of awe and engagement for them to be able to learn, recall and never forget. If there is a subject that allows this, it would be science. The possibilities are endless and there is a sense of holding back within the education system at the moment. It is always great to hear about improving schools; however, more can be done.

It is true that we are improving as a community and a country, but if anyone is teaching or being taught using the simple phrase ‘Anyone, Anyone’,   then well it’s easy to see why some pupils hate classes:

What we should be aiming at is taking an understanding from this teachers philosophy as a science teacher but as well as a man who loves teaching, loves his son and loves life, when he has got other reasons to go in the opposite direction.

If one had to summarise what science and education is and why it is important (this applies for all academic subjects) then Mr Wright is a true inspiration.

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Teachers are human too.

For some reason teachers seem to be looked upon by pupils as machines; who live in our own classrooms and have no life. Even though the reality is we probably feel as though we have no life sometimes; but we still must laugh and enjoy our work.

Teaching is a profession which is best described as a daily roller-coaster and no matter how good you are at the job you will always have areas in which could do with improvement; this should be the same for all professions. As I am constantly trying to enhance my own teaching techniques I came across an easy solution that could settle many problems teachers may have in their classrooms; which could be based around the simple human process of laughter.

As I was undergoing one of my own demonstrations with my year 9 classes, 'the squeaky pop test', done from reacting a dilute acid with a metal. I had simply asked ‘does anyone know what gas is being produced?’ However there was a slip in my voice and it came out high pitch and lacked any bass (which normally is the other way round). One of my pupils had decided to say the correct answer (hydrogen), however mimicking my lost voice hoping that the rest of the class would laugh in which he succeeded in doing so. I know he was a character and will try everything to be the centre of attention. Next he (and the rest of the class) seemed surprised as it made me laugh too, in which the class retaliated with more laughter. This moment was where my pupils had developed to conclusions: one, I can have days where I am not always going to sound my best and two most importantly, teachers have a moment that shows we can laugh, enjoy our own teaching and the pupils funny remarks.

The lesson to be learnt here is don’t try to fight these moments as being embarrassment or bad behaviour but embrace them and build that relationship. For it is moments like these (as little as they are) that will probably stick with us for a long time, helping with the learning process for both pupils and teachers.

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Science relating to life and achievement

Question to think of:

Do are brunches blossom when we leave education?

Science lesson have changed a lot in the past 10 years or so, with changing curricula and new advancing ideas in science pupils are always benefiting from the knowledge taken from science lessons. The question that has to be answered is:

Are science lessons preparing pupils for their life ahead? Can the knowledge they learn from their science be brought forward to create generation of scientists with new adventurous ideas.

K., Ross in his book teaching secondary science mentioned “Children learn about heat and temperature, atoms and molecules, fair testing and Bunsen burners, but do not build them into everyday understanding. At best they have a scientific system that is good enough to pass examinations, but after harvesting the crops, the land is bare, the ideas are lost and everyday life is unaffected”.

Some pupils just want to get their result and not think about pursuing science as a career or even putting forward the knowledge they have learnt to everyday life. Why would they when the things taught in science are based upon knowledge from books and not life experience (however this is changing; slowly  Pupils are being taught for exams and not for the “greater picture”. This leads on to the matter of raising achievements, pupils want to do well they want to succeed but they just cannot and some will not relate to things that they think is a waste of time. Science that is directly related to a pupil’s everyday life may encourage performance and maybe helping to raise achievement.

Reference: Keith Ross and co, Teaching secondary science constructing meaning and developing understanding; 2010.

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why do we need science?

I am sure if you are a teacher you have heard it before; or if you are a parent you may have been asked by your children; or some of you may have asked the same question when you were at school.

'Why do I need science? Why do I need maths? When would I need to find x? or would it really matter if I cannot write up a conclusion for my investigation?'



To be perfectly honest I give my pupils another way to look at. It is not about the knowledge or the facts you write in a lesson; it is to do with the skills you develop to learn from someone more experienced than you. We all need to learn, I am still learning myslef; the worst mistake anyone could make is to feel as though there is nothing else more to learn.

Pupils need to listen and learn because it helps develop essential learning skills. Now it is frustrating when you want to teach someone something you are passionate about, like myself with my science lessons; but at the end of the day you cannot make someone love something you are passionate on, we are all different and we all have different interests.

What you can do is ask the pupils what interests them and then relate it to why sitting through a science class can prove to help get the pupil to where their heart is.

Touch the heart first then you have their minds.

So you could say to your pupils or children;

'try your hardest in concentrating in class, not because you need to learn the facts but because the embedded skills that are unseen within the class while you are learning can prove to be more valuable'.

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