Improving Primary Science: Dirty, Stinky Children

This resource evaluates an innovative and exciting model for primary school science teaching, which focusses around a child’s question on the topic of microorganisms. It includes a detailed scheme of work for all year groups in the school, background to the project and the schools, examples of children’s work and an evaluation of the findings. Through a series of hands-on investigations, the projects have sought to help children develop important scientific skills as they explored:

*What causes disease?

*How is disease spread?

*How do human bodies defend themselves?

The project was run through ‘Lab_13’ in which there was a physical laboratory space, staffed by a qualified scientist-in-residence, whose work is managed by a committee of children in years 5 and 6.

The Lab is designed to inspire and animate primary pupils and their families so that they begin to envisage a future with science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), setting them on a progression route into secondary, and HE level STEM study.

The resource has been provided by the Wellcome trust and involved work with Irchester Community Primary School.