SNEAK PEEK EARLY YEARS ACTIVITY PACK - 11-20 March 2022 britishscienceweek.org A range of activities to be run with pupils under the age of 5 ...
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SNEAK PEEK
EARLY YEARS
ACTIVITY PACK
11-20 March 2022
britishscienceweek.org
A range of activities to be run
with pupils under the age of 5
Delivered by Supported by
2022
This teaser pack includes an exciting mix
of activities and ideas to help teachers,
parents, guardians or childminders
prepare for British Science Week. It is
designed to give you a taste of our full
Early Years activity pack, which will be
released in January 2022. Feel free to
adapt or extend any of the activities to suit
your children’s needs or the curriculum
you are delivering.
r poster competi
W u tion
hen developing this pack,
we looked for activities
ro
which promote cross-
Ente
curricular learning and break down Why not ask children to design a poster based
the stereotypes surrounding science, on any of the activities in this pack
technology, engineering and maths and enter it into our poster competition?
(STEM). We therefore encourage you Simply look out for the activities marked with
to use British Science Week as an the paintbrush symbol shown opposite!
opportunity to link STEM to other The theme for this year’s poster competition is
curriculum subjects and to your ‘Growth’, and you can find more information on
children’s own backgrounds, lives and how to enter on page 12 and at
interests. britishscienceweek.org/plan-your-activities/
poster-competition .
This year, we have included activities
for children to complete in any
setting, whether that’s their school, a
club, an organisation or at home with
their families.
BRITISH SCIENCE WEEK 2022 SNEAK PEEK 2
2022 CONTENTS 4 Introducing the theme 5 Making the most of volunteers 6 British Science Week at home 7 Gathering resources 8 Beyond the Week 9 Unlocking skills 10 Discovery bag 11 Take it home: Plant detectives 12 Poster competition BRITISH SCIENCE WEEK 2022 SNEAK PEEK 3
2022
INTRODUCING
THE THEME
T
he theme this year for British that drove positive growth. Invite Here are some other ideas to include
Science Week is ‘Growth’! them to share the story behind at the beginning of British Science
Introduce the theme to children their costume with the class. Week.
in a fun, imaginative way to get them
Encourage children to come
excited about the week ahead. Check Tell children about the plan
up with an acrostic poem for
out some ideas on how to do this below. for the Week and give them a
GROWTH by asking them what
challenge related to the theme.
Share your brilliant activities, comes to mind when they hear it.
If you are sending home a family
vlogs or images on social media! You can even turn their acrostic
experiment, maybe you could
Join the conversation or see poem into a jingle which you can
introduce or demo it at your
what’s happening during the Week sing with them throughout the
setting first.
by tagging the British Science Week to help them remember
Association (@ScienceWeekUK ) their ideas. Growth is all around us. What
and using the hashtag #BSW22. are examples of good and bad
Engage children by discussing
growth? Is there any way you can
Try a game, give an audio-visual how growth is part of people,
encourage conversations about
presentation, explore a mystery or plants, animals, materials,
this with children?
special object, or create a pop-up countries and other things in their
display which communicates the everyday lives. What are good Launch the poster competition
theme of ‘Growth’. These are great examples of growth? and let parents know about this.
to use as fun warm-up activities See page 12 of this pack for
Invite a special guest or someone
and are a fantastic way to start more details.
from the school community
British Science Week.
to share with children their
Get children to dress up to own experience of growth (for
personify ‘Growth’. They can example, how they started their
come to school as their favourite career and gained their expertise),
scientist (and feel free to think showing how great things can
outside the box – the costume can start from small beginnings. See
be more than a white laboratory page 5 for information on how to
coat!), or perhaps as an innovation get volunteers.
BRITISH SCIENCE WEEK 2022 SNEAK PEEK 42022
MAKING THE MOST
OF VOLUNTEERS
While face-to-face engagement with
external visitors is now possible, don’t
forget that there are still opportunities
to get volunteers and presenters to
engage with children online.
S
TEM Ambassadors are Kick off British Science Week share how their job is making
volunteers who offer their time with a career talk or demo from a difference in the world, or an
and enthusiasm to help bring from an inspiring volunteer anecdote of what science activity
science and technology subjects to to engage the children. The they loved to do as a child.
life, and to demonstrate their value volunteer could highlight how
Book your visitors early (as many
to young people. It is now possible to they grew to be an expert in
speakers get booked up during
request both in-person and remote their field, or what significant
British Science Week). Have a
STEM Ambassador support, meaning contributions they have made to
clear idea of what you want them
that Ambassadors from across the UK bring about that growth.
to do and communicate this with
can inspire young people wherever
Schedule two or three different them ahead of time.
they are.
guests for careers talks during
Volunteers come from a range
the Week, if possible, to get
Find out more and make a request of careers and experiences, from
children anticipating who the next
for STEM Ambassador support at engineers, designers and architects
guest will be and what they do.
stem.org.uk/stem-ambassadors/ to scientists and technicians, so
These sorts of experiences can
find-a-stem-ambassador . get children looking forward to
inspire children to think about
inspirational career talks which
what they want to be in the
You can also look for presenters broaden their choices and develop
future. Remember, they are never
and volunteers via Science Live their job interests!
too young to explore their career
(sciencelive.net ) or ask parents
options!
if they work in STEM-related jobs to Visit the Inspiring the Future website
describe what they do in more detail. Where available, choose (inspiringthefuture.org )
volunteers/ambassadors for some helpful ideas for using
You could also try some of the
who challenge stereotypes the volunteers, some of which may be
following things.
children might have absorbed and transferable when using remote
promote positive attitude towards engagement.
science, like female engineers.
Let the volunteers/ambassadors
BRITISH SCIENCE WEEK 2022 SNEAK PEEK 52022
BRITISH SCIENCE
WEEK AT HOME
Do you want to help children carry on
participating in British Science Week at home,
but are not sure how? Here are our top tips for
engaging parents and carers with the Week.
Make the most of parent Get parents thinking about how Send an experiment idea home
newsletters, the Parent-Teacher their own jobs might link to STEM during the Week to perhaps
Association (PTA) and chat group subjects and encourage them to spark mealtime discussions
and text messaging services if chat with their children about this. around science. Try to make it
you have them. Let all the parents You could do this via a newsletter as low-resource as possible. It
know at least a month in advance or send students home with can help if it’s something the
of the Week what you have activities they can do with their children have tried or seen at
planned, and how you’d like them parents, which may then lead school first so that they feel like
to be involved. They might be onto further conversations. the ‘experts’ when they do it at
able to collect or donate materials (See page 11 for a great home with family, allowing them
for use during the Week, and if take-home activity.) to lead the learning. We have a
you want them to get involved range of science-based home
Encourage exploring outdoors, in
in any experiments at home activities requiring few resources
the community or in local cultural
they may need time to plan and in the CREST at home collection
spots. This could be anything
collect materials themselves. The (collectionslibrary.crestawards.
from going on a nature walk
PTA may be able to support you org/#tab_ethICKF5NwsMjQq8 ).
around local parks to spotting
financially to run activities during
STEM in action on the streets In addition to this pack, there
the Week or help to drum up
around children’s houses. Many are lots of other useful ideas for
parent volunteers.
of our CREST activities are quick take-home activities from series such
and easy to do as fun outdoor as this one from The Royal Institution:
challenges too. Check out the rigb.org/families/experimental .
CREST Star challenges collection:
primarylibrary.crestawards.org/
all-star-challenges/61746949
BRITISH SCIENCE WEEK 2022 SNEAK PEEK 62022 GATHERING RESOURCES FOR THE CLASSROOM OR HOME If you can, try to collect materials Take photographs when out and Collect story books and reference all year round that can be cleaned about and share these with the books around the theme of for use during British Science children to foster discussion and ‘Growth’ to create a themed Week. Alternatively, check to see raise their level of understanding library. You can even organise whether there is a scrap shop/ about the growth of plants, a read-aloud session of a story store/club open in your local building structures and so on. The book for circle or carpet time. area. These places are often more colourful, the better! You membership based and can be can also use these photographs a brilliant, inexpensive or free for the guessing game ‘I spy’, resource for card, fabric and other where you can describe your bits of material. These things observation of growth and the can be turned into rockets, cars, children can attempt to guess it. spaceships and more. You name it – the kids will think of it! Look at childrensscrapstore.co.uk to find a UK directory of scrap stores. BRITISH SCIENCE WEEK 2022 SNEAK PEEK 7
2022 BEYOND THE WEEK The exploration and curiosity don’t have to end once British Science Week is over! Some of the following ideas could help you to expand the learning beyond the Week. Get children to take part in a CREST If you have the opportunity, Award. CREST is a scheme that consider running a STEM club or encourages young people to think curiosity lab. You can find supporting and act like scientists and engineers. resources at Children can complete eight activities stem.org.uk/stem-clubs . to achieve a Star Award, which will see them receive a certificate and badge. Older children could also work towards a higher-level CREST Award. Take a look at the different CREST Star challenges here: primarylibrary. crestawards.org . BRITISH SCIENCE WEEK 2022 SNEAK PEEK 8
2022
UNLOCKING
SKILLS
A fantastic way to encourage children
to take an interest in STEM is to
introduce transferable skills used by
those working in STEM-related jobs.
Y
ou could, for example, engage
students in this STEM Person of Imaginative
the Week (nustem.uk/stem-
person-of-the-week ) activity from
NUSTEM at Northumbria University.
Observant
Ask children to identify what attributes
people working in STEM need. These
might include being observant, creative,
patient, good at communication, or
curious. Look out for the skills set tags
for each activity in this pack.
See the table below for the complete
list of skills developed by NUSTEM
to use as a talking point or to share
with other teachers. Or, as a little bit of
motivation, why not award each of the
children with a sticker or certificate for
Curious
a STEM skill which they demonstrate
very well during the Week? You can
download and print the stickers from
britishscienceweek.org/british-
science-week-marketing-pack .
Observant Open-minded Committed Tenacious
Creative Imaginative Patient Collaborative
Resilient Communicator Passionate Organised
Curious Self-motivated Hard-working Logical
BRITISH SCIENCE WEEK 2022 SNEAK PEEK 92022
DISCOVERY BAG
In this activity, children will be thinking about
trees, where they grow and the life that they
support. This activity will also help them to be
aware of the differences between trees and
identify natural and man-made objects.
30 mins
Skills set: Communicator, curious, observant
Kit list Instructions Think and talk about
1 Explain to the children that they will be How will you find out whether all the
Pencils, crayons, exploring their own discovery bag. Give things have come from trees?
paper and glue out equipment to the children.
Have you seen trees growing? Where
2 Encourage children to discuss their ideas have you seen them?
Magnifying glasses
and how to carry out their investigations.
Do trees all look the same?
Talk about how each different type of
Photographs of trees tree has unique parts. Show them how to What else can you find on a tree?
and/or tree guides use the magnifying glass to make close
observations. Discuss sorting, grouping
Large cloth or and matching the tree parts, using prompt Watch out
paper bag* questions.
Some plant parts can be toxic, such as
How can you tell if something is part Laburnum seeds, or have sap that can
containing parts of a tree? irritate the skin. Check that your tree parts
from a minimum of are safe to use.
two different trees Which item is not a part of a tree?
(e.g., twigs with Remind children not to eat anything and
How many types of trees do you
leaves, bare twigs, to wash their hands afterwards.
know?
bark, fruits, cones, or
things such as galls) Does everything come from trees?
and other interesting 3 Help children to conduct their tests and
Next steps
items not from trees record their results. Get children to draw a picture of what
they think one of the trees may look like.
*Include enough 4 Ask the children to present their
materials to fill the findings to the rest of the group – they Encourage them to make a leaf or
bag – it doesn’t can be as creative in their presentation as bark rubbing.
matter if parts of they want.
the same tree are
repeated At home
Ask children to discuss with their
parents which animals make their
homes in the trees.
See if the children can find and name
any of the trees growing nearby.
BRITISH SCIENCE WEEK 2022 SNEAK PEEK 102022
Take it home:
PLANT DETECTIVES
In this activity, children will become plant detectives
and think about where plants grow. This activity has
been specifically designed for home settings, using
equipment most parents should be able to source
easily and cheaply. Why not print this sheet and send
children home with it to encourage parents to get
involved during British Science Week?
30 mins
Skills set: Observant, open-minded, patient
Kit list Instructions Watch out
An outdoor 1 Talk with the children about where they Follow the organisation’s guidelines for
environment can search for plants, encouraging them outdoor work.
to think of unusual places to look. Warn
Children must not put any plants in their
Access to a safe children not to eat any part of the plants
mouths.
outdoor environment, that they find.
ideally with a variety Ensure children wash their hands when
2 Encourage children to think about how
of surfaces such as they have finished.
the plants they find have got there.
brick walls, paving,
concrete and grass 3 When the children finish hunting, let
them share their clues about what they Next steps
Magnifying glass or have discovered. Can they decide how the
The plants that children find during the
digital microscope plants got to their locations?
hunt will vary depending on the time
(optional) of year. You can repeat this activity in
different seasons so they can find out
Think and talk about
Identification guide how the plants change.
(can be found on Where is the strangest place you can find
Encourage children to try to discover the
the internet, an app a plant growing?
names of the plants that they found.
or in a book) Do you notice anything about where you
Ask children to try to find out if plants
find plants growing?
always need soil to grow.
Phone camera(s) or How are plants dispersed in different
drawing equipment locations?
BRITISH SCIENCE WEEK 2022 SNEAK PEEK 112022
POSTER
COMPETITION
Children can get creative and enter the British Science
Association’s annual, UK-wide poster competition!
They can make a poster about any version of ‘Growth’
that they like and be in with the chance of winning
an array of prizes. The activities found in this pack,
marked with a paintbrush symbol, could all be used as
a source of inspiration to get children started.
Kit list Instructions Making the poster
Paper (A4 or A3) Encourage children to think about different Once they’ve done the thinking, it’s time for
areas of growth so they can come up with children to get creative! Posters must be A4
Creative materials ideas to include in their poster. Here are some or A3 in size and you’ll need to be able to
points and questions to get you going. take a photograph of each one so it can be
such as:
sent to us online for judging. Children can
pens
Get children to think about their use pop-up pictures, pull out tabs or use
pencils
personal experience of growth – from materials such as pencils, paints, crayons and
scissors
growing their own cress plants to paper to create their posters.
glue
overcoming a challenge that they thought
watercolours
they could not do! How has it helped
paints Submitting the poster
them to become stronger, braver, kinder,
crayons
or more accomplished? Posters will be judged on creativity, how well
pipe cleaners
they fit the theme and how well they have
felt How do children think the world has
been made or drawn. Once a child’s poster is
thread grown? You could help them to consider
complete, take a photo of it and complete the
wool population growth, plant growth,
online form to submit it as an entry.
foil economic growth or even the growth of
clay cities and society. What is an example of
string good growth? Next steps
beads
Can children think of people who have Celebrate! For more details, along with the full
stamps
helped or inspired them to grow? set of poster competition rules and tips, check
foam
Perhaps they could create a portrait of out our website: britishscienceweek.org/
pompoms
them to show this? plan-your-activities/poster-competition .
From the learning of new skills to the
development of places and ideas that enable
us to do things more efficiently in our
everyday lives, growth is everywhere!
BRITISH SCIENCE WEEK 2022 SNEAK PEEK 12You can also read
