Interdependence
Secondary foci: Peer Assessment, Inclusive, Personalised Learning,
How was it used?
This resource was used as an introduction to work on the “Interdependence of living organisms” with a Y5/Y6 class.
The teachers particularly liked the way this comprehensive resource (Activity 1 alone comprises 9 units) matched specific items in the Range of the Science orders.
Impact and Outcomes
- The pupils enjoyed the series of activities as they were actively involved in completing them via the class IWB.
- They were familiar with the KWL format and so launched confidently into the ‘activating prior knowledge’ and ‘what we’d like to learn’ activities.
- Having completed the cleverly thought out series of challenging thinking activities they had systematically thought through the issues involved in choosing and preparing to study a particular habitat.
- Pooling the responses on the IWB valued the responses of all pupils and each child benefited from the knowledge of their peers.
- Prior to pooling their ideas, pupils worked with Thinking Partners which allowed the more able and talented to extend some activities and work at a higher level of challenge.
- There was no doubt that the levels of motivation and achievement were higher than if the same objectives had been addressed through traditional media.
Learner Feedback
“I always like using the IWB”
“I know what I’m going to be doing when we go out to the pond.”
“It’s interesting seeing what other people think when they write on the IWB.”Other Resources
See short term planning sheet
Identification cards (Mini beasts and plants)Lesson Learnt
The option to download the resource rather than use it online was useful, it saved time and prevented problems if the internet connection had failed.
The teacher’s notes provided with the resource were useful for non-specialist scientists. Of the nine units/tabs identified in the notes, a couple weren’t required for this class and could be skipped, it was useful that the software allowed this. It would be different with a different group of course.
I’m not a science expert and I would have appreciated some ‘model answers’ in the notes for me e.g. which of the places in the photographs are actually considered to be habitats?