British Science Week, run by the British Science Association runs from the 5th - 14th March 2021 and is a ten-day celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths.
The British Science Week website has activity packs for Early Years, Primary and Secondary students, the packs are designed to be your one-stop-shop for supporting teachers during the week.
The theme for the British Science Week 2021 activity packs and poster competition is ‘Innovating For the Future’. The packs are able to be used at home or in the classroom to reflect the potentially fluid movements around COVID-19 restrictions.
There are several resources that LGfL schools can use during this time all around the theme of “Innovating for the Future”.
The entire Primary ‘Switched on Science’ scheme, offering full coverage across Key Stage 1 and 2 is available to all LGfL-connected schools. Switched on Science is a flexible and creative investigation-based programme with a clear focus on working scientifically. It is packed with best-practice CPD videos and supportive lessons to ensure every teacher can deliver the science curriculum with confidence. The package comes with all the additional resources teachers need to teach the entire Science curriculum, ranging from a video for each unit, teacher guide, interactive exercises, pupil workbooks, ideas for differentiation, and much more.
Busy Things has a wide range of resources and games for use in Early Years, KS1 and KS2 there are over 100 activities that are linked to the science curriculum that could be used during your science week. These include writing projects, interactive worksheets, graph projects and printables.
Widgit Symbols are simply drawn, colourful symbols designed to illustrate a single concept in a clear and concise way. LGfL’s Widgit portal contains a searchable database of over 15,000 symbols as well as a large bank of ready made resource bundles. These include symbol supported books and a wide range lesson resources. Our science bundles include topics such as Characteristics of Materials, Changing State, Electricity, Forces and Movement, Rocks and Soil and many more.
The ever popular j2e toolsuite can also be used during Science Week, for a range of activities. Why not get pupils to create a book in j2e, or make an animation of an innovation for the future? They could design a poster in j2e5 based on the theme “Innovating For the Future”.
Why not download our new Significant People resource for KS1 and KS2, this resource takes a handful of particularly important events and people and investigates their impact on history? Using Augmented Reality and interactive 3D you can discover past innovations and encourage the children to think of future ones.
Follow the intrepid astronaut Tazz Anderson and her on board computer (MIC) on her journey to the moon to bring the valuable raw material 'Dysprosium' for use in smart devices on Planet Earth in Space Adventures - Mission to the Moon. This unique and engaging cross curricular resource is based around an original story commissioned by LGfL by the award-winning author Cath Howe. The resource features a comprehensive set of resources for Maths, Literacy and Science and a Computing unit created by Max Wainewright.
What or who do you and your pupils envisage when asked what a scientist looks like? Are you all picturing lab coats, goggles and conical flasks? How about the person? Are they a white man with grey hair, who resembles someone like Albert Einstein?
If that’s who you pictured - you are not alone. But it is something British Science Week wants to change. They are encouraging schools to get involved by “Smashing Stereotypes” and the campaign hashtag #EverydayScientist.
To get involved with this, why not download the collection of STEM role models posters celebrating women innovators illustrated by women artists, there are 8 in the set and each poster is accompanied by a short biography of the women featured, not only raising awareness of their achievements but also hopefully inspiring a new generation of women to work in STEM.
Terrific Scientific from the BBC is a set of curriculum-linked primary science resources for Key Stage 2 aimed at encouraging scientific enquiry. The resources focus on a series of practical classroom investigations linked to the curriculum, so teachers can use each one as a stand-alone science project, or as part of a bigger topic. For each investigation, there is an introductory film, fronted by well-known figures relevant to the age-group; a ‘how to…’ film which demonstrates the investigation, a downloadable teacher resource (including curriculum links) and student worksheets. Perfect for using in science week and beyond.
Explorify is another great site for free science resources. The Explorify activities are bitesize prompts for discussion and investigation, their high-quality image, video and hands-on activities are sure to spark curiosity and get your class thinking like scientists. Choose from a wide range of curriculum-linked, low-prep activities that will set young minds whizzing and whirring.
Adastral Park are delighted to be offering Virtual British Science Week to you all! For FREE! A Live Virtual Tour of BT's Technology Innovation Showcases at Adastral Park, led by Shane Allum, BT Research and Innovation Specialist. These Showcase Tours are normally reserved for VIPs and British Science Week attendees but they’re now giving you the opportunity to find out what new technologies and concepts they’ll be using in the future - around the home, in banking, in hospitals, in retail and much more. Click here to register free for the Event: https://community.computingatschool.org.uk/official_events/8932 . For further information on this event please contact Bob Higham (woodbridgeprimary@computingatschool.org.uk)
Here you can meet Lisa Perkins, Adastral Park and Research Realisation Director, who gives us an overview of what we’ll be bringing you during the week:
[embed]https://atadastral.co.uk/videos/bsw21.mp4[/embed]
Their regular hosts will introduce the theme of the day and the content will be launched on their web page. Students, teachers and parents will be able to access videos exploring the theme and the cool technology that brings these themes alive. Content is primarily focused at Year 6 through to Year 13 pupils:
Monday 8th March - Cyber Security
Tuesday 9th March - Smart Cities
Wednesday 10th March - Creative Media
Thursday 11th March - Drones
Friday 12th March - Health & Sports Science
Reach out CPD is free science CPD for UK teachers, there are 30 courses for teaching 5-11 year olds covering everything from plants to planets. Each one provides teachers with concise topic knowledge and a whole raft of resources to use in class, including captivating short videos, practical activities and experiments, whiteboard visuals and more. Well worth checking out and sharing with colleagues.
Whatever you are doing for British Science Week, we would love you to share your work on our Twitter or Facebook pages @britishscienceassociation, #bsw21 and #EverydayScientist.