Category Archives: Blog

An inspiring conference, say science educators.

The second International conference on Engaging Science for teachers coordinated by Dr. Ale Okada, at the Open University on March 23rd of 2019, presented evidence that the project is sustainable. Some of the key topics discussed by Science teachers were practices and strategies developed to address the key issues raised by the ENGAGE community in the previous […]

A 5-year curriculum map to build understanding

How are your curriculum topics organised? Like the specification? Based on an old scheme? If so, our big ideas approach could help you build stronger student over 5 years. Here’s how it works. We have identified 14 fundamental ideas that underly all the science content in Key Stage 3 (11-14) and GCSE Combined Science (14-16). […]

ENGAGE project impact: policy report

The aim of this policy report is to influence and support science education for responsible research and innovation. Its content presents key recommendations for contemporary curriculum design, innovative science teaching and policy on science education for and with society. URL to download the PDF: http://oro.open.ac.uk/46455/ Policy Report Responsible Research and Innovation for Science Teaching from […]

Reduce your 11-16 Science Curriculum to 4 years

If you put KS3 and GCSE together and removed all the material that is duplicated, you would end up with a curriculum for Combined Science that could be completed in 4 years. But freeing up time is only one of the benefits of turning two Key Stages into a more coherent plan. I asked ENGAGE […]

Be interesting. It’s on the Syllabus.

 Those terrible twins curriculum and assessment often leave science teachers frustrated at the compromises they are forced to make. We would like our students to be deeply engaged and learning about the applications of the science. But in practice we have little time for deviating from the straight and narrow. What if things were different? […]

The 5 side effects of buying a published scheme

Curriculum change creates pain. As any marketeer knows, we buy things to take away the pain – such as new KS3 schemes. Like medicines, they can have side effects. Unlike medicines, the publisher doesn’t print warnings on the package. For your and your students’ sake, here they are: #1 Do not throw away the great […]