Lifelong Learning Programme

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Teaching Resources

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TEACHING RESOURCES INFORMATION

TITLE OF TEACHING RESOURCE
Science Kids - Chemistry
TYPE OF PRODUCT
Web Site/Portal
LEVEL OF CHEMISTRY KNOWLEDGE
Basic
PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH
Cooperative learning, Problem solving, Experiential learning
SUBJECT AREA
Fundamental Chemistry
TARGET GROUP LEVEL
Primary School
LANGUAGE/S OF TEACHING RESOURCES
English
TUTORIAL SUPPORT
Yes
DESCRIPTION
• The prerequisites
There are no prerequisites. The website is focused on very young children aged from 5 – 10 years and everything is explained correspondingly to the age therefore no further previous knowledge is necessary.

• The contents
The website helps children to explore the world of chemistry with the large amount of fun experiments, free games, cool science fair projects, interesting quizzes, fun facts, amazing videos, worksheets and others. With help of teachers or parents kids can learn about atoms, acids, molecules, electrons, metals and all kinds of interesting chemistry topics. There are also lesson plans for teachers, ideas for parents and a whole host of free teaching resources for anyone interested in chemistry and learning about science online.

• The aims
Introduce the world of science to children in an interesting and easy way to encourage their interest not only in chemistry but also in other scientific disciplines

• Task Description
The tasks are very carefully and clearly described. The descriptions are easily readable with explanations corresponding to the age of children.

• How to use it in class
For teachers there are prepared simple materials called “Lesson Plans“, that contain not only the subject, but also questions on the topic, simple explanations and descriptions of experiments related to the topic. The scientific facts part can be used as a material to teach in class or to be read as homework and then talk about it in class. The experiments can be used in class as well as at home. All the instructions for the experiments are simple, easily accessible, safe and well described so that pupils can easily and safely conduct them at home as a homework. The projects can be very useful in class for teamwork. The videos can be used for experiments that could not be conducted in the class otherwise for either time or safety reasons. Quizzes can be used as homework or as a short quiz during class.
COMMENTS
• Points of strength
High quality educational materials focused on young children.
There are used tools of the online environment, the site includes a short educational video, online games, quizzes.
Simple and understandable explanation of topics.
Website is focused not only on chemistry but also on other related “sciences” like physics, math, biology, materials, health,...

• Points of weakness
Website is available only in English

• Scientific reliability
All topics are clearly explained on scientific grounds, but the explanation has been simplified and adapted to the age of target group.

• Pedagogic value
Pedagogical value is very high and useful. The young children are in the age, when is the best time to attract their interest in science . It is rare to find such a complete site about science focused on young children.
NAME OF THE REVIEWING ORGANISATION
Institute of Chemical Technology Prague

Comments about this Publication

Your comments are welcome


Date: 2013.02.07

Posted by Katarína Hricová (Slovakia)

Message: The educational portal is oriented mainly at students of the elementary and primary schools at Slovakia mainly for biology and chemistry. In addition to science subjects there are subjects of mathematics and English language. The science part offers a fun in a form of scientific experiments, games, quizzes, tasks and projects for children at elementary basis. At this portal you can find about 50 ideas for experiment which students can do on their own. They are processed in way appropriate for children so they can discover the world of the chemistry all around them. In Science Facts part a student can learn basic information from various areas: chemistry, biology, physics, weather, animals, plants, universe, health, food and etc. Information in this part could be processed in a more detailed way and supplemented with illustrative pictures. In the part of Science Quizzes there are some quizzes which are processed only in way of questions with short answers at the bottom as it is seen in textbooks. There is a lack of atractivity and interactivity and a feedback to wrong answers. In the part of Science Projects there are only ideas for teaching by projects what is a shame. The best part is Lessons part with instructions and ideas to each individual topic. I liked the part of Science Videos where a teacher can find various interesting videos. Experiments and projects can be easily reproduced in lessons because students need no specific skills to their management. I think this web offers an innovative didactic approach toward teaching of scientific subjects at primary schools even though you can find web pages with much more educative content in scientific subjects on the internet.

Date: 2013.01.26

Posted by Joanna Błaszczykiewicz (Poland)

Message: A very child oriented portal and especially useful if you\'re looking for some fun science experiments for kids at primary level. It contains free experiments section, full of fascinating hands-on experiments that are a great way to enjoy the world of science. Children can learn interesting science and technology facts by experimenting with different materials that react in surprising ways. Teachers/ Parents will find a lot of experiments which can be done using simple ingredients found around your house (with adult supervision of course). Basic materials can help teachers or parents perform experiments that are simple, safe and perfect for kids. I am sure everyone will enjoy these fun science experiments the way i did. With this portal teachers can make cool projects with easy ideas for children.

Date: 2012.10.03

Posted by Caterina Bignone (Italy)

Message: As primary school teacher, I consider this web site interesting because in its chemistry section it is possible to found experiments and projects easily reproducible during school lessons, interactive games with useful questions to motivate kids and school students to wonder about phenomena, video resources, educational texts, quiz, images and lessons about different arguments. Both teachers anc students can found important resources in this web site.
Web site contents are motivating students because they offer the possibility of “learn and apply knowledge by doing”. The experiments and projects are easily reproducible during school lessons without particular proficiencies. Used materials are easily available and this is the reason with they are easily to be repeated at home. Games' design is charming and definite, inciting directly the activity, immediately usable without any helps. The English language is easily understandable and gives a surplus value because games’ questions motivate to wonder about phenomena: observating and forwarding hypothesis. The game permits to test different combinations, to try again, to delete and try again. Furthermore, the application is fast and lightweight, useful also with old computers or slow web connections.
Images, quiz, curiosities and videos catch students attention, proposed lessons to teachers are entertaining, involving and mainly include materials and students personal experiences. All of this make this web site an important resource to motivate students. If a teacher or a student may be not really able with English language, an online translator could be useful for all of the texts and there will be some problems just for videos.
The resource is useful. In particular games, experiments, projects and some lessons are proper for primary school students, where I teach. Furthermore there are main contents for CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) activity.
It can increase the students’ interest toward chemistry, because the use of materials that are known by children in daily life to discover and understand chemical phenomena shows that chemistry take part to daily reality.
During my teaching experience I verified that when a student plays an active part in learning processes, the student learns better, easily, quickly and he/she interiorise what he/she learns.
By now it is really known how “learn by doing” is the better approach for a main learning. I believe that this web site innovation consist in the proposal of activities with daily materials.

Date: 2012.09.27

Posted by Diane Condon (Ireland)

Message: This resource is most suitable for use at primary school level. There are many lesson plans available to teachers to help in the preparation of classes and activities. Scientific images are available that can be copied and pasted for use in preparation of science lessons. The experiments described are simple but demonstrate well basic scientific theories using everyday chemicals and equipment that is freely available. Chemistry topics for younger children are covered well. The website also contains resources for other science subjects including biology, physics, space and weather. There is also a section on ideas for science fair projects.
I would not hesitate in saying that this resource would increase the interest in younger children in Chemistry. There are simple, safe, quick, hands on experiments that children can carry out which I have no doubt they would enjoy very much while still learning real scientific principles. There are also games, quizzes, and interesting scientific facts that children would also enjoy but at the same time they are learning lots of chemistry. This resource could be used both in the classroom and by the children at home.
There is no better, faster way for children to learn new things than while they are having fun and this website provides that in many areas including experiments, games, facts and quizzes. It is a very child friendly site and children would find it very easy to navigate in order to find material that interests them.
All information is provided in a clear and simple way and so it is very instructive for children. I would imagine that very young children might need some help in carrying out some of the activities. Some of the quiz questions would appear to suit the older child. All activities and lessons have a basic scientific principle behind them and so they are not only carrying out these activities and games, etc. for fun, but there is definite learning outcomes associated with each one.

Date: 2012.09.21

Posted by Charizanos Panagiotis (Greece)

Message: This teaching resource is an educational webpage designed in New Zealand. It is an Internet site that is addressed to primary school children via a rich collection of photos, videos, songs, text etc. This can be a useful resource for both young pupils who can get in touch with issues related to chemistry, but also physics, math, biology, astronomy and meteorology. On the other hand, it is also useful for the teachers via the free availability of teaching plans, etc.

There is no doubt that this teaching resource can increase the interest of young pupils towards chemistry. It contains a series of pleasant activities, videos, experiments, quizzes and games. The available videos can be further improved and enriched. I found especially interesting the games section of the webpage, since children have the opportunity to learn by playing. (http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/gamesactivities.html).

The material in the site can be used as the main or as an additional teaching tool in the classroom, and out of it. It definitely helps young pupils understand chemistry issues better and faster by offering a different perspective. Via this site they also have the possibility to realize that “chemistry is all around us”.

I think that this website offers an innovative didactical approach for teaching science in primary school, even though it is not the only site of this type. It is a safe internet site for young students to explore on their own. It contains attractive material which however also has some drawbacks. For example the experiments would be more useful if they showed step-by-step pictures. Also, the quizz is not set up in an attractive form since it contains basically text (like in a traditional textbook). It would benefit if it had been set up in an interactive environment with multiple choice questions and answers.

National Reports on successful experiences to promote lifelong learning for chemistry The national reports on chemistry successful experiences to promote lifelong learning for chemistry are now available on the related section of the project portal. The reports presents examples of successful experiences in the partner countries and the results of testing of ICT resources with science teachers.

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