School level

How Do You Introduce Students to Science?

The first science lesson is one where teachers want to stimulate their student's curiosity and interest in their subject area. Yet, they also want to formulate the classroom behaviour policy (in-line with the school policy), develop a positive rapport and discuss the importance of safety in the science lab. These lessons can take time to plan and prepare. Many teachers have perfected their introductory lesson from years of trialing but even the perfect lesson needs to be tailored to the students in front of them.

Become familiar with what your students already know about science. Have a look at the Primary SESS Science curriculum and ask your students what they already know about the subject of science, the skills needed in science and the career possibilities.

Watch the Sample Mystery Box Lesson


Sharing Your Lesson

 

Teachers know when they have a good lesson. There is a feeling of celebration and an eagerness to share the ideas that worked for them. When these ideas are shared, more ideas are created and the original idea evolves. This new idea can be trialed and adapted by many generations of teachers... And if these new ideas are shared, the cycle continues.

Have you a resource you would like to share? 

Every teacher in Ireland can share resources on Scoilnet. The Scoilnet portal organises the resource by contributor, specification, resource format, resource type and best-rated.  

 

 

Lessons Shared by Teachers

Scientific Equipment (Apparatus)

https://www.scoilnet.ieuploads/resources/24602/24325.pptx Added: 14 Sep 2017 Contributor: Aoife McDonnell Resource type: Presentation

A PowerPoint presentation with three tasks on introducing students to laboratory equipment /apparatus. Tasks include identifying laboratory equipment, matching function to picture and drawing 2D scientific diagrams of laboratory equipment.

View full description

How it maps to the curriculum

JC
Science

Strand: 1. Nature of Science

Strand unit: 1. How Scientists Work

Suggestions for use: There are slides with equipment name & picture - there slides could be printed and laminated as posters or printed 6 per page to use as student cards.

Asset type: Presentation
Language: English
Rights: Attribution-Noncommercial Share Alike Creative Commons
Special Needs:

Irish Scientists

https://www.scoilnet.ieuploads/resources/25050/24773.pptx Added: 16 Nov 2017 Contributor: Aoife McDonnell Resource type: Presentation

Full lesson PowerPoint with activities for students to engage actively in the lesson. Worksheets for activities provided and all schools in Ireland have access to the Dictionary of Irish Biography to research the scientists.

View full description

How it maps to the curriculum

JC
Science

Strand: 1. Nature of Science

Strand unit: 9. Research the Contribution of Scientists

TY
TY Subject Sampling

Strand: Physics


Strand: Chemistry


Strand: Biology

Asset type: Presentation
Language: English
Rights: Attribution-Noncommercial Share Alike Creative Commons
Special Needs:


Posters for Your Classroom

The beginning of a new year with a blank canvas to inspire and aspire to.

Posters can inspire students to look at science from a different angle, perhaps relating science to a real-life phenomenon or aspire students to pursue a career in science. Where do you place your posters? 


In this digital age we live in, students are masters of creativity and perhaps, we should dedicate an area in our classroom to celebrate students own creativity in the posters they create.

Available in English and Irish.

Source: The Open University

Faraday Registration Needed


Digital Technologies in the Science Classroom

The following PDST Technology in Education videos demonstrates how three Science teachers use digital technologies in their science classroom.

Tools used include:

  • PicCollage - Students can create a poster to demonstrate processes and procedures.
  • Adobe Voice - Students can create a video describing each stage of an experiment.
  • Aurasma App - Students can bring their notes to life by drawing a symbol in their notes which will trigger the Aurasma app to open a video or poster.
  • QR Codes - Teachers can provide differentiated information to different groups. This helps students to develop their problem solving and research skills.
  • Explain Everything - Teachers can access students work and provide voice-over feedback. Students can then access the feedback from the Explain Everything app.
  • iTunesU - Teachers can make their notes available to students on iTunesU.

For more apps, visit The Pedagogy Wheel V4.1


A Directory of Teacher Recommended Science Websites

Why re-invent the wheel when the wheel already exists? There are many national and international projects that already have resources for science teachers. Scoilnet has created a section to highlight these popular projects to teachers. Click on the STEM image to access the featured section.

Add a resource

Did you know that your Internet Explorer is out of date

To get the best possible experience using our website we recommend that you upgrade to a newer version or other web browser.

Upgrade your browser now

Registering for a Scoilnet Account – your first step to contributing and sharing

What you need...

To register for a Scoilnet Account you will need to have a Teaching Council number and a roll number for your school in Ireland.

If you already have a Scoilnet Account then you can sign in here.

The benefits...

A Scoilnet account will allow you to upload your resources or weblinks to Scoilnet as well as enabling you to share and add resources to a favourites listing. Users who have a Scoilnet Account will also be able to fully access Scoilnet Maps and Census@School from home.


Register

Add this resource to your Learning Path

You need to login before you can add this resource to a Learning Path

Login