People Particles/teaching approach

This is a practical session to be used with a whole class –perhaps with the added supervision of a TA if the class is excitable or particularly young. There is scope within this activity for a number of different methods of learning:

• Whole class dialogue - Discussion of each part of the activity
• Open-ended questions – Why do materials change state? What happens to the particles?
• Project work – as part of a wider science topic on materials
• Enquiry-based learning – children are discovering the answer to questions that they are encouraged to pose themselves.
• Arguing and reasoning – persuading each other about their ideas
• Exploring ideas – developing practical, physical understanding of key scientific principles