IT in Primary Science

A whole book of ideas for using generic ICT tools in science

Lesson idea. This very popular guide, now released below, provided content for the drive to teach science using information technology as a tool. Equally the primary school teacher needed to inculcate pupils with a prescribed set of IT skills. The book collected countless ideas for using IT tools in science and provided practical examples of how they could work to good effect. In summary, the ideas within are classified as follows:

* Communicating – using graphics, publishing and word processing tools
* Drawing graphs and doing calculations – using a spreadsheet or graphing program
* Classifying things – sorting sets of animals or plants – using a branching database
* Measuring in science – using electronic sensors and data loggers
* Playing with science ideas – modelling using a spreadsheet; simulation or animation
* Collecting information – using the Internet.

The book pre-dated the use of the internet for communicating and research, hence the use of the term IT (and not ICT) in primary science.

Teaching approach. This book is a compendium of lesson ideas with ICT⁽ⁱ⁾ as a key focus for use in inquiry^(ta) based learning and the scientific method^(ta). It offers opportunities for use of group work^(ta) and collaboration^(ta) as well as whole class^(ta) questioning^(ta).

Resource details
Title	IT in Primary Science
Topic	[[Topics/ICT|ICT]]
Teaching approach	[[Teaching Approaches/Questioning|Questioning]],  [[Teaching Approaches/Whole class|Whole class]],  [[Teaching Approaches/Group work|Group work]],  [[Teaching Approaches/Inquiry|Inquiry]],  [[Teaching Approaches/Collaboration|Collaboration]],  [[Teaching Approaches/Scientific method|Scientific method]]
Learning Objectives	Typically using IT or ICT can lead to the following becoming more part of the culture Can collaborate with others, improve their work and publish it Can use a model to explore an idea Can use words, graphs, graphics and such media to communicate science Are aware how sensors can help them to investigate an idea Compare their work with others' across the world
Format / structure	Online book - licensed to ORBIT
Subject	[[Resources/Science|Science]]
Age of students / grade	[[Resources/Primary|Primary]],  [[Resources/Age 7-11|Age 7-11]]
Useful information	Book data: ISBN 0952025736. 132pp spiral bound. First published as ISBN 09520257-0-1 in 1994. revised x 14 to 2003. Copies 30,000. Price £14.95. Author: http://rogerfrost.com Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Roger-Frost/e/B0034PHJ5M
Files and resources to view and download	The resource is available in a number of formats printable PDF format - 132 pages File:IT in Primary Science.pdf editable .doc format - 150 pages [[file:]] Use to extract individual pages. Large file! browsable html web format on our wiki http://orbit.educ.cam.ac.uk/resources/books/IT_in_Primary_Science/index.htm
Acknowledgement	This resource was created by Roger Frost, and is under the ORBIT's CC licence.

This resource was created by Roger Frost, and is under the ORBIT's CC licence.