IT in Primary Science

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

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

Lesson idea. This very popular guide, now released below, provides content for those keen to teach science using information technology as a tool which is also of interest to primary school teachers who need to teach pupils a prescribed set of IT skills. This book includes countless ideas for using IT tools in science and provides practical examples of how they can work to good effect. Ideas 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	Collaborating with others, improving their work and publising it. Using a model to explore an idea. Using words, graphs, graphics and such media to communicate science. Being aware of how sensors can help them to investigate an idea. Comparing 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, £14.95, see Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Roger-Frost/e/B0034PHJ5M. Author: Roger Frost
Files and resources to view and download	The resource is available in a number of formats: as a printable PDF - 132 pages File:IT in Primary Science.pdf as an editable Word document - 150 pages File:It In Primary Science.doc Use to extract individual pages. Please note that this is a large file. as a web page on this 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.