Science Home Learning
Science Support for families during school closures:
PSTT is working with other organisations to put resource ideas together to support families and schools with things to do at home. Please click the link below:
The focus will be on providing suggestions about activities that are:
• very clear and simple, and that use general household resources
• accessible and manageable for all families
• fun for children and families to do
• linked to follow up activities
Others ways you can support parents/carers to do science at home with their children:
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Explorify, https://explorify.wellcome.ac.uk/. If you are not familiar with Explorify it is a free and excellent resource that is produced by The Wellcome Trust. You do not have to be a Teacher to register to use it. Parents could do one Explorify activity a day with their children. Remind them to mark each activity that they do as 'done' to unlock more activities.
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Reach Out Reporter, https://www.reachoutreporter.com/. Reach Out Reporter is a free weekly science news programme for primary aged children. Parents could watch it each week with their children. The website has lots of suggestions for how to use the news bulletins to spark science conversations.
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Royal Institution: Experimental, https://www.rigb.org/families/experimental. This is a dedicated website for home science activities which are fun and easy to do.
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Parents with access to a garden can download free mini-beast spotter guides from OPAL: Explore Nature, https://www.opalexplorenature.org/ I would also recommend sharing the Woodland Trust's 'Trees for Schools' website, http://treetoolsforschools.org.uk/menu/?_ga=2.146391348.1461780378.1584897294-1414910273.1584897294 with parents which has lots of great activities that you can do in a garden or wood.
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The PSTT has a great resource for after school science clubs that parents could easily use for home science activities instead, https://pstt.org.uk/resources/curriculum-materials/childrens-university-stem-clubs
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Storybooks can be a great stimulus for science at home. Parents/carers can get ideas for what to do by going to, https://www.stem.org.uk/teaching-science-through-stories
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Parents/carers could run their very own science reading challenge using this great PSTT resource, https://pstt.org.uk/resources/curriculum-materials/science-reading-challenge
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Parents/carers can get loads of great ideas for activities themed around rocks/dinosaurs/fossils from this great PSTT resource, https://pstt.org.uk/resources/curriculum-materials/big-jurassic-classroom
Other really good websites to share with parents are:
- Marvin and Milo, http://www.physics.org/marvinandmilo.asp
- The Science Museum - go to their learning section, https://learning-resources.sciencemuseum.org.uk/resources/
- Science Sparks https://www.science-sparks.com/
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The Ogden Trust, https://www.ogdentrust.com/resources-cpd/resources
Online resources for schools to support learning at home from TTS
TTS-group has created a curriculum-focused independent learning resource with over 40 home learning activities all planned and all prepared. They are free to download and can be printed and shared with the children or sent electronically. The resource:
• is created for teachers by teachers
• includes activities for all curriculum areas
• is easy to use with all tasks explained clearly
• helps to revise and embed curriculum learning at home
• is mobile friendly
