Saturday

Primary Science 2010

Pupils use a mixture of hard-wired PC's and wireless PC's and Macs in their own classroom.  There are sixteen computers in total and thirty pupils.  More computers could have been used, but the teacher
  • planned that pupils engage in high level Speaking and Listening work as a key part of the activity and
  • was keen to ensure that video download speeds remain high (and therefore the lesson maintains its pace) by not putting too much pressure on the wireless network from simultaneous video downloads.
Pupils load a pre-selected Internet science broadcast into their video editing package.  As they are using mixed platform machines, there are different video editing packages in use.  Pupils are equally comfortable with all available packages.  While the video is downloading to their machines, pupils watch the episode together with the teacher via the Interactive Whiteboard.  The teacher uses effective questioning to draw out key scientific concepts.

By the time the video ends, pupils have the full broadcast cached to their computers, allowing them to fast-forward, rewind and review key details.  The teacher asks the group to edit the film down from fifteen minutes to one minute, retaining only the real-world examples of the scientific concepts that are the focus of the session.

The activity prompts high levels of dialogue, discussion, debate, co-operation and collaboration between pupils.  It is clear to the teacher, who is listening in to individual group discussions that pupils have both a sound appreciation of the concepts involved and have a keen appreciation and awareness of the audience that their new output is designed for.  Pupils go on to edit the audio from the clip to complement their new product.  They also add narration to explain the concepts and the choices they have made.

The teacher now has sixteen one minute video clips from which to assess pupils understanding and to inform the next steps in learning.  The videos are saved both to pupils own online webspace and to the Learning Platform to serve as an aide-memoir.

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