Mary Anning is the classic example. A poor girl, who survived a lightning strike as a child, has to scrape a living selling curiosities found on the beach in Lyme Regis. One day she comes across an enormous fossilised ichthyosaur and she manages to excavate it and sells it for a large sum of money. She becomes a recognised name in palaeontology, although she is never given credit in her lifetime, as she is a woman. Problem detected on file:/var/www/html/wowscience.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/GW-3-300x200.jpg A word of warning: after pressing start there is an annoying advert which runs for a few seconds before you are able to press ‘skip ad’.

These are just some of the comments I loved to hear, when a class came in to explore The Nature Collection set up for a workshop. Another approach is to story tell the whole story in one go and then revisit aspects of the story as you progress through the science topic. I have written and collected some stories for science teaching which are designed to be told by the teacher and then the children (Science Through Stories, Smith and Pottle, Hawthorn, 2015). They are short stories which the children can learn themselves, using the Storytelling Schools method.Space – the sun is the centre of the universe. Children probably aren’t aware of much beyond our Sun. One way to use stories is to tell the story of the scientist. If the scientist faced a particularly difficult set of circumstances then the story of the scientist can be engaging. File not writeable: /var/www/html/wowscience.co.uk/wp-content/plugins/special-recent-posts/cache/srpthumb-p2684-105x77-no.jpg All to often, stories for science can be simplified into ‘One day some people needed to solve a problem so they did some science and it worked. The end’. I have been given many books about characters who see a problem that can be solved by science and they do some science and they solve the problem. Sometimes the science words are even highlighted in the book. If you want to really get the children to retain the story, teach them to tell the story themselves. Remember, if the story doesn’t grip you, it won’t grip the children so choose the books that you love. Resources.

Problem detected on file:/var/www/html/wowscience.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Moles-rib-cage.jpg Problem detected on file:/var/www/html/wowscience.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/child-and-leaves-unsplash-source.jpg Plants – sometimes children forget that trees are plants and may not be aware how huge some trees are. A good key stage 2 example would be ‘The Northern Lights’ by Philip Pullman. Lyra’s friend Billy Costa goes missing. It appears that he has been stolen by the GOBblers but it is not clear why this organisation is taking children and hiding them away in the north. Lyra is determined to find out more so she can travel to the north and rescue Billy. This is a gripping story where we care about Lyra and she cares about Billy. We feel her pain and her frustration and we, as readers, put our hope in Lyra as she journeys north. File not writeable: /var/www/html/wowscience.co.uk/wp-content/plugins/special-recent-posts/cache/srpthumb-p2697-105x77-no.jpgUse in any topic, but especially space or microorganisms to offer a sense of scale for these things. But the stories don’t move me. I don’t care about the characters. I don’t care what happens so I don’t care about the science and I don’t remember it. A good story grips the reader. It is full of emotional content and characters we want to love or hate. We feel that rollercoaster of mood as the story progresses. The science would be there in the telling, there to visualise and retain as the story is memorised. But the science is not the star. A gripping read. Susanna Ramsey has created a huge collection of physical specimens and photographs of British wildlife. She has been working with Fellows from the Primary Science Teaching Trust to create some wonderful new resources to support science in the Early Years. In this blog, Susanna shares the story of how the collection began, her passion for wildlife and photography, and how teachers can access her collection. It’s something I have created over the last 10 years. It’s a ‘hands-on’ collection of skulls, skeletons, skins, antlers, feathers, wings, taxidermy and insect specimens. All relate to British animals. The display spreads over 12 trestle tables and includes exhibits from birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, fish and insects. Delicate objects are in display cases but many objects can be handled.

Ask children to find out objects the same comparative size, smaller or larger than an area you are working on….. e.g. “What is smaller than an ant?” The story stands alone: it is a good story. However, on this journey she travels by zeppelin, by boat, by sledge, by hot air balloon, by polar bear and on foot through snow and ice and treacherous conditions. All of those modes of transport involve forces. Each leg of the journey encounters difficulties, which can be better understood if the science is investigated – if the forces are felt. When you learn more about something, you begin to care more and want to protect it. I hope that my Nature Collection and the resources I have created with TTS and the PSTT will inspire children and adults to look more closely at the local animals that share our world. You could use the story of the scientist (if it is a good story) or you could choose a great novel or picture book that has something within it that you can investigate. Universe, Galaxies, Stars, Planets, Animals, Humans, plants, microorganisms, bacteria, virus, cells, DNA, molecules, microscope, measurementsThe children learn the story as they would learn a Greek myth. It is only when we make a model water cycle and start talking about evaporation and condensation that the children recognise Eva’s game from the story and realise it is the same as the processes in the water cycle. Again, the story stands alone: it is a good story. The science is the helper but it is not the star. Conclusion. Ideally, I would recommend lining up your science lessons to follow the plot line of the story you are reading, stopping to investigate as you go. Sometimes, as teachers, we find it hard to read a whole novel to the class. It takes a long time and often the majority of our time is directed. It was amazing how many different facts my class remembered, afterwards. We have lots of children for whom English is a second language. This worked really well for them, as it is all so visual. (Teacher)

Children can use the scroll bar below the screen to zoom in or out to explore objects of another size.History is an obvious candidate for teaching through stories as the content is largely cause and effect and there is often an emotional content to a historical story too, which engages the reader/listener. But what about science? How can we engage that story-processing brain when learning about science? Space: in the playground use balls / stand children in relative positions of planets in our solar system. File not writeable: /var/www/html/wowscience.co.uk/wp-content/plugins/special-recent-posts/cache/srpthumb-p2661-105x77-no.jpg By looking at pictures, children can compare sizes of stars, planets, animals, plants, microorganisms, molecules, etc. There are no verbal or written explanations. That is the centre of a good story and it must be at the centre of a good science story. If it doesn’t move you –it is not a good story. Stories for science.