Science Help

medwaymum · Post by **medwaymum** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 10:28 am

My daughter is a year 6 pupil, working in the middle of level 5, has passed her 11+ and is a general all rounder apart from...
SCIENCE!!!
She really struggles with science, especially tests. She just done some levelled testing at school achieving only 50% - roughly 4b. This doesn't worry me, I have to say, you can't be good at everything!
However, it really seems to bother my daughter. Every test that she takes and gets a poor result seems to knock her confidence even further. For example, at the end of year 5 she achieved 4a in her tests so it looks like she has gone backwards!
Can anybody recommend some good science internet sites, books, etc that would be suitable for her? She is very eager to improve before her SATS in May.

cam · Post by **cam** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 10:52 am

There are a whole host of Horrible Science books on various topics.
http://www.scholastic.co.uk/zone/book_horr-science.htm which are very readable. I think they help to develop an interest. The CGP books are also very good and cover exactly what is needed at each stage. www.cgpbooks.co.uk/

cam · Post by **cam** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 10:59 am

Sorry, I should have said try these.

www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/
www.coxhoe.durham.sch.uk/Curriculum/Science.htm
www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/revision/Science/...

fm · Post by fm » Thu Jan 17, 2008 11:00 am

I'd try to find out where she is falling down first. Is it her basic knowledge of terms and ideas? Or is she unable to interpret graphs and experiments, and make conclusions from them?
I suggest you download a couple of science papers from 'st-josephs-pickering.n-yorks.sch.uk/past-test-papers.htm'. I got this address from the 'SATS' section of 11+ forum. Have her do the test and see where her weakness lies.
If it's simply information not retained, then you could always go through CGP Science. It's a bit dry in places but quite colourful. You could always make it more interesting by practical demonstration e.g. when you do the flower, have a flower for you to examine parts of it.
For how to interpret experiments, you might want to use some Lonsdale Revision guides (lonsdalesrg.co.uk) which have workbooks with graphs and questions on what an experiment proves. I am assuming they are still in print although my copy is quite old.
Hope this helps.

yoyo123 · Post by **yoyo123** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 11:01 am

cgp books are excellent and quite cheap.
You can get them in WHS or online.
bbc also good.

Do some home science too, string telephones,red cabbage indicator , bicarb and vinegar.. Tehn shecan try and work out why it happened

cam · Post by **cam** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 12:25 pm

Red cabbage indicator looks interesting, we haven't done that one, but found instructions here http://chemistry.about.com/library/weekly/aa012803a.htm
The bicarb and vinegar can have a bit of red food colouring added into an eggcup in the middle of a paper cone to make a fabulously messy volcano.
Put bicarb and colouring in first, then add the vinegar to get the acid - alkali reaction.
Have fun.

Y · Post by Y » Thu Jan 17, 2008 2:50 pm

Best science experiment I ever did was in my primary school about 90 years ago. You need a candle, a saucer of water, and a clear jar. Stand the candle in the water, light the candle, cover with the jar, and watch what happens. It's a great way of understanding about oxygen in the air.

Y

SunlampVexesEel · Post by **SunlampVexesEel** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 3:32 pm

Y wrote:Best science experiment I ever did...

My favourite is... take a container... a large 4 or 6 pint plastic milk bottle for example... for best effect it should be metal but plastic will do... put an egg cup of water in it and then place it open in the microwave... heat for 3 mins to turn the water into lots of steam.... put the cap on (be careful not to burn yourself!)... and then wait for the contraption to cool down...

A simpler experiment... involves dropping something... anything... gravity is such a cool effect... and hard to explain!

Regards
SVE

medwaymum · Post by **medwaymum** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 12:52 pm

Thank you everybody for your replies and advice. I do not want to put too much pressure on my daughter, so these books and internet sites plus practical experiments sound like more of a fun way for her to improve and indeed build her confidence.

Thanks again.

yoyo123 · Post by **yoyo123** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 1:15 pm

I also bought a CD ROM Dorling Kindersly I think, which had "experiments" with Electricity etc. I'll see if I can find it and post the title.