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A recent survey of primary school pupils¹ revealed that 44% ‘like science a lot’ and 42% ‘like it’.

In another survey², 91% of primary school teachers reported that science is a subject they enjoy teaching and that this is influenced by their children’s reactions.

In particular, opportunities for outdoor learning – when studying, for example, plants, animals or habitats -are ‘universally enjoyed’ by children and so the teachers enjoy it too.

Outdoor Classroom Day is a global campaign to celebrate and inspire outdoor learning and play. In 2018, over 3.5 million children in over 100 countries took part.

This year, there are two dates: Thursday 23^rd May and Thursday 7^th November.

Sign up through Explorify – they have lots of ideas for outdoor science learning activities, too. Click the link to Explorify here

1 ‘What pupils think of science in primary schools’ Wellcome Trust January 2019.

2 ‘Understanding the ‘state of the nation’ report of UK primary science education’ Wellcome Trust January 2019.

In the last couple of months there has been so much new plant growth. The early warm weather we had seems to have brought some flowers out a little earlier than normal. Have a look at our twitter timeline on the right- just scroll back through to see what has been happening. All the trees and flowers are identified, so it’ll help you and your pupils to sharpen up your spotter skills!

We’re tweeting a series of short science clips on twitter. These feature a puzzle or a quick activity that you can give to your pupils to try out. So far we’ve looked at magnet strength, lighting a bulb with a battery but only one wire, how to pick up a beaker with a balloon and measuring the light level outside on a winter’s day.

Just scroll back on our twitter feed to see them. We’ll suggest which year group and topic they fit in with, but of course they are great to get all your pupils thinking and could be used as a Monthly Science Puzzle for your class.

Follow us @trav_science

On our Twitter feed we’ve been taking pictures of wild plants as they come into flower during the seasons. This will be a handy resource for you or your pupils to look back on, to know ‘what flowers when’. Many spring flowers come out before the woodland trees have their leaves on and shade them out. Right now, in July and into August, the flowering summer plants are the ones that grow tall, to get themselves up above those that have been out earlier.

If you look back over the course of the year, you’ll be able with your pupils to anticipate what will be coming into flower in the months of the next year. It’ll really boost their knowledge of wild British species !

Follow us at Twitter on @trav_science

Follow us @trav_science on Twitter. At the moment we are sharing pictures of British Wild Plants as they come into leaf or flower, to help teachers and pupils learn common species.