Teaching Primary Science Promoting Enjoyment and D... - (Part 2 Subject Knowledge and Ideas For Practice)

Chapter 13 Interdependence
Part 2: Ideas for practice
Topic: Food chains

Age group: 5–7 years
Introduction
This topic provides opportunities for children to closely observe the behaviour of snails. Habitats
and food chains are the key ideas for children to explore. In the application stage, children use
their knowledge to make sense of feeding relationships in habitats close to school.
Scientific view
A habitat is the home of a variety of animals and plants which depend on each other to survive.
Plants in a habitat provide food and shelter for the animals. Some animals only eat the plants,
while others hunt and consume other animals. Plants are an essential part of the food chain in a
habitat because without them the animals could not exist.
Working scientifically
In these activities children will:
• try to find answers to questions;

• observe closely using simple equipment;
• perform simple tests;
• identify and classify;
• use their observations and ideas to suggest answers to questions;
• gather and record data to help in answering questions.
Copyright © 2017. Taylor & Francis Group. All rights reserved.
Exploration stage
Children’s talk involves trying out their own ideas
Setting the scene

Bring in some snails. Let the children observe them closely using magnifiers. Put the snails on sheets
of clear Perspex so that children can see them move from underneath. Children can role model
how they move. How do they think snails climb up the sides of a container? Focus discussion on
their shells, and encourage children to observe the shapes and patterns. Can they work out the
195
Loxley, P., Dawes, L., Nicholls, L., & Dore, B. (2017). Teaching primary science : Promoting enjoyment and developing understanding. Taylor & Francis Group.
Created from gre on 2022-12-21 19:13:45.
purpose of the shell? When handling snails, children should use protective gloves and take due
care of the animals. Refer to guidance on keeping animals in the ASE publication Be safe!
Show the children Matisse’s picture. Ask them to imagine what it could be. Does it remind them
of an animal? Establish that it was Matisse’s way of picturing a snail. Do they think it looks like a
snail? How is it similar? What are the differences?
The Snail by Matisse.

© Succession Henri Matisse / DACS, London
2009.
Photo: Tate Picture Library
Scientific enquiry
Children draw and paint their own pictures of a snail. Encourage them to describe their pictures
in words and justify them with regard to what they have observed. Encourage the children to
observe the live snails and compare them with their pictures. Explore their knowledge and
understanding by discussing how the snail sees where it is going and what it might be looking
for. Children can talk together about what snails like to eat and where they find their food. Do
they know of any animals that eat snails? How does the snail keep safe?
Children can explore which types of food snails prefer by setting up an investigation. Snails can
be kept safely in tanks in the classroom (see ASE, Be safe! 2011). Foods such as cucumber, apple, soft
fruits and different leaves can be put into the tanks and children can observe which the snails prefer.
Any snails taken from their natural environment for study should be returned as soon as possible.
Puzzle
Show the children an empty snail shell. Tell them you found it in your garden and were wondering
why it was empty. Do they know what might have happened to the snail? The talking points
provide some ideas for children to consider.
196
Child looking closely at the snails and children’s

snail drawings.
Source: Babs Dore and Linda Nicholls
Talking points: true, false or not sure?

• The snail shed its shell because it found a new one.
• The shell was too heavy for the snail.
• The snail shed its shell because it turned into a slug.
• The snail must have been eaten.
Discuss the talking points with the children and probe their thinking. Which animals do they think
may have eaten the snail?
Formative assessment
Provide opportunities for children to voice what they have learnt in the exploratory stage. Use
evidence from their responses to the puzzle, talking points and other activities to assess differences
between children’s ideas and the scientific view. Plan how you will use the re-describing stage to
help the children address their learning needs. You may want to modify the activities depending
on the shared and individual needs of the children.
Re-describing stage
Children’s talk involves making sense of scientific ideas
197
Teacher-led discussion
Focus on the idea of food chains. Start by discussing children’s responses to the puzzle. Establish
the types of animals which may have eaten the snail, possibly a bird.
Discuss the idea of feeding relationships and establish a simple food chain which includes snails:
plants snails thrush
Talk about how animals, directly or indirectly, depend on plants for their food. What would happen
to the birds if there were no plants for the snails to eat? Do other animals eat the birds? Extend
the food chain:
plants snails thrush fox
Start to introduce some scientific vocabulary. Do snails eat only plants? What do we call animals
that eat only plants? What other things do birds eat? What do we call animals that eat both plants
and other animals? What other things do foxes eat? What do we call animals that eat only other
animals? Explore scientific vocabulary such as herbivore, carnivore and omnivore.
Use video clips to promote discussion and illustrate the scientific ideas. Introduce the term
habitat as a place where a variety of plants and animals live. Children can construct food chains
from habitats and events depicted by the video clips. Probe children’s thinking behind their food
chains and address any outstanding learning needs.
Information and teaching resources

BBC Bitesize:
• BBC (2017). What Is a Food Chain? www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z3c2xnb

• BBC (2007). Food Chains. www.bbc.co.uk/education/clips/z8hxpv4
• BBC (2017). What Types of Food Do Animals Eat? www.bbc.co.uk/education/clips/zqvjxsg
• BBC (2017). What Is a Woodland Habitat? www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zc42xnb
• BBC (2007). The Life Cycle and Inhabitants of an Oak Tree. www.bbc.co.uk/education/clips/
zx3ygk7
Application stage
Children’s talk involves trying out scientific ideas
Outside the classroom

Take the children into the school garden or the local park. When assessing risk, refer to Be safe!
(2011) for advice concerning good hygiene. Examine leaves for damage and look for small animals
which may have caused it. Observe animals that visit flowering plants and look under stones and
logs for animals which live there. Talk about what the different animals eat and hypothesize about
198
possible food chains. If you can find a spider’s web, ask the children to think about why the spider
spins its web. Can they see anything caught in the web? Can they create a food chain that includes
a spider? You can sometimes encourage a spider to appear by gently spraying water on the web.
This mimics the movement of the web that occurs when a small insect is captured.
Children take photographs of the plants and animals to create food chains back in the classroom.
Talk together about what would happen if certain animals were missing from the food chain.
Listen to children’s use of scientific language, assess and address their understanding of the
scientific ideas.
Food chain song

Teach the children the traditional song ‘There was an old woman who swallowed a fly’. Compare
real food chains with this imaginary one. Children could make up their own scientific song based
on their knowledge of actual food chains. They could also use musical instruments to add sound
effects to their song, such as the sound of a snail sliding across the ground or the sound of a bird
swooping down to catch its prey.
Topic: ‘Nature’s ploughs’

Age group: 7–9 years
Introduction
This topic provides opportunities for children to closely observe the behaviour of earthworms and
learn about how they help recycle dead material. They also explore the work Darwin did on
earthworms. In the application stage, children discover the purpose of worm farms and experiment
with composting as a way of studying invertebrates.
Scientific view
Worms are invertebrates which play an important part in the food cycle. Darwin discovered that
worms aerate soil and mix in decomposing materials. Worms also break down rotting materials
and mix it into the soil. As a consequence, they improve the soil for plant growth. Invertebrates
such as worms which feed on rotting materials are called detritivores, which also include woodlice,
millipedes and types of beetles.
Working scientifically
In these activities children will:
• plan scientific enquiries to answer questions;

• make systematic observations and use drawings and diaries to record in a systematic manner;
• use observations to draw conclusions;
• identify scientific evidence from information sources to extend and justify their scientific ideas.
199
Health and safety issues

Activities in this topic involve studying animals in the classroom, composting and working outside
the classroom. Earthworms are a suitable animal to study in the classroom but should be returned
as soon as possible to their natural habitat. Assess health and safety issues for all activities in this
topic in the ASE publication Be safe!
Exploration stage
Children’s talk involves trying out their own ideas
Setting the scene

Bring in some earthworms or show video footage of worms. Talk together about what the children
know about earthworms. Why can they be classified as invertebrates? Working collaboratively,
children can imagine they are worms living underground. What would they do all day? What
would they eat? What eats them? How could they see where they are going? What type of soil
would be best to live in? What makes worms come to the surface? Could they live in a sandy
desert? What danger would they be in when it rained? How would they keep safe?
Scientific enquiry
Children investigate where earthworms like to live. On an area of lawn or soil, they look out for
worm-casts or leaves sticking out of the ground. Listen to children’s ideas about how the casts
were formed and why the leaves are half-buried in the ground. They can try to induce worms to
rise to the surface using a range of strategies. They can try stamping on the surface or watering
the surface. Soapy water may irritate worms and make them leave their burrows; they must then
be rinsed in fresh water if collected in this way. Children collect worms and set up a wormery in
the classroom. Note that worms must be kept out of ultra-violet light and given food and water.
Children should wear protective gloves when collecting worms and handling soil. They should also
wash their hands thoroughly after this activity.
Puzzle
Charles Darwin was very interested in worms, especially how they produced worm-casts. His work
led to worms becoming known as ‘Nature’s ploughs’. What did he mean by this? Does this name
provide a clue to how worm-casts are produced? Children work collaboratively to resolve the
puzzle. Probe the thinking behind their responses.
Formative assessment
Provide opportunities for children to voice what they have learnt in the exploratory stage. Use
evidence from their responses to the puzzle, talking points and other activities to assess differences
between children’s ideas and the scientific view. Plan how you will use the re-describing stage to
200
help the children address their learning needs. You may want to modify the activities depending
on the shared and individual needs of the children.
Re-describing stage
Children’s talk involves making sense of scientific ideas
In this stage children can solve the puzzle by working on their understanding of the earthworm
as a detritivore. Set the scene by talking about why farmers plough the soil. They use ploughs to
break up the soil and to mix organic materials into it. Ploughing breaks up the soil and compost
into smaller pieces and mixes them together. It also allows air to mix with the soil and excess water
to drain away. Generally, plants grow better in soil which has been ploughed. Show children
pictures of farmers ploughing the land.
Scientific enquiry
Children enquire into the way worms ‘plough’ the soil. They use a combination of information
sources and practical enquiry to find a solution to the puzzle. Observe the behaviour of worms in
the wormery and note what they are doing in each layer of the soil. Observe what is happening
to the organic layer and to any leaves on the surface. Children should keep a diary of their
observations with diagrams and explanations for the behaviour of the earthworms.
Listen to children’s accounts of how worms
‘plough’ the soil. Discuss evidence children
recorded in their diaries. Summarize the key
ideas, including how earthworms tunnel
through the soil, turning it over and creating
passages, which help to aerate the soil and
provide drainage for rainwater. The roots of

plants use these worm tunnels to spread out
and find water. Darwin realized that earth-
worms dragged decaying plant matter
underground to eat. In doing so, they also
turned the soil over. What was left after
A wormery: children can observe worms

moving through different types of soil in a
wormery. The wormery should be kept out
of sunlight and it should be kept moist.
Source: Tim Ridley / © Dorling Kindersley / Getty Images
201
digestion was worm-casts, which act as a very rich natural fertiliser for the soil. The earthworm is
a detritivore because it helps to break down dead and decaying plants, turning them into compost
and returning important minerals to the soil. Without detritivores, plant and animal remains would
not be recycled. Use video clips to illustrate how worms help ‘plough’ the soil and recycle organic
material for use by plants.
Storytelling
Charles Darwin’s book of 1881, which reported his study of earthworms, was his last scientific book
and published just before his death. Children can use information sources to explore his
experiments and discover what he found out. In their own words, they can tell the story of the
last part of his life. They could also carry out some of his experiments, such as ones to test whether
earthworms could hear sound and whether they react to vibrations. Details of these experiments
and other ideas can be found on the Darwin Correspondence Project website.

• The Long Wriggly Earthworm. www.youtube.com/watch?v=opu9QqK6SCk
• Worms Are Wonderful. www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-zc_1vjLnI
• Darwin Correspondence Project (2017). Earthworms. www.darwinproject.ac.uk/earthworms
• Darwin Correspondence Project (2017). Earthworms: Experiment. www.darwinproject.ac.uk/
earthworms#experiment
Application Stage
Children’s talk involves trying out scientific ideas
Worm farms
There is currently much interest in the use of worm farms as a means of composting waste food
and other plant matter. Some children might have a worm farm at home and they will be able to
share what they know. Children can research online how to make a worm farm. They should use
red worms or red wigglers which you can order from a commercial worm farm. Setting up a worm
farm in the school garden would be an excellent opportunity for children to become actively
involved in making a contribution towards waste management. They can also research how worms
are used to clean up soil that is contaminated with industrial waste. These activities would provide
purposeful cross-curricular links with citizenship and sustainable development.
Children could also set up a normal compost heap which will attract other types of detritivores
as well as worms. Remember not to compost dairy, egg or meat products and to use protective
gloves when sorting the compost. Refer to Be safe! to identify health and safety issues.
At intervals throughout the year children can explore the different detritivores and other
invertebrates which inhabit the compost. These may include snails, slugs, earthworms, millipedes,
beetles and centipedes. Children use information sources to identify and classify the animals as
202
primary or secondary consumers and create food chains. They can also survey how the populations
of the different types of invertebrates change over time. They will need to work out how to
estimate the numbers of different creatures in the compost heap/bin. Children can present written
scientific reports on how the populations of invertebrates in the compost heap change throughout
the year. Discussion of the reports can be used to identify misconceptions and any outstanding
learning needs.
Waste management
The work could be extended to include different forms of waste management. This could lead to
a debate about how to reduce waste and what to do with it in the future.

• Worm Composting Basics. http://compost.css.cornell.edu/worms/basics.html
• Invertebrates of the Compost Pile. http://compost.css.cornell.edu/invertebrates.html
Talk skills and science discussion: Asking others for ideas
Ask groups to question one another to find out how much everyone in the group knows about
specific, or generalised, topics to do with interdependence. They could consider earthworms,
woodlice, fungi, animals in a woodland, bacteria, owls, pond life and others.
Ask the group to think of three questions to ask others and to write them down.
Discuss in groups, then as a whole class, topics or information that children have found out from
one another. Encourage the children to ask their questions, take responses and chain ideas together.
Emphasise the importance of questioning, and the idea that everyone has something to contribute
if they ask with respect. Ask the class to devise a list of questions which can be taken home and used
to ask parents or carers about a topic under discussion. Ensure that those who answer the questions
are thanked both in class and at home.
Additional information and teaching resources

Companion book:
• Loxley, P. (2018). Practical Ideas for Teaching Primary Science: Inspiring Learning and Enjoyment,
Abingdon: Routledge, Chapter 2: Growing Plants, Chapter 4: Woodland Habitats and Chapter
7: Decomposers.
BBC Bitesize:
• BBC (2013). Wildlife in Our Gardens. www.bbc.co.uk/education/clips/zxw8q6f
• Features of spiders. www.bbc.co.uk/education/clips/zg7w2hv
203
Websites:
• Study.com (2017). Detritivores: Definition and Examples. http://study.com/academy/lesson/

detritivores-definition-examples.html
• Study.com (2017). What are Detritivores? http://study.com/academy/lesson/what-are-detrivores-
definition-examples-quiz.html
• Natural History Museum. www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/index.html/
• The Great Plant Hunt. www.greatplanthunt.org/
ASE journal:
• Primary Science Review 101 (Jan/Feb 2008). More Than Just Mushroom by Liz Holden.
204

Teaching Primary Science Promoting Enjoyment and D... - (Part 2 Subject Knowledge and Ideas For Practice)

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Teaching Primary Science Promoting Enjoyment and D... - (Part 2 Subject Knowledge and Ideas For Practice)

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Chapter 13 Interdependence

Part 2: Ideas for practice

Topic: Food chains

• try to find answers to questions;

Setting the scene

The Snail by Matisse.

Child looking closely at the snails and children’s

Talking points: true, false or not sure?

plants snails thrush

plants snails thrush fox

Information and teaching resources

• BBC (2017). What Is a Food Chain? www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z3c2xnb

Outside the classroom

Food chain song

Topic: ‘Nature’s ploughs’

millipedes and types of beetles.

• plan scientific enquiries to answer questions;

Health and safety issues

Setting the scene

provide drainage for rainwater. The roots of

A wormery: children can observe worms

Information and teaching resources

Information and teaching resources

Talk skills and science discussion: Asking others for ideas

Additional information and teaching resources

• Study.com (2017). Detritivores: Definition and Examples. http://study.com/academy/lesson/

You might also like