Scientific and Technological Understanding
What does Scientific and Technological Understanding at the Coastal Together Federation?
At the Coastal Together Federation our aim is to provide children with the scientific and technological knowledge to become independent investigators, who are equipped and able to adapt to a changing modern world. Encompassing our JONK characteristics we encourage the children to become problem solvers with enquiring minds and to have the ability to transfer their knowledge and practical skills to all areas of their lives. Our science and technology is taught in explicit units linked to topic themes and aims to give children a foundation of key knowledge which they can continue to build on.
How do we teach and enhance children's knowledge in Scientific and Technological Understanding?
To teach and enhance children's knowledge in scientific and technological understanding, we provide a wide range of opportunities for different learning styles. This encompasses both the learning of key knowledge and practical skills from Reception to Year 6. We encourage our children to be independent investigators by posing questions for them to solve through practical work. This enquiry led teaching and the use of scientific method encourages our children to understand that it's ok to make mistakes and in turn helps them to learn through being reflective and valued.
We provide our children with the opportunity to have hands-on use of technology. We explore resources including beebots, big tracks, chromebooks and ipads. These resources are used in a cross-curricula manner, enabling the children to develop transferable skills, in a creative and safe way. We also encourage a collaborative approach to the learning. We do this through the use of google classrooms where children can share their work within a safe and positive platform with their teachers and peers.
We encourage the children's curiosity by empowering them with the vocabulary and observational skills to be inquisitive about the world they live in. Alongside this we also embed a systematic approach which follows a set method either given or devised by the the children. Shared experiences, visitors, trips and extracurricular clubs also help to inspire, enhance and celebrate the learning of our children.
How do we ensure coverage and progression in Scientific and Technological Understanding?
To ensure coverage and progression in scientific and technological understanding we have mapped the National Curriculum into explicit units which fit to our topic themes and run on a rolling program. We aim to embed the core scientific and technological vocabulary of our children by continued repetition of the vocabulary which is consistently used in the science and technological setting. We look for progression within in our topics by giving the children the opportunity to solve real world problems and work on projects with meaningful outcomes, such as holding a science fair. The children's science book also moves up with them through the school.
What is the impact of Scientific and Technological Understanding at the Coastal Together Federation?
To enable all children to explore a rich curriculum that celebrates their journey through school and equips them with the life and transferable skills to become global citizens.
We want our children to understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science, including abstraction, logic, algorithms and data representation. Our curriculum allows our children to analyse problems in computational terms, and have repeated practical experience. It gives our children the opportunity to write computer programs in order to solve such problems and evaluate and apply information technology, including new or unfamiliar technologies, analytically to solve problems.
