A pathway to post-16 science
Very few Combined Science choose science post-16: only 1% progress to Physics, 2% to Chemistry and 4% to Biology. For triple science the figures are 16%, 23%, and 25%. This difference is only partly due to ability. Research has identified at least five aspects of science education that put students off further study, and which Project Science intends to address:
- Triple science: have become the gateway to A-level. Combined Science students, who haven’t excelled in the knowledge-based curriculum come to believe they’re not smart enough for a STEM career (Ofsted, 2021)
- Little ‘doing science’: students have little or no opportunity to pursue investigations where they have significant ownership (Bennett et al, 2016)
- Uninteresting content: can put students off choosing science post-16 choices, and many cite a lack of interest and disconnection from real-world applications (Shirazi, 2017)
- Image of scientists: Scientists are overwhelmingly presented in the curriculum as white males which inhibits ethnic minority students developing an identify ‘science is for people like me’
- Lack of engineering: engineering is largely absent from the curriculum (National Academy of Engineering, 2009), and most students cannot accurate describe what engineers do (Wang & Frye, 2019)
Careers-based education
The Project Science course can address 6 of the 8 Gatsby benchmarks for good careers education, in STEM. In particular students may discover a natural aptitude or inclination for ‘doing science’ or ‘doing engineering’ which can be connect with a relevant career pathways. Students also receive a qualification to prove their aptitude at working like a scientist or engineer.
| Benchmark | How the course addresses it |
|---|---|
| 1. A stable careers programme | Insight into many science and engineering careers |
| 3. Addressing the needs of each pupil | Caters to students who enjoy a practical, skills-based approach |
| 4. Linking curriculum learning to careers | Case studies show role model engineers and scientists |
| 5. Encounters with employers and employees | Option of a STEM professional mentor |
| 6, Experiences of workplaces | Project gives experience of working like a scientist or engineer |
| 8. Personal guidance | Opportunity to discuss careers relating to student’s project |
Science with engineering
A key feature of Project Science is its inclusion of engineering. There are many more career opportunities for engineers than there are for scientists, but since the National Curriculum gives little opportunity for students to gain experience of engineering, students are unlikely to discover an interest in engineering as a career.
Project Science integrates engineering into the teaching and project elements. Students are taught how to work through the engineering design cycle, and can choose from a selection of ready-to-go projects where they design and build solutions to real-world problems.
Apprenticeship in doing science
All students are capable of learning to work like scientists and carrying out science projects. Researchers have long known that even young children can reason scientifically. However, most science course lack a systematic programme to build the scientific practices needed for an independent enquiry project.
We can expect students to be competent in practices like these:
- Using scientific ideas to explain phenomena
- Using individual enquiry skills to interpret and evaluate experiments (like in required practicals)
But if they have had little ownership over investigations, they won’t have developed practices like asking questions and planning investigations.
Also, it’s a big step up in cognitive demand from recognising a skill in a structured exam question about an experiment, to making a decision about what to next in a project.
Project Science offers an apprenticeship approach to support and scaffold the transition from typical practical work towards competence in independent enquiry. We call it ‘Authentic Mastery’ and it has two complementary strands:
- Mastery - students develop skills and understanding in tandem with increasing agency
- Authenticity – students learn in the context of solving realistic, engaging problems, which are appropriately simplified
‘Authentic Mastery’ is consistent with many established learning theories and innovations, including situated cognition and communities of practice, authentic learning, cognitive apprenticeship, gradual release of responsibility, the US K-12 framework for Science, and the 4C/ID model of instructional design.