The Importance and Impact of Science Capital in the Primary Curriculum

As educators to the future generation, we need to challenge attitudes, tackle inequalities and promote positive engagement with Science.

Time is of the essence. There is a skills shortage in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) with girls, ethnic minority groups and those children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities under-represented in STEM careers. As key influencers of children’s future, we look at the importance of a Science Capital approach to teaching; how informed pedagogical approaches can help ensure equity of opportunity; inspire all learners and promote aspirations. This session will support you in improving children’s engagement with science and improve scientific literacy by adopting a few key strategies in your lesson planning and delivery.

Suitable for Teachers, ECTs, Science Leads in the Primary phase

About Mini Patel:

Experienced primary school teacher and subject lead with a proven record of accomplishments for embedding whole-school strategies to promote equity of opportunity within the science and arts curriculum. By adapting a range of strategies and approaches and adopting a holistic approach to teaching and learning, Mini has embedded a program of community-engagement activities across the curriculum. This enrichment promotes children’s engagement as it enables them to connect with meaningful and rewarding real-life facets of their world. These curricular and practical activities include:

Enterprise Week – Introducing a concept and embedding it into the school calendar as an annual small business event. This involved local businesses working with children and supporting the development of business acumen and financial education as well as promoting creativity and entrepreneurship.

Art in Woodstock (Community Event) – Promoting art and culture through art workshops for the wider community, leading and curating a children’s art exhibition comprising of work from local partnership schools.

The Passion Play – A community production involving a cast of over 70 local children and adults, set across key locations in the historic town of Woodstock, to retell the Easter Story.

Community Day – Introduction of an annual event, on the school calendar, to promote and raise the profile of global citizenship specifically roles and responsibilities linked to the care of our local, wider and global community and our planet.

In addition to this, Mini developed, planned, embedded and monitored a sustained whole-school approach to promote the importance of The Arts as well as Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) in the primary curriculum. The program, STEM TO STEAM, included a series of six aspirational talks, in an academic year, delivered by professionals working across a plethora of careers and industry that require STEAM skills (Science, Technology, Arts, Engineering and Maths).

Prior to entering the field of education, Mini had a successful career as a freelance illustrator and animator, an international customer services manager and sales engineer within the marine sector and a small business owner. Her experiences, knowledge and skills enable her to bring creativity and real-life situations to her teaching and delivery.

Accessing the online event

Following registration for this event you will receive an email from Eventbrite confirming your place. If you do not receive the email within a few minutes, please check your junk or spam folders and check that the correct email address was provided at the time of booking. If you did not create an account at the time of booking or someone else booked on your behalf, you will need to create an Eventbrite account. Open your booking confirmation email, select ‘Claim Your Order’ and then choose a password. Make a note of your email address that was used to make the booking and your new password – you will need these to access the Eventbrite page containing the link to the event.

A minimum of 48 hours before the event begins you will receive another email from Eventbrite containing a direct link to the event and to the Eventbrite Online Event page. Login to Eventbrite, using the same email and password you used to create your account. You will now have access to the online event link and any pre-event materials. This link must not be shared with other people.

Please test the link the day before the event to make sure you can connect. If you need help please email info@otsa.org.uk or call 01865 647999 in good time before the event begins. We will be unable to help during the event itself. Please note, if you unsubscribe from Eventbrite before the event takes place you will not receive any further emails from Eventbrite and therefore will not receive the email with the link to the event.

We do not provide refunds if you are unable to access the event due to technical issues that are beyond our control.

Participation in online events

In all cases, at the beginning of the session to confirm your identity please ensure that your camera is on, your username matches the name you registered with and that you register in ‘chat’ with your first name, second name and organisation. This is for security and registration purposes and we may remove, without refunds, participants who have not confirmed their identity as described above.

Our online events aim to be interactive and at times you may be expected to have your camera and microphone on during the session, although usually your microphone should be muted.

We may use ‘Raised Hands’, ‘Reactions’, ‘Chat’, ‘Polls’, shared whiteboards and shared screens during the session. We may also use ‘Breakout Rooms’ to allow you to work in a smaller group.

This event will not be recorded for copyright and privacy reasons.

Payment

Payment is required at the time of booking by credit card, debit card or Paypal. Unless otherwise stated, a ticket gives admission to one person at face-to-face and online events. In the event that you share an online event link with other people who then attend the event, including sharing your screen, or you arrive at a venue without a ticket and we are able to admit you, we will invoice you or your organisation for additional tickets retrospectively.

Refunds

No refunds will be given with less than 30 days notice.

In the event of a refund request, please note that the Eventbrite booking fee of 6.95% plus 0.59p per ticket is not refundable.

To keep our event fees as low as possible, we are not able to issue invoices for payment by cheque or bank transfer and we are not able to reserve places without payment.

We strongly recommend that you take out ‘event ticket insurance’ which may cover the cost of your fee should you be unable to attend the event.