Engaging girls with practical science

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Description

When the staff at Skyswood Primary school in St. Albans gave the children an annual questionnaire about their enjoyment and understanding of subjects, they were concerned to discover that whilst 70% of boys loved science, only 30% of girls had the same level of enjoyment, citing dull lessons and not enough practical experiments and investigations. The school also discovered the girls had developed an anti-experimental culture within science; they were so keen to get the answers right that they were afraid to experiment in case they got the results wrong . As a result, the school adopted a number of initiatives to tackle the issue, including more visits out, more science-related visitors in, and more practical lessons. They also pair up younger and older classes within science, encouraging the less confident children to take on the role of teacher and thrive, as well as ensuring the older children have a very thorough understanding of the topics.