A NEW APPROACH TO SCIENCE TEACHING

The Thinking Lab® is a project developed by Cambridge University Press for the purpose of generating knowledge and debate on CLIL teaching. The findings will eventually be transformed into specific publications.

The project is formed by a varied team of authors, teachers, editors and others who work together to achieve a more effective, dynamic and engaging approach to content teaching using English as the classroom language (CLIL).

The Thinking Lab: Science is the first result of this project. This is a set of Science modules. Each module covers a topic related to the fundamental areas of the Science Primary curriculum for 3rd cycle.

Children will learn English through Natural Science, one of the non-linguistic subjects of the Primary curriculum, assimilating and practising the target language, English, while they learn the Science content.

The key feature of this method is that it is based on strategies geared to encouraging students to think creatively and autonomously, so that by using a range of scientific theories, they are capable of building their own models, processing them and applying them to their immediate surroundings.

THE NATURE OF THE PROJECT

The approach we propose with The Thinking Lab: Science closely follows scientific methods. It is designed to generate the effective integration of language and content to ensure a profound assimilation of both aspects. The activities in each module are structured into four stages, each of which build up knowledge in a meaningful way.

THE

FOUR

STAGES OF THE CLIL LEARNINGPROCESS

THEFOUR

STAGESOFTHECLILLEARNING

PROC

ESS

THINK, DO, COMMUNICATE AND FEEL SCIENCE

ECOSYSTEMS: keeping the balanceLet´s see some examples

STARTING

We explore the students prior knowledge in order to determine what they already know about the topic. By means of a brief initial contextualised story, we ask a few preliminary questions which then serve as a bridge between their previous knowledge and the new contents.

DISCOVERING

Through a series of activities, students think about and respond to these initial questions. They investigate and build upon this new knowledge.

STRUCTURING

The aim of this stage is to organise the key contents Iearned previously. This is done by creating a mind map which provides the pupils with the scientific answers to the initial questions.

CREATING

The knowledge acquired is applied to the students’ own reality, their context, their space, natural surroundings, country, culture, etc. Through creative activities which make them use their knowledge to describe and interact in the world around them.

ONLINE ACTIVITIES

• The online activities linked tne content of the Fieldbook encourage pupils to investigate and think through scientific models.

• Online authentic video footage provides a realistic scientific context.

• Comprehensive online support for teachers in relation to content, language scaffolding, planning activities, materials, etc.

A UNIQUE ONLINE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

FLASHCARDS & POSTERWith real photographs and scientificillustrations provide meaningul and authentic content.

ECOSYSTEMS: KEEPING THE BALANCE

The Thinking Lab

© Cambridge University Press 2012

The Thinking Lab: Science is not a traditional textbook, but is made up of a series of independent modules. Publishing the material in modules makes it easier for teachers to choose freely the topics they consider most useful and interesting for their Science class.

The aim is to offer greater flexibility when applying the method in the classroom. Teachers can choose just one module in order to explore a single topic in depth, or several modules to cover more material from the Science syllabus.

Depending on the content the school wishes to teach, the project allows the material to be organised according to the available modules. Some schools will teach the whole subject through the modules using English as the classroom language, whereas others may decide to do so with only a few topics.

Whatever the case, the modular structure also enables a particular topic to be effectively explored in depth, while applying the genuine CLIL approach.

The following modules are available from March for the 3rd cycle of Primary.

NOT A BOOK, BUT MODULES

The aim of this module is to teach the idea of an ecosystem as a natural system in equilibrium. It identifies the elements of an ecosystem and the relationships which are etablished between them, the causes which can lead to an imbalance, and the consequences if this occurs.

ECOSYSTEMS

This module looks at the most common microorganisms from the point of view of their beneficial or harmful effects on living beings, with particular emphasis on habits of hygiene and prevention.

MICROORGANISMS

The basic contents of this module include the internal dynamics of planet Earth and their consequences on the Earth’s surface. We will focus specifically on volcanoes and earthquakes.

OUR DYNAMIC EARTH

The aim of this module is to learn about the idea of electrical current, its characteristics and its application in simple circuits. These concepts help the students understand how electricity comes into our homes, and teaches the basic rules of safety.

CHARGES THAT FLOWS

Based on the internal structure of matter, this module explores the way matter is classified into pure substances and mixtures, and includes the identification of the different types of mixtures and the use ofseparation methods in our society.

A MATTER OF SUBSTANCES

This module studies the reproduction of flowering plants. It identifies the parts of the flower as a reproductive organ, the reproductive phases and a relationship between this process and the environment.

FLOWERING PLANTS

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