Getting students building models to improve progress in lessons

What do primary schools do better than secondary schools do?  This is one of many questions that over the years I have asked myself.  Students in primary schools seem to have much more motivation than some students in secondary schools, and I hope that it’s not just down to teenage hormones.  One of the reasons that I have come to believe is that I primary school students are still given time to ‘play’ and be creative in most aspects of the curriculum, not just in Art.

Students who are given the opportunity to be creative in lessons, will often better engage with the content.  Allowing students to be creative was something I tried to do when I first started teaching, but for whatever reason, used less and less as time went on.  This might have been down to having too much to teach and not enough curriculum time, or maybe a fear of allowing students too much freedom within a lesson.  So over the last few years this has been something I have tried to rectify.

When getting students to build models to explore concepts you still need to start with the content, however, you don’t necessarily need to stand at the front of the class and physically teach it.  The first step in allowing students to construct models is to allow them to collect or put together the information they need to help them build the model themselves.  This can be done in a few ways; you can use flipped learning and set students a series of youtube videos to watch & make notes on to help them, or lay out a range of information and allow students to gather what they need in small groups.  In some cases, you can give students a sheet with the content on and allow them to highlight what they think is relevant. 

Once students have the information they need, don’t assume they will automatically know where to start.  In many lessons where students are given a chance to build models to explore concepts there isn’t just one correct answer, however, there will still be a range of criteria that students need to incorporate into their models.  Before students start building their models don’t forget to give them a rough frame work to help them structure their ideas that they will incorporate.  In some cases, when you are giving students a task to complete where there is lots of scope for interpretation, it is worth showing students examples to help them get going.

Here are a few examples of some of the activities that I have let students work through over the last year. 

If you look online there is a wealth of examples of how models can be used in other lessons, not just Science.  Remember ‘Pastercine is your friend’.  I hope that this inspires you to give building models a go. 

Thanks for reading

Chalky