Power of Light – collaborative co-creation of innovative resources for primary science education.

From the start of formal education, through to transition into timetabled secondary school lessons, a young person’s learning experiences helps to establish foundations upon which their thinking about (and understanding of) being human and the nature of the world around them is built. Teachers in classrooms are key ‘influencers’ in children’s understanding of ‘how knowledge works’.

However, many primary teachers may lack confidence in delivering science as part of a balanced curriculum, especially when they lack specialist subject knowledge (Murphy et. al, 2007; Peacock, G. & Sharp, J. (2014), (Kolby Noble, M., 2016). At the same time, children and young people emphasise the importance of learning science which is relevant and practical (ASPIRES, 2022). We live in a rapidly changing world and understanding of the role and value of science in multidisciplinary contexts is an important part of future-ready skills-building. Our research project has been piloting and evaluating pedagogical strategies and tools that complement schools’ curricula. Organisation for Economic Collaboration and Development (OECD) advocates that teachers support students to become independent agents responsible for their own learning (OECD, 2018) Through our university-based research centre we work with students at all levels, and teachers at different stages of their careers (from student teachers to those in mentoring and leadership roles). We collaborate on research-engaged projects to encourage conversations and learning about science and its relationships with other disciplines through big and bridging questions.

In this paper, we will present how working in a multidisciplinary knowledge exchange between research scientists from Diamond Light Source, STEM Ambassadors and primary teachers led to co-creation of multidisciplinary resources based on the research scientists' work. The co-creation process provided an effective platform to help to translate cutting edge research into primary science curriculum-related teaching materials and build teachers’ confidence to deliver multidisciplinary science topics in the classroom. We have piloted the resources in a variety of settings. We were also interested in finding out how the co-creation benefitted scientists, teachers and pupils and how it influenced and enhanced their learning.
We used mixed methods to plan, implement, and evaluate the project’s resources and impact on children and those involved in co-creation. We will share the resources, evaluation and preliminary findings from the pilot phase of the project. Our reflections on the findings will provide an opportunity for dialogue with and between teacher educators about innovative approaches in education theory and practice.

ASPIRES Research. (2022). ASPIRES 3 Project Spotlight 2: “Make it more relevant and practical”: Young People’s Vision for School Science in England. London: IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society, available at https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/departments-and-centres/departments/educat... accessed on 13/01/2023
Kolby Noble, M, Science Journal of Education, 4 (1), 2016, p.9
Murphy, C., Neil, P. and Beggs, J. (2007) Primary science teacher confidence revisited: ten years on, Educational Research, 49:4, 415-430, DOI: 10.1080/00131880701717289
OECD (2018) The Future of Education and Skills: Education 2030. Available at: https://www.oecd.org/education/2030-project/contact/E2030_Position_P...(05.04.2018).pdf; Accessed on 13/01/2023.
Peacock, G. & Sharp, J. (2014) Primary Science: Knowledge and Understanding (QTS series). Exeter: Learning Matter

Interdisciplinary, innovative teaching resources related to this project can be downloaded from:
https://www.diamond.ac.uk/Public/For-School/Resources/Power-of-Light...

or the Zenodo open platform here:
https://zenodo.org/communities/epistemic-insight/search?page=1&s...