After a month hiatus (and having a term of primary  school science), I am happy to be back for another parents science workshop organised by Marshall Cavendish. It was conducted by Kelvin Chia, who was also the same trainer for my first ever science workshop. You can read more about him and my review of my parents science workshop conducted by him here.

In fact, for today’s workshop for the benefit for new attendees, he also touched on the same information covered in the prior workshop. So given that I had attended his prior workshop, the first 30 minutes was more of a repetition for me. From covering the new PSLE exam formats to science being a spiral curriculum , this was covered in the 1.5 hour session previously. You can read all about this in my earlier review. He also emphasis on the 5-step in answering OEQ (open ended question). The trick is not to use these steps for all questions but only for question whereby the student is stumped and have difficult in answering the question.

He also touched on some strategies to strengthen the knowledge and love for science though story tellings, virtual labs (for eg. https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/category/new) and flash files (https://www.edumedia-sciences.com/en/media/122-digestive-tract). Besides that, parents can expand the science knowledge by hands-on activities and also through documentaries.

Thereafter, he went through the PSLE science syllable from the MOE websites in specific the lower block syllable. He emphasized which are the simpler concepts and the harder one where students will often have trouble relating and understanding. For eg the concept of cycles in matter in particular the state of gas as it is not easily observable.

Another concepts which are not so easy for p3 and p4 to grasp is heat and light. In general, life sciences like life cycle of plants and animal or the human systems would be easier concepts to understand than physical science whereby there are many ways of application (which is the 60% of the exam paper). Life sciences are more knowledge in nature and less in application in nature (PSLE Science is 40% knowledge and 60% application of knowledge and process skill.)

It is more important for the student to be able to identify the topic and concept that is tested in the question to be able to answer the question correctly. It is also important to answer the question in context and than to give many irrevelant facts.

Even after going through the syllable in Term 1 – Living and Non-Living things (which is the simplest concept being the first topic in primary school science), I often has difficulty answering the question correctly even for such simple concept. Hence, it is imperative to identify the concept that the question is testing to be able to answer to the point. It is a steep learning curve for me as a parent, but I am confident which more understanding of how the science papers are set, I can guide my son to score better in paper 2 which is the OEQs.

For the complete list of parents science workshops in Term 2 (priced at SGD 20 or SGD35) , click here.

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post.  No monetary compensation was received. All opinions are my own.

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The school started and before long it’s a break for both parents and kids! As it is an extremely short break, typically we don’t travel out of country but staying home everyday of the school holidays seems to be unproductive according to me, the “tiger mum”.

So, I am more than happy to enrol big J for a drama workshop with ACT3. As you would have already known, I am full time working mum so enrolling for a week-long camp require a lot of commitment from me. However, 1 half day camp, I am more than happy to indulge my kids.

This upcoming March school holidays, Act3 International is organizing holiday drama workshop from 12 to 25 March 2018 centering around E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web. There have workshops for all ages from as young as 7 months old all the way to 12 years old. The holiday workshops have one-session and also five-day workshops incorporating storytelling and drama actities.

These are the lists of workshop and the age group

A Web of Shapes (45-minute session)

7 to 17 mths, parent accompanied

Interactive and tactile workshop with “spiders”of all shapes and sizes.

Let’s Build a Story (1-hour session)

18- 36 months, parent accompanied

Using hand puppets, all children are invited to build a giant spider’s web with combination of dance, song and movements.

Discover Charlotte (five-day session)

3-4 years old

Mix of music, creative movement and choral speaking from the eyes of Charlotte as she interacts with her friends.

A Barnyard family (five-day session)

5 – 7 years old

Choral and individual speaking , creative movement and role playing of families in the a farm.

Spin Your Own Tales (3-hour session)

8-12 years old

Writing workshop using themes from original to recreate a new story.

An Entanglement of Songs (3-hour session)

8-12 years old

A musical workshop by singing familiar tunes and recreating the story of Charlotte’s Web.

You can register for the workshops at this link. The last I heard big J’s class has limited vacancies, so do plan ahead and book soon! Alternatively, you can call at 65 67359986 , email at act3int@act3international.com.sg and head down to their premises at 126 Cairnhill Road.

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After attending my first ever primary science workshop last Saturday, (see review here) I am back for another 1.5 hours session which focuses on science process skills. Conducted by assessment books author Miss Low Wai Cheng, she outlined the framework of the primary school science and in particular the process skills needed to excel in this subject – SCIENCE.

There are 3 important dimensions of Science which are the content (which is primary what is taught in the textbooks) the processes of doing science (which is the science process skills) and scientific attitudes (being curious and imaginative, enthusiastic etc)

This is the Singapore Science curriculum framework outlining the 3 important dimensions in the 3 triangles. In a nutshell, the science curriculum seek to nurture the student as the inquirer.

This workshop outlines the 11 skills and 3 processes in the framework

Skills

1.Observing (lower block)  – uses five sense to make good observation, and most important as it is the foundation to all the other science process skillls

2. Comparing (lower block) – identifying similarities and differences

3. Classifying (lower block) – sort objects into group based on their observations

4. Using apparatus and equipment (not tested for psle)

5. Communicating

6. Inferring (upper block) – explanation and interpretation from observations

7. Predicting (upper block) – guessing the outcome based on observations

8. Analysing

9. Generating possibilities

10. Evaluating

11. Formulating hypothesis (upper block)

Some skills set like classification tends to be used across all levels.  As the workshop was a short session, the trainer did not go into details process skills 8-11 which are of higher order thinking.

This is the difference between observation, inferring and predicting from the same picture.

Processes

1. Creative problem-solving

2. Planning investigation

3. Decision-making

The trainer also went through a few model questions (not to get the answers) but to identify the science process skills that is required to answer the question.In school, teachers are not only teaching the contents but also strengthening their process skills in order to excel in science. We as parents also can weave such process skills in our daily lives by asking questions based on our daily experiences ie when taking out an apple, where did the water droplets on the apple come from? We are also plan regular trips to science centre, zoo, parks or botanical garden to observe, explore and discuss natural phenomena.

This workshop only serve as an introduction to all the 11 science process skills for primary school science. For more in-depth workshop on science process skills, there are 2 other workshops – one for upper block process skills and one for lower block process skills.

For the complete list of parents science workshops in Term 1 (priced at SGD 20 or SGD35 for 1.5 hrs or 3 hrs workshop respectively) , click here. For the other subjects, click here

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post.  No monetary compensation was received. All opinions are my own.

This is not my first parent workshop with Marshall Cavendish, you can read about my first session here. I truly benefited the previous workshop that I attended as I had better understanding of the requirement of a particular subject or sub-section of the subject. So as my eldest enters primary 3 and science is being introduced, I do personally feel a lack of confidence in myself to be able to guide and support  him in excelling in science. I was a science student all the way to Junior College even doing Physics and Chemistry but the themes in the current primary school science syllable perturbed me. To me, science is divided into Physics, Science and Biology. To my surprise, I see themes like Diversity, Cycles, Systems , Interactions and Energy. It sounded so foreign to me that I can’t visualised how science is being taught in primary school now. So these workshops organised by Marshall Cavendish couldn’t come at a better timing – start of the academic term.

In fact, this workshop is the first of this year’s series of science workshops that is organised by Marshall Cavendish enlisting their authors, subject experts and passionate teachers to guide parents like myself who wish to be more involved in the teaching process , and in the known of the curriculum and  syllable.

Today’s trainer was Kelvin Chia is who is also an author of several of Marshall Cavendish’s primary school assessment books and with 14 years of experience in teaching science behind him, he shared his knowledge in teaching, marking and parents’ expectations.

This workshop is pitched to parents of p3 onwards and especially useful for clueless parents like me who are “learning” this subject for the first time. The current science syllable is based on the 2014 science syllable which you can see from the MOE website. I bet my money that many parents would not have read through this 78 pages pdf documents outlining the current syllable. However, Kelvin mentioned that it is imperative to have an idea of the syllable in order to guide your child into understanding the learning outcomes that are tested in the PSLE, ie no need to go beyond the syllable and learning outcomes as prescribed by MOE.

As today’s workshop was more introductory in nature, I have listed down the key take-aways.

1. Science is less of a spiral curriculum that Mathematics

One of the biggest key differences between Science and Mathematics, is that Math is more of  spiral curriculum whereby you need to know p2 Math before you can do p3 maths etc. However for Science , there is no need for you to know P3 science before you can do P4 science, for eg, you do not need to know the lifecycle of a plant before doing reproduction. Primary School Science is divided into lower (P3 & P4)  and upper block (P5 & P6), which means that the school is free to doing any of the themes within the two year period unlike the other subject.

2. PSLE exam format

The PSLE science paper consist of 2 booklets of MCQ and OEQ (open-ended questions) and to be completed in 1 hour and 45 minutes.

3. KEEP ALL YOUR SCIENCE TEXTBOOKS!

As mentioned in point 1, Science is not a spiral curriculum, the student may have learn a topic in p3 and the same topic not revisited in p6 and yet it could be tested during PSLE. So PSLE science test all themes in both lower and upper block. So for PSLE the student need to revise and know all topics covered from P3 to P6.

4.PSLE Science is 40% knowledge and 60% application of knowledge and process skill. 

This mean a student who has memorised all the science facts in the themes would be able to get 40 marks but if he is unable to apply it, he wouldnt be able to score well.  Application of knowledge and process skills is the ability of the students to interpret information using of one or more of the following process skills – inferring, predicting, analysing, evaluating, generating possibilities, formulating hypothesis and communicating.

Kelvin also brief in the 5 step in answering OEQ by going through 2 PSLE questions.

Step 1  – looking for clues,  Step 2 -identifying Task Words (classify, compare, describe, explain, differentiate, identify, infer, list explanation, Step 3 – identifying topic that is being tested, Step 4 – identifying key words from the topic tested and Step 5 – phrasing the answer using CER (Claim, Evidence and Reasoning). As the workshop was only 1.5 hours, Kelvin could not deep dive into each of the steps in greater details. I am sure there are workshops specifically for answering such OEQ.

As this year’s Marshall Cavendish workshops have been reformatted to shorter durations – 1.5 hours and 3 hours (as compared to prior years’ workshops which were 6 hours long) , today’s workshop of 1.5 hours I felt was a tad too short to fully reap the benefits. That said, the amount of information that I have receive in that short 1.5 hours has been very beneficial to me personally as I embarked on learning primary school science with my child. In fact, I have enrolled for next week’s science workshop!

For the complete list of parents science workshops in Term 1 (priced at SGD 20 or SGD35) , click here.  In fact. the science workshops are on every Saturday till the March schools holidays!

For the other subjects, click here

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post.  No monetary compensation was received. All opinions are my own