British Science Week 2024 takes place during the 8 - 17 March 2024 and this year's theme is Time! we have delveloped a brand new programme "Time for Science" linking to this theme ...

Exploring the pivotal role that concepts of time play in scientific understanding, Time for Science! brings to life the centrality of time in a whole range of science strands – each carefully chosen to support areas that each year group will be investigating at some point in 2023/24. And the programme places science, engineering and technology firmly in context by directly relating content to our everyday lives and experiences.

A highly engaging, revelatory and thought provoking and informative whole-school programme, Time for Science can accommodate the whole of up to a two-form entry school in a single day, compromising …

  • An interactive assembly, The Science of Time, demonstrating what time ‘is”, how time began – and how it doesn’t always behave as we might expect!
  • Workshops (one per year group), exploring time in relation to particular science strands – and touching on the roles played in those areas by individual scientists, technologists and engineers – with a deliberate and conscious focus on diversity.

EYFS/P1 (Understanding My Body): Human Timelines … What happens as we grow from a baby to a child to a grown up to an old person? Why should we celebrate these changes?

Individual in Focus: Frederick Akbar Mohamed, a British doctor, among the first to recognise how individuals can extend their own life spans.

Year 1/P2 (Seasonal Changes): Seasonal Changes … How (and why) do the lengths of our days and nights change through the seasons? How does this help humanity?

Individual in Focus: Eunice Newton Foote, a 19th century America scientist – amongst the first to foresee the effects of human activity on the global a climate.

Year 2/P3 (Animals, including Humans): The Lifespan Game … Why do different species of animals have such widely differing life spans? Can we relate this to life cycles?

Individual in Focus: Kitty Wilkinson, a Liverpool laundress who played a big part in increasing the life expectancy of working class people in Victorian times.

Year 3/P4 (Rocks): Geology Timelines … What is the “fossil record”? How can an understanding of the differences between igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks help us look back on Earth’s immense history?

Individual in Focus: Mary Anning, a British fossil collector whose discoveries changed our understanding of geological timelines.

Year 4/P5 (Electricity): Electricity Timelines … When did humans first start to work with electricity – and how did they do it? How has that led to the current and ongoing quest to create and manipulate electricity in sustainable ways?

Individual in Focus: Granville T Woods, an American inventor, who harnessed static electricity to invent the first ever system allowing moving trains to communicate with stations.

Year 5 /P6 (Earth and Space): Space Exploration … How – and why – did humans first start exploring space? How did we move from the Space Race to the Apollo Years, from the Apollo Years to an era of International Collaboration – and are we now moving towards an Age of Business?

Individual in Focus: Caroline Herschel, German-born, British astronomer who calculated comets paths – and discovered at least seven of the bodies!

Year 6/P7 (Evolution and Inheritance): Evolution … How can we use Darwin’s personal timeline as a metaphor for the evolutionary timeline that culminated in humankind.

Individual in Focus: Ibn Miskawayh, a 9th/10th century Islamic scholar who developed an early evolutionary theory that bears striking resemblances to the great breakthroughs of the Victorian era!

 

Every school booking Time for Science! will also receive a link to a package of downloadable follow-up resources.