How science works

Science teachers who use experiments only to draw attention to physical phenomena and to illustrate scientific ideas run a risk. Their students may get the impression that science is nothing more than facts and laws that need to be understood and remembered.
 
Science education can also help students understand the processes that make science a reliable body of knowledge: experiment and observation; data analysis; prediction and falsification; and critical scrutiny by a scientific community (peer review). These aspects of science need to be taught explicitly, and given sufficient teaching time.
 
Some of the pages here suggest particular experiments that can help develop science skills, while others enable students to explore the nature of science, through case studies from the history of Physics.
 
Teachers in England and Wales can use one of the links below to find guidance specific to particular examining bodies. Full details of the 2006 statutory Programme of Study at Key Stage 4 in England & Wales are available here.
 
You may be interested in the Vega website, which streams over 100 free videos including lectures, career programmes, discussions with Nobel Laureates, and school resources covering physics, astronomy among other fields.
 
See also the BBC Learning Zone video clips. Select subject Physics, then topics 'Measurement and Scale' or 'Variables'.

Collections Designing and evaluating experiments Collecting and recording data Handling and interpreting data Case studies from the history of physics AQA 2011 science GCSEs OCR Gateway 2011 science GCSEs WJEC 2011 science GCSEs Edexcel 2011 science GCSEs

Related Guidance Managing open ended practical investigations A language for measurements Variables Rough and ready measurements Straight line graphs Cooling corrections