At St Fagans Primary practical science lessons often follow a pattern of: engage, explore, challenge, apply, reflect.  This lesson structure provides the opportunity for pupils to discuss and reflect a number of times during the lesson. This scaffolding breaks the lesson into chunks to support cognitive load, whilst also providing the opportunities for deeper thinking.

For example, in a lesson on separating solids:

Engage: solids mixed by mistake, need your help to separate, but can’t use hands.

Explore: groups discuss how to separate mixtures using a range of equipment.

Challenge: separate each mixture in turn (rice/salt, paperclips/counters, sand/water, gravel/soil).

Apply:  explain equipment choices. How separate if all mixed together?

Reflect: What have you learnt today? How have you learnt it?

Year 5, St Fagans Primary, Cardiff