Section 3 : Pressure and heat transfer

Theme: Science lived – relevant and real

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this section, you will have:

  • used brainstorming to help students realise how the principles of pressure apply to everyday life;
  • supported learners to use science ideas to explain local technology, household processes or agricultural processes
  • supported your students in applying their knowledge of heat transfer in the home.

Introduction

Science is all around us. Activities like baking cakes, growing vegetables and mending a bicycle all involve scientific principles. Making connections between the science they learn in school and the things they do at home can help to reinforce the scientific principles that your students need to learn. It might also help them to understand some of the problems that they and their families face. Resource 1 gives some strategies that you can use in order to help your students make these connections. This unit is not restricted to one topic area – we want to encourage you to develop the habit of relating the science that your students learn about to their everyday lives. You will use brainstorming as a technique for helping them to make connections and you will be encouraged to take them outside the classroom.

Students often see science as something that they do at school and not necessarily related to their lives. An effective way of demonstrating that this is not the case is to start with the everyday context and use it to draw out the scientific principles. Asking students about things outside school that are important can get them engaged and interested – especially if some controversy is involved. Most real-life situations are actually quite complicated and it is easy to find yourself talking about chemistry, biology or physics, or even wider issues. This will help to keep your students interested in science and help them to see how science can help them to understand the world.

Resource 6: Problem solving - solutions

1. Everyday examples of ‘pressure’