All posts by Mrs Rees

Enterprising Inventors Challenge

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Teams of  P7 pupils from 5 East Lothian Primary Schools took part in the Enterprising Inventors Challenge at Woodburn Primary School today.

Pupils from Campie Primary, Musselburgh Burgh Primary, Prestonpans Primary, West Barns Primary and Dunbar Primary worked in teams of 10 to modernise a Scottish Invention related to science and technology.

Actors dressed up as the inventors provided introductory information for the teams before they were asked to update a particular invention to make it suitable for the future, providing a poster to explain their idea.

Campie Primary had to update the telephone for Alexander Graham Bell,  with a futuristic communication device, while the other East Lothian schools updated the first self propelled bicycle, for Kilpatrick Macmillan,  with a futuristic version.

Dunbar Primary school were the winning team in the Kilpatrick Macmillan section and were then joined by Kilpatrick Macmillan himself for some advice on presenting their idea to the public.  While they did this, the other teams completed a further challenge to design a new castle for Mary Queen of Scots.

The team from Dunbar Primary went on to win the regional heat against the John Logie Baird Team, Alexander Graham Bell Team and The Thomas Telford Team.  They now go forward to the Scottish final at the Glasgow Science Centre at the end of November.

All of the P7 pupils who took part in the event today worked well in their teams and came up with very imaginative ideas.

Scotland’s History Online

A new online portal has been launched to help pupils, teachers and the general public learn more about Scotland’s history.

Scotland’s History Online covers a range of subjects, from prehistoric through to 21st Century Scotland. With more than 200 topics that include links to over 1,000 other online sources and a wide range of interactive supporting materials, the resource could be one of the best of its kind anywhere in the world.

The website was developed by Learning and Teaching Scotland working extensively with a number of prominent historians and education bodies. Click on this link to access the site

There is also an audit model available for planning the Scottish Dimension of your Social Studies experience and outcomes to ensure a coherent and progressive experience  click here to access

Online Planning Tool

Online Planning Tool

This planning tool is available from Learning Curve. It is designed to help teachers create topic plans and programmes of work which reflect Curriculum for Excellence experiences and outcomes. The software enables teachers to plan cross-curricular projects and rich tasks which detail:

  • Experiences and outcomes
  • Contexts for learning
  • Learning intentions
  • Approaches to learning and teaching
  • Assessment methodologies

The tool is free to use until Christmas, after this you would have to pay a subscription, but it may give a good starting point and it provides examples from a variety of sources.

Enterprise Month

Enterprise Month 2009
Enterprise Month takes place throughout November.

The themes for 2009 are:

  • Week 1 – Science and Technology (2-6 November)
  • Week 2 – Communications (9-13 November)
  • Week 3 – Global Entrepreneurship (16-20 November)
  • Week 4 – Scotland’s Past, Culture and Heritage (23-27 November).