The inaugural meeting of the SPIN (Southampton Primary Inquiry Network) met yesterday for a twilight at the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, nr Romsey. The group has evolved from our successful Primary Science Teaching Trust project, Developing Inquiry Skills across the Curriculum: a project with the Mary Rose Trust.
We met for a twilight session exploring inquiry in the beautiful botanical gardens. Jackie Butler introduced the group to the work of the EU Inquire project in which she was involved, before taking the group outside to take part in an activity involving native trees. We learned about the uses and features of native trees before being “forced” to vote off a tree – a great way to involve pupils in discussion. Next we looked at an open-ended approach to a minibeast activity.
The focus of the session was on enabling and encouraging pupils to lead on their own investigations, a feature of our PSTT project.
Our future meeting are listed below. Membership of the group is free and the sessions are fully funded at the moment, so free to attend. Details of how to join the group and attend sessions are at our events page. Join the group forum at our Facebook page
The weather did not deter us!
One of our fabulous venues for the SPIN sessions
Exploring the cork tree
Exploring ways for pupils to lead their own investigations – don’t plan it for them!
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Thu 13th November Winchester Science Centre
Wed 29th April Mary Rose Museum, Portsmouth
Tuesday 19th May Marwell Wildlife, nr Winchester
Thu 18th June Mottisfont, nr Romsey
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