Hallsville Primary School - Year 3 and Year 5

Early in the spring term of 2007, Hallsville Head teacher, Keri Edge, requested that ITASS curriculum advisors support teachers and children in year 3 and year 5 with Data logging. Having identified this as an area of need, support sessions were booked for each year group – one would be a planning session after school in which the teachers and advisor could meet, and the others would be in class support with the teacher and advisor working together. The outcome of the support was for teachers and children to feel more familiar confident in using data logging equipment to support the Science curriculum.

Data logging involves using a devic to measure temperature, light and sound and is an important part of learning in Science and ICT. The information recorded using a data logger can be transferred onto a computer for analysis.

Like many schools, Hallsville has limited data logging equipment and were able to borrow a set of six LogIT Explorers for the duration of the project from ITASS.

Adapting ITASS resources

Although there is a comprehensive set of resources to support data logging as part of the ITASS Scheme of work for ICT (click here to go to the ITASS scheme of work Data logging page), teachers in both year groups wanted to adapt these materials to better suit their children and the topics they were teaching.

Year 3 teachers decided to change the lesson plans that supported QCA Science Unit 3F: Light and Shadows so that the children would have an opportunity to use data logging equipment to investigate the amount of light passing through different sunglasses brought in by children and teachers.

Following an initial planning meeting, the teacher was supported in the lesson by an ITASS curriculum advisor and a number of enthusiastic Learning Support Assistants. The children were introduced to the technology and quickly moved on to designing an investigation to find out who had the best sunglasses.

By the end of the lesson, all the children could talk confidently about their use of data loggers and many were able to explain how they could improve their investigations and suggest other investigations.

Although the Year 5 teachers had taught a unit on Sound earlier in the year, this was an opportunity to revisit some of the learning from that unit. As in year 3, teachers were keen for the children to use the technology to support the children’s investigative skills.

The lesson started with the children investigating light, sound and temperature lessons in the ICT suite to get a better understanding of how the technology works.

The children were then encouraged to devise an investigation in which sound levels would be measured.

The children wanted to find out whether KS1 classes were noisier than KS2 and went out into the school measuring sound levels in various classes.

Back in the ICT suite, the children transferred the information from the data logging software into a simple graphing package for analysis.

Almost immediately, the children spotted inconsistencies with the information they had gathered and the methods they used. All were able to talk about what they would need to do to make their investigations more scientific.

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Download the Year 3 plan and recording sheet from: XXXXXXX

Download the Year 5 Plan and recording sheet from:XXXXXXX

And the flipchart flip chart from: XXXXXXX