On the feasibility to include contemporary Science concepts in the Primary school curricula – a retrospection into two case studies

P. G. Michaelides, Professor at The University of Crete, michail@edc.uoc.gr

Tsigris Miltiadis, Chemist Teacher assigned to The University of Crete, mtsigris@edc.uoc.gr

This work has been partially financed by the European Commission (project “Hands-on Science” contract number 110157-CP-1-2003-1-PT-COMENIUS-C3). The views expressed represent the authors. Neither the European Commission nor the authors may be held responsible for any use of the information provided here.

Abstract. In contemporary knowledge conscious societies, the effective Science and Technology teaching is of paramount importance. One very significant parameter of an effective Science and Technology teaching is the actual syllabus involved in the school curricula. In general, the syllabus reflects the Science of the previous century. Very important Science advances like relativity, quantum mechanics, statistical physics, systems, etc are at most given a short simplistic description if not omitted at all. The reason usually quoted is that these issues are complicated and require advanced mathematics consequently they are beyond the capabilities of the students. We have challenged this widely apprehended doctrine by trying to teach the basic concepts of relativity and of systems to 5th and 6th grade students (ages 11-12 years). The results from these test cases were encouraging and have been already presented in the Hands on Science 2005 International Conference. In this work, we examine the two test cases from the viewpoint of the feasibility of a large-scale inclusion of contemporary Science concepts in the Primary school curricula.

Keywords. Science teaching, primary school curriculum, primary education.

Paper presented at the HSci 2006 - 3rd International Conference on Hands-on Science, 4th - 9th September, 2006, Braga, Portugal, proceedings published by University of Minho HSci2006