Science puppets visit UCC

Primary teachers at a recent summer school in University College Cork have been shown a relatively new but highly successful way of teaching science to young children - using puppets.

"The children used more reasoning when they talked in response to the
puppets than they did in typical science lessons, they listened more closely
to the puppets and gave fuller explanations," says Dr Declan Kennedy,
co-ordinator of UCC's Postgraduate Certificate/Diploma in the Teaching of
Science in the Primary School.

Teachers at the Cork seminar were shown video clips of lessons where the children in the classroom spoke more freely to the puppets, because the puppets did not have the status of the teacher.

Scientific concept:
"The puppets were found to  make the children more eager to contribute to the lesson and to promote children's talk about the scientific concept being discussed," Dr Kennedy says.

This was the first time that that the Puppets in Science project was presented in Ireland. The project also provides animated stories on CD Roms, and guidance to teachers for setting up and managing conversations using the puppets in their classrooms.

The summer school was organised by UCC in collaboration with the Cork
Education Support Centre, West Cork Education Centre, Education Centre
Tralee and the Department of Education and Science.

Science project supports teachers in using puppets in their classroom as
part of their science teaching. It is based on research carried out in the
PUPPETS Project. The research explored the use of puppets to engage and motivate children and promote conversations which help their learning in
science. Puppets were used with primary school children to capture their interest, stimulate their thinking about science, challenge their ideas and
model learning conversations.

The PUPPETS: Talking Science - Engaging Science project now takes this research into thousands of classrooms. The project provides stories on
animated CD-ROMS, and these stories offer a narrative in which puppets can operate. Through the project teachers can get access to guidance for setting up and managing conversations using puppets in their classrooms.

Stories to help you use puppets effectively in science are available from
Millgate House. Click on Resources to see examples of these stories. The
stories and puppets are designed to complement each other.

Puppets work especially well when they are involved in a story where they
have a problem to solve. Children will want to help the puppets by solving
the problem. At the end of the story the children can talk directly to the
puppet about how they think they can solve the problem.

If you want to purchase puppets for your home or school then you can obtain
puppets from:

MILLGATE HOUSE EDUCATION LTD
Tel: +44 (0)1270 764314
Fax: +44 (0)5601 156500
Email: info@millgatehouse.co.uk
Website: www.millgatehouse.co.uk