Welcome to the primary school experiments page! Below are a selection of videos we have made outlining some simple experiments suitable for primary school students that demonstrate various fundamental principles of science. For each of the videos, a pdf document can be downloaded containing a set of detailed instructions and suggested improvements / challenges for the students.

PLEASE COMPLETE A FULL RISK ASSESSMENT BEFORE UNDERTAKING ANY OF THESE EXPERIMENTS

External Links

There is a vast amount of information on the Internet that can be useful for the teaching of primary school students. Below are links to a selection of websites (in no particular order) that contain useful information.

The Primary Science Teaching Trust meets its objective of improving the education of children and young people in science in the UK by providing financial assistance to improve teaching and learning of the subject. This site reports on the exciting developments and provides excellent resources for continuing professional development and offers a growing range of lesson and planning resources.

This website provides resources for curriculum teaching, funding for projects, science related activities and a lot more information.

A not-for-profit organisation with a heritage that spans 170 years, we have an ambitious international vision for the future. Around the world, we invest in educating future generations of scientists. We raise and maintain standards. We partner with industry and academia, promoting collaboration and innovation. We advise governments on policy. And we promote the talent, information and ideas that lead to great advances in science.

This website provides a vast amount of information to a wide range of audiences. A comprehensive collection of resources from teaching materials to lesson plans and videos can be found on this page.

The Nuffield Foundation is a charitable trust established in 1943 by William Morris, Lord Nuffield, the founder of Morris Motors.

Lord Nuffield wanted to contribute to improvements in society, including the expansion of education and the alleviation of disadvantage. He called this the ‘advancement of social well-being’, and emphasised the importance of education, training and research in achieving that goal. Today, we work to improve social well-being by funding research and innovation in education and social policy. We also work to increase research capacity, both in science and social science.

This website is tailored more for secondary school students and above, but there is still a lot of useful information for primary school level.

STEM (Science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects are integral to the UK’s success: the UK is the world’s sixth largest manufacturer, engineering turnover is around £800 billion per year, and whilst the UK makes up only 1% of the world’s population, we produce 10% of the world’s top scientific research. Despite this, it is remarkable to note that even though STEM graduates have the potential to earn amongst the highest salaries of all new recruits, employers are finding it difficult to recruit STEM skilled staff.

Alongside our need for a skilled STEM workforce, it is crucial that all young people, regardless of their future career pathway, have the STEM knowledge and skills they need to be an informed citizen in an increasingly scientific and technological society.

This website provides a lot of information for a range of students across all age groups. Lesson plans, worksheets, teaching ideas and a range of experiments can be found on this website.

Questions and Comments

If you have any questions or comments, please complete the appropriate form; we value any feedback that you provide.

Acknowledgements

The experiments on this page are not original; these videos are how we have portray the experiments and the methods that we used. A search of the internet will reveal a multitude of alternative procedures for these experiments.

These videos were recorded and edited by Dr David Withall and Rachel Gascoigne; the voice over was provided by Ms Kelly Wills.