Q&A - P4 Science

[Lavender33]

Hi! Need some advice.


Since the start of this year, I have been coaching my son on his P4 Science. To do that, I referred to several books to gain a more complete understanding of the topic and a better insight on the manner of questioning that can be raised on the topic. Naturally, after doing quite a number of questions, my son is able to write better quality of answers to those structured/open-ended questions.

My concern is this. My son informed me that at school, the science teacher does not cover the same areas/depth of a particular topic as expected from those books. For example, when they were taught on the topic of plant life cycle, and the teacher asked the class the purpose of the ‘seed coat’, he proudly responded 'to protect the embryo from any injury, parasites and prevent from drying-up the food source during dormancy". The teacher told him his answer is "acceptable" and advised the class, can just answer "to protect the developing seed". After the lesson, apparently, his classmates queried him what ‘dormancy’ meant. Seems the teacher did not take the opportunity to expand the knowledge of the class by explaining the answer given by my son.

Same thing happen when the class was recently taught on the topic of ‘Matter’. I understand from my son, his teacher did not explain to the class why ‘gas can be compressed’ whereas solid and liquid can’t. My son knew as the topic requires students to understand the difference in the order/arrangement of particles in solid and liquid vs gas.

I wonder if this style of teaching is adopted, whether the students will eventually be able to handle the demands of the questions that are asked at PSLE! I’m worried if I were to ask the teacher, no matter how politely i put it, will come across as offending and put my son in a ‘difficult’ situation with his teachers. Of course, I can just ‘not bother’, but my concern is not just for my son, but for his classmates too.

Any advice? Thanks!

[agpsle]

Coming from the perspective of an educator, I feel that how much to teach really depends on the ability of the class. With tuition being so common right now, most of the pupils would have covered the topic even before the teachers covers them in class, however, teachers still have to be sensitive to the needs of those who may not have such privileges.


For classes who are generally weaker, teachers will have to be careful not to over-teach or may end up confusing the pupils even more. For me, if pupils bring up some questions beyond the topic, I may digress slightly. For a mixed-ability class, I may provide some links or resources to the higher ability pupils for extension in their learning.

What you’ve brought up in your post about particle theory is not required in the primary science syllabus but only taught at the secondary level. If your child is learning beyond the syllabus, you may like to have your child ask his teacher after class.

I hope this helps.

[cimman]

Lavender33:

Hi! Need some advice.


Since the start of this year, I have been coaching my son on his P4 Science. To do that, I referred to several books to gain a more complete understanding of the topic and a better insight on the manner of questioning that can be raised on the topic. Naturally, after doing quite a number of questions, my son is able to write better quality of answers to those structured/open-ended questions.

My concern is this. My son informed me that at school, the science teacher does not cover the same areas/depth of a particular topic as expected from those books. For example, when they were taught on the topic of plant life cycle, and the teacher asked the class the purpose of the 'seed coat', he proudly responded 'to protect the embryo from any injury, parasites and prevent from drying-up the food source during dormancy\". The teacher told him his answer is \"acceptable\" and advised the class, can just answer \"to protect the developing seed\". After the lesson, apparently, his classmates queried him what 'dormancy' meant. Seems the teacher did not take the opportunity to expand the knowledge of the class by explaining the answer given by my son.

Same thing happen when the class was recently taught on the topic of 'Matter'. I understand from my son, his teacher did not explain to the class why 'gas can be compressed' whereas solid and liquid can't. My son knew as the topic requires students to understand the difference in the order/arrangement of particles in solid and liquid vs gas.

I wonder if this style of teaching is adopted, whether the students will eventually be able to handle the demands of the questions that are asked at PSLE! I'm worried if I were to ask the teacher, no matter how politely i put it, will come across as offending and put my son in a 'difficult' situation with his teachers. Of course, I can just 'not bother', but my concern is not just for my son, but for his classmates too.

Any advice? Thanks!

I think it is best that you take a look at the PSLE Science Exam papers to have a better guage on the level of understanding required. Sometimes the Science Guides goes beyond the Syllabus, so it is best to know the boundaries of PSLE Science and not overdo the preparation. If your child is interested to find out more, well and good, but let him know it is outside the syllabus. If one gets full marks for saying the seed coat protects the seed in PSLE, then there is nothing wrong in the teacher not going beyond that.

In depth explanation, especially in Science takes up a lot of time. My child was asking about molecules, that led to me explaining about atoms, which led to atomic structure, sub atomic particles. Depending on how deep you want to go, answers can get pretty detailed and very time consuming. School teachers just don't have time for that, not when they are trying to finish the syllabus days before the exam. For the more detail stuff, I always tell him that it's out of syllabus and he shouldn't put those in his answers. The atomic explanation did come in useful when he asked about the nuclear meltdown that happended recently in Japan. He didn't know what a nuclear meltdown was.

The most important thing in answering science questions is to know what keywords the question is asking for. You can write a 5 sentence answer without the keywords and you'll still be marked wrong, even though it is logically correct. Or you can write the one sentence answer with the appropriate keywords and you'll get full marks.

[MLJ]

Yes, I think answering with the right keywords are important. what you can do is to buy the good school papers and look at the answer key and see how they answer.


You can also get the PSLE question booklet and look at the answers for the section B part. It would help you to know what are the keywords needed. It is good not to go too in-depth for kids as they might get confused. However, you could let them explore the topic in-depth during the holidays so that their natural curiosity to learn is not dampened.

[agpsle]

Pls access MOE's website for the syllabus.

[Lavender33]

Thank you all for the insights and advice! At least I now have some reassurance that I can \"toned\" down my own studying of the topics prior to guiding my son....also not so stressful on this mummy! :lol:


I appreciate the idea about listing the keywords. Think that's will be an effective way for him to remember the keywords and hopefully apply them correctly in his OE answers.

As for the syllabus, I was making use of the \"Ultimate Science Guide\" 2010 Edition by EPH which is suppose to contain the latest MOE syllabus as our main source of learning the topic. We then attempted questions from the Longman Weekly Companion series and SAP \"Learning Science for Lower Block 3/4\". We found the latter quite challenging to do especially on the OE parts. That's why we have this perception, that is the \"standard\" expected of even a P4!

Anyway, son will be sitting for his SA1 Science tomorrow. So we'll be taking a well-deserved break till it's time for Term 3!

Thanks again my friends!

[ChiefKiasu]

Moderator's Note: Please use this thread to ask for help on specific questions. Please refrain from out of topic chatter in this thread to make it easier for the community to find the answers they need.

[zinc6539]

This is a question from Nan Hua Primary School CA2 2010 P4 Science. It's shown as question 9 on this website: http://www.oldschool.com.sg/index.php/module/PublicAccess/action/Wrapper/sid/9595afb87c8cf767f034c3ae53e74bae/coll_id/7288/recs_ppg/5/desc/Continual+Assessment+2+%28%232%29%3A+Section+B/pg_id/2


I hope to get some clarifications on the answer given. (a) Why did the plastic ruler gain heat when the question only states that Mary heated the iron ring. (b) & (c) Could there be an alternative answer that the ruler gets stuck in the ring, but did not break, since plastic ruler is slightly flexible?

[mother777]

zinc6539:

This is a question from Nan Hua Primary School CA2 2010 P4 Science. It's shown as question 9 on this website: http://www.oldschool.com.sg/index.php/module/PublicAccess/action/Wrapper/sid/9595afb87c8cf767f034c3ae53e74bae/coll_id/7288/recs_ppg/5/desc/Continual+Assessment+2+%28%232%29%3A+Section+B/pg_id/2


I hope to get some clarifications on the answer given. (a) Why did the plastic ruler gain heat when the question only states that Mary heated the iron ring. (b) & (c) Could there be an alternative answer that the ruler gets stuck in the ring, but did not break, since plastic ruler is slightly flexible?

Hi,

For (a) the reason for heat gain inthe ruler can be explained using the concept of conduction. The heat will move from the heated metal ring to the plastic due to the difference in temperature. As a result, both the metal ring and the plastic ruler will gain heat.

for b and c, yes the answer can be that the ruler will remain stuck with little bending or break based on the contraction in the metal ring.

if initially, the ring expanded a lot due to heat gain. then after loss of heat source it will contract back to its original position pressing on the plastic ruler. which may break if the contraction was large.

But if the initial expansion was just enough to force fit the ruler, then after contraction the ruler may just bend a little due to its flexible nature and stay fit inside the metal ring.

this is my understanding..

hope this helps

[usaik]

Hi,

Below is a question from one of the past year exam paper.
The answer provided is (1) D only.
http://i52.tinypic.com/34es178.jpg\">

I would like to check : Is the part which I have circled in red above not a leaf? And if is is a leaf, then shouldn't the answer be (2) instead of (1)?

Would appreciate some clarification into the above please. Thank you.