Teaching science in primary schools is challenging. Alongside the debate regarding which pedagogical approach to use, there is a lack of robust teaching tools and helping students build the bridge between experiments and the underlying concepts is difficult, especially if a teacher is not an expert on the lesson topic. We present the Minds-On framework for use in primary school science lessons. The Minds-On application fully orchestrates lessons and provides automated support. Lessons are divided into meaningful learning units, each led with a simple experiment before students consolidate their new knowledge in an interactive diagram. We illustrate the Minds-On approach with astronomy topic lessons developed in collaboration with the Dutch Black Hole Consortium.

About Joanna Holt

Joanna Holt is an Associate Professor in the Science Education Group at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS) and the Education Manager at the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy (NOVA). She completed her PhD in astrophysics in 2005 at the University of Sheffield, UK. After more than a decade in astrophysics research, she specialised in astronomy and science education including positions at ESA and at the primary teacher training institute at the AUAS. Her current research interests include astronomy education, smart education and how to support the teaching of scientific thinking skills. Joanna is also responsible for the NOVA Mobile Planetarium and is the chair of the Dutch NAEC team.