UPD8

Pupils really enjoyed this activity as part of a lesson.

Reviewer: Mufleha Saleem

An excellent and fun lesson, the pupils really enjoyed their debate

Thanks

Reviewer: Zahid Butt

students thoroughly enjoyed these ideas

and it made them think

Reviewer: michele milroy

Brilliant activity. My year 8 top set were totally engaged. I showed them this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaEDeRJKN0s to demonstrate the termite-fishing behaviour.

Reviewer: Mark Craven

Created some very interesting debates with my year 9! The rest of the department too are looking forward to teaching it.

Reviewer: Nosheen Aziz

I let top set Year 7 have a go at this activity. They responded very well and the theme obviously gave them lots of food for thought. They really got to grips with assessing the reliability of the evidence and what else they might want to do themselves to gain a more informed opinion.
I also showed them a short video on the effect of shrinking rain forrests on primate populations to raise their awareness of how close some of these animals are to possible extinction.

Reviewer: Stephen Clark

Used this with a top set and they loved it. We spent the whole lesson discussing the reliability of the researcher's data. It was good to get a research project they could really pull apart, finding faults and ways to improve and extend it.

Reviewer: Lyndsey Montgomery

Excellent activity to run with a mixed ability Year 8. They struggled at first with the idea that the survey was not necessarily representative but then grasped that they could debate the ideas as a whole. Worked well in a 40 minute 'Science in Society' slot.

Reviewer: diane cook

I had the first page displayed on the IWB as my class of 32 year 7 boys arrived.It certainly caught their attention and the whole class were very keen to get on with the activity if only to disprove the findings . A very good way to look at evaluating an investigation.

Reviewer: Mairead Ulamoleka

I liked this resource. It provided an opportunity fo class discussion and debate about the topic. It also got the class thinking about inherited verses environmental factors.

Reviewer: Sarah Fennell

Only just found the resource. looking forward to using the well constructed and imaginative resources

Reviewer: david ellerby

I loved this lesson - and so did my S2 class. It is such an emotive subject for them and a great way to develop the ideas about variation we had been talking about in previous lessons. I was surprised at the maturity of their analysis of the facts, and structured the lesson as a Cooperative session whereby the groups worked together to come to a conclusion about their research which they then shared in a 'Gallery Walk' with the other groups.
I prepared the lesson as a demonstration of Coop Learning for some visitors to the school, one of which was an English teacher who remarked that it would be a great lesson in English too for analysisng text!

Reviewer: Jacqueline Burton

this is a wonderful activity where the students become fully engaged in the topic. I would suggest that you have groups with equal numbers of boys and girls then sit back and watch the debate flow!! You do need an entire lesson to fully cover it.
The boys do become incensed at the start being compared to chimps which is good because it can lead to a conversation about their behaviour.
the resulting conclusions generally agree with the statement from both boys and girls which is surprising and they become quite interspective about thier own attitudes and behaviour.

Reviewer: alison gibb

this is a wonderful activity where the students become fully engaged in the topic. I would suggest that you have groups with equal numbers of boys and girls then sit back and watch the debate flow!! You do need an entire lesson to fully cover it.
The boys do become incensed at the start being compared to chimps which is good because it can lead to a conversation about their behaviour.
the resulting conclusions generally agree with the statement from both boys and girls which is surprising and they become quite interspective about thier own attitudes and behaviour.

Reviewer: alison gibb

this was quite difficult for a mixed ability set but with careful seating plan it was possible to support the students who needed help.
it was a controversial starter and the boys were incensed at the thought that this had been observed in chimps and extrapolated to humans. it prompted discussion about how different they had been at nursery school, learning to write.
if i had spent a whole lesson on this i feel i would have done it justice.
this would have been a good topic for PSHE with many year groups. the nature v nuture debate with "evidence"

it was a lovely way to have an ideas and evidence discussion too

Reviewer: margaret jordan