Best Practice

Five steps to unleashing the power of practicals in science lessons

Science and computing STEM Teaching resources Lesson planning Skills Quality First Teaching
Science practicals and experiments are on a sharp and worrying decline in the classroom. Senior technician Paul Cook offers five ways teachers can reverse this trend
Hands-off? In 2023, just 26% of year 10 to 11 students were experiencing hands-on practical work at least once a fortnight - Adobe Stock

As educators and scientists, we know the importance of practicals for imparting confidence – not only in handling science equipment but, in many cases, for students’ life-skills too.

Practicals are a wonderful way to keep learners engaged while retaining the real-life impacts of what they read. Yet sadly, under the weight of curriculum content and budget constraints, practicals are currently on the decline.

In 2023, the Royal Society’s Science Education Tracker reported that, for students in years 7 to 9, practical work was a top motivator to learn science, while almost three-quarters of year 7 to 11 students said they wanted to do more practical work in the subject.

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