Science: 3 Year BSc route
Welcome to the 3 Year Science with Education & QTS
Welcome to Sheffield Hallam University and congratulations on securing your place on the course! We look forward to meeting you again soon and to working with you over the coming years. The Science Teacher Training courses are based in the new multi-million pound Charles Street building which opened in 2016 to house the Sheffield Institute of Education. Practical sessions and are mostly held on floor 9 of the adjacent Owen Building which we share with the Centre for Science Education and houses two purpose build labs that reflect the layout found in a typical school setting.
The time and date of your formal enrolment will be communicated to you elsewhere. We will be having a welcome meeting during the first week and there will be a number of activities introducing you to the University, your fellow course members and a few of your tutors. We will make sure that you get to know people quickly as they are probably just as nervous as you about starting a new course and making friends. In the second week you will start your subject modules and we aim to hit the ground running. A lot of the 2-3 hour sessions are based around group work, discussion and collaboration, rather than straight lectures, so you will very quickly get chance to work with others and get to know your tutors even better.
The main focus for the first year of the course is to bring everyone up to a sound level of understanding of the major and fundamental themes and principles of Chemistry, Biology and Physics – firstly with GCSE ‘content ‘and then up to and even beyond A‑level. For many students the biggest change is understanding that the “right answer” is not enough for a teacher. You will need to know the different versions of the “right answer” and recognise the “wrong” answers too. In that sense, the best possible preparation is for you to begin an intensive course of revision of all 3 sciences at GCSE level prior to your arrival. We advise you to engage with the concepts covered at Key Stages 3 and 4 of National Curriculum Science. Working with Key Stage 3 and 4 Science Revision Guides are a good starting point with this; they are readily available to buy from retailers.
If you are feeling confident with this the “Head Start to A‑level Biology/Chemistry/Physics” series Published by CPG are also very useful, particularly for those subjects which you may not have studied at a higher level. You may also find reading ‘ASE Secondary Guide to Science Education ‘which is edited by Valerie Wood Robinson (ISBN 0 86357 406 8) an engaging and a worthwhile introduction to the course. We will give you details about suitable text books (and how to get them more cheaply) when you arrive, but do bring your A level texts books (or equivalent) if you still have them.
As you will very quickly find out, this is a demanding and very enjoyable course in which you will get to learn many new skills as well as develop your understanding of science. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me using the details below. In the meantime, I wish you well with your preparations and I look forward to talking to you very soon.
Best wishes
Paul Haigh
Course Leader, 3 Year BSc (Hons) Science with Education & QTS Paul.Haigh@shu.ac.uk 0114 225 2688