All of the activities described here have been used in the ASCEND project with 14-15 year olds, and all were found to challenge and stimulate students. We found that the extent to which students and groups were happy to work with limited direction (as in many of the ASCEND activities) varied. Some gifted students relished this opportunity: other students at the sessions sought more prescriptive instructions. We suspected that this was in part related to students not being used to being offered that level of responsibility in school science.
These students generally experienced school science as having highly specified outcomes, and clearly mandated means of reaching those outcomes (Taber & Riga, 2006). Being allowed to decide how best to meet goals, and how to go about organising themselves in the pursuit of the set goals was generally not a common experience. This is not a criticism of school science, as the constraints of classroom teaching and the National Curriculum are well known. Initially, we had to adjust our approach to offer more support to some groups than we had intended. However, on the whole the students at ASCEND, once convinced they really could decide how to go about the tasks, welcomed the opportunity to take charge.
We suspect that given regular experience of working this way, these learners were mostly capable of being highly cooperative in group-work, and are able to plan and evaluate their own work with much less external support than is usual in a school science context. Working in this way can help developed important 'life-skills' as well as making science more challenging and engaging. We would recommend withdrawing and delaying support as long as students are engaged in exploring ideas and not getting frustrated.
All the activities here have been tested during ASCEND, but we have not had the opportunity to engage in thorough evaluation in a variety of contexts. No doubt some activities are not optimally designed – and may be improved by adapting to local needs and circumstances. Teachers are invited to use the materials as they are, select from them, modify them, or simply design their own activities informed by the spirit of the ASCEND activities. If these materials help teachers challenge the most able science learners – either through direct use, or by inspiring other ideas – then the ASCEND project will have been a success.
