SECTION ONE Introduction

This book has been written with primary teachers and teachers-in-training in mind, and its main purpose is to support and extend teachers’ own science knowledge.

Notwithstanding all the changes which have taken place in primary education since the publication of the first edition, the main aim of the book remains unchanged – to provide for primary classroom teachers and students, in a single volume, an outline of the key ideas which underpin the main branches of science.