A teacher training educational film made by the University of Durham Institute of Education at Broomhaugh Church of England Primary School in the village of Riding Mill showing how to teach science in a rural primary school. The film includes field studies with a group of 7-11 year old children exploring The Glebe Field in Riding Mill, Northumberland, and science in the classroom. Title: Science in a Rural Primary School, 1961 Credit: Produced by John W. Bradshaw Credit: Broomhaugh Church...

A teacher training educational film made by the University of Durham Institute of Education at Broomhaugh Church of England Primary School in the village of Riding Mill showing how to teach science in a rural primary school. The film includes field studies with a group of 7-11 year old children exploring The Glebe Field in Riding Mill, Northumberland, and science in the classroom. Title: Science in a Rural Primary School, 1961 Credit: Produced by John W. Bradshaw Credit: Broomhaugh Church of England Primary School, Riding Mill. Headmaster RW Stockdale. Credit: Photography by Thelma Watts. Director John W. Bradshaw. Credit: Sound Transcription Leevers Rich. The film opens with a view from a classroom window at Broomhaugh Church of England Primary School showing a group of 23 pupils and there teacher make their way to the The Glebe Field in Riding Mill. As they walk through a gate into the field some children carry various pieces of equipment including nets, jars and clipboards. The teacher leads the group into the middle of the field before sending them out in pairs to explore different parts of the area. The final two boys standing beside the teacher are holding the ends of a piece of rope. A boy and a girl, Rosslyn and John, use pegs to mark out a section of turf. Using a spade, John digs up the turf, turning it over so that he and Rosslyn can collect earthworms, which they put into jars. There is general view of the field showing groups of children in different sections. The film cuts to the west hedge area where Diane records on a clipboard the different plants that are growing in the light and shaded side of the hedge. In the shade of a large oak tree another boy and girl record the condition of plants living there. The teacher comes over and talks with them. Another boy and girl record the temperature of the soil on a clipboard. The girl draws a plant. In another part of the field, Colin and Robert use a light-meter to record the amount of light in their part of the field. As before one of the boys uses the meter and the other records on a clipboard. In a shady part of the field under a tree, the teacher comes over to speak with three girls. Two of the girls are examining a section of ivy growing along the branch of a tree. The film cuts to show two children collecting soil samples using a spade to dig up the earth and pour it into a jar. Under another tree two girls collect insect samples, which they will take back to the classroom for examination before releasing them. Another girl looks closely at a leaf that is infected with leaf miner (insect larva). The other two girls collect more insect samples supervised by the teacher. With their field study almost over, the children make their way back to the school. As the group heads out of the gate one boy stops and breaks off a small section of branch from an oak tree. Seeing that the others have moved on he runs after them. The film cuts back to the classroom inside Broomhaugh Church of England Primary School where pupils look at the samples collected. Two girls pin items to the wall while another paints. There is a close up of the girl painting a picture of Glebe Field. Another girl draws a graph in a text book with a ruler. The film cuts to show a boy, David, planting an oak branch with plant galls into a jar. He takes one of the galls and cuts it in half to reveal a grub living inside. He places a casing around the branch in the jar and puts on a lid. He is then seen drawing the cross section of the gall in an exercise book. Seven children pool their knowledge on a blackboard and record the numbers of earthworms discovered in the field. At a desk another girl looks at two plates containing samples of soil and works on a soil report. One of the samples comes from the dark side of the west hedge, the other the light. On a bench a boy carries out a soil analysis by water experiment by placing a sample soil into a flask, pouring in water from a jug and stirring it. Sometime later the boy takes down two of these soil sample flasks and records the results on a simple diagram. At another table two boys weigh a sample of soil on a set of scales to work out the water content. One of the boys records the results on a sheet of paper. Rosslyn sits at another desk and records details in a exercise book and takes it over to John who is sitting nearby. They discuss the findings. The film cuts to show a diorama at the back of the class of drawings on a wall and plant samples in jars. A girl is seen carrying out an experiment using light to prove that plants need oxygen to grow. A work card produced to help the children is held up to the camera that reads 'Where Can Air be Found?' General view of the classroom where a girl takes the work card back to a long  table around which a group of children are sitting. They sit for a moment talking before the majority of the pupils head off to start work on the exercise. A boy returns with a bucket of water into which a pot plant is placed by a girl. They both look intently at the bucket. At the other end of the table a boy and a girl fill a flask with water using a funnel. Around the edge of the flask, clay or putty has been placed. The boy uses a needle to puncture a hole in the clay or putty to allow the water to flow into the flask. At another table a boy and a girl create a set of scales using a ruler balanced over two small jars. The boy blows up a balloon and together they hang it from one end of the ruler which sways up and down. The teacher sits and observes a boy and a girl carry out an experiment beside him. The boy uses a glass straw to blow air into an upside down flask full of water that has been placed into a large bowl of water. As he blows air into the flask it empties. General view of the classroom with two children adding details to a wall display while another talks to the teacher. A girl takes the chest measurements of a boy and records them on a sheet of paper. Back on the table with the group carrying out the exercise to find our 'Where Can Air be Found?', an older girl sits on the desk and watches over two younger pupils as they record details from a ruler. At the far end of the table a boy creates a home-made barometer from a jug of water. At another table a boy and girl carry out an experiment with two tin cans, filling one with water. Two holes have been punched into the cans and sticks added. The girl removes each of the sticks one at a time and nothing happens. She removes them both and water begins to pour out into a bowl. The film ends with the children placing exercise books inside their desks, getting up and walking out of the classroom. Outside the school entrance one of the girls waits for her friends to come out and squirts a little water onto them using a piece from one of the experiments. All the pupils are seen running out of the school gate and along a country road. End Credit: End - Institute of Education. End Credit: Produced in Department of Photography, Kings College, University of Durham, Newcastle Upon Tyne.