Age: 8 + Themes: planets, inference, modal verbs Stimulus NASA scientists have found a planet deep in space that looks like ours. They call it Other World. They want to send astronauts there but it would take 100 years to get there and 100 years to get back so they can’t.  They decide to send a probe to gather data about the ...

The Philosophy A paradox is a very strange thing: it is an anomaly of reasoning, and, whereas good reasoning is thought to produce sound conclusions, paradoxes can challenge this assumption. With paradoxes the reasoning may appear good but the conclusion that follows absurd. The word comes from Ancient Greek: para meaning ‘distinct from...

Starter activity I start by getting the children to play a game of 'True For You'; they should change places if what I say is true for them. After beginning with a couple of easy ones ('I am a girl', 'I am wearing red' etc) I usually include a couple of slightly harder ones ('I don't understand the rules to thi...

STIMULUS Open with a sitting-down game/activity and then ask the pupils, “Is what you just did ‘sport’?”   QUESTIONS & AVENUES Does sport require competition? Does sport need to have winners and losers? Is all exercise sport? Is all sport exercise? Does sport need to be good for your h...

The Philosophy This session was designed to focus specifically on logic. There was a class who would agree to logically inconsistent statements without realising it (eg. 'Is it possible to think of nothing?' 'No' Did you think of nothing? 'Yes'). So the children are asked to say which sentences are consistent. In ...