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Ben Preston

@prestonscience.bsky.social
460 followers 378 following 144 posts

Hopeful mycophile & basic birder. Biology and science teacher in Stoke-on-Trent. Does it help learning, meaning-making, and connection? Lifelong nature lover 🌳 🐜 May be occasional dog or moss pics

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Ben Preston @prestonscience.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Film you’ve watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Star Trek, Star Wars, Marvel, Disney, or Ghibli
static.klipy.com
Tank Of Gas Blue Brothers
ALT: Tank Of Gas Blue Brothers
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Humanists UK @humanists.uk · 27/07/2026
Bill Oddie has died aged 85. We'll certainly be thinking of this quote today. #Humanist #Nature #Birdwatching #Humanists #HumanistsUK #BillOddie
My please to people would be... take off those earpieces so you hear nature and, of course, birdsong. you may not realise how precious it is until it's gone. Bill Oddie. Comedian, broadcaster, and naturalist.
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Ben Preston @prestonscience.bsky.social · 02/01/2026
Poking through the dusting of snow up on the Roaches, in the Peak District National Park Staffordshire, UK #moss
Orange moss sporing bodies poking up through snow on moorland
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Ben Rogers @benrogersedu.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Inspired by The Writing Revolution, here's a physics version of but, because, so: readingforlearning.org/2025/06/26/a...
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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
1. A story. Please read. Reposts hugely appreciated on this. You'll see why in a bit. I was born in Pakistan and lived there until I was 4. My parents worked there as doctors. While we were there we were very close to a couple called Christine and Mike Miles.
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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
New from me. Would getting rid of EHCPs make things better? Maybe. But the risks are huge. bennewmark.wordpress.com/2025/06/02/e...
bennewmark.wordpress.com
EHCPs, J S Mill and the Tyranny of the Majority
A few years ago, in the Golden Era of Edu-Twitter, Berny Andrews and I suggested the Department of Education needed a team of philosophers. We were only half joking. Very often the success or failu…
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Niki Kaiser @nikika.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
A fascinating keynote to start the day at #cogscisci from @drgarethbates.bsky.social He argues that now is the right time to push back a bit and dig underneath (and dissect) the science of learning Looking in detail at Ebbinghaus and that famous curve (which actually wasn't a curve)
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Ben Preston @prestonscience.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
Really pleased I made the effort to get to #CogSciSci today (and thank you @mrarobbins.bsky.social for letting me in 😇) Great to connect with like minded, hardworking folk obsessed with how to teach well, with a healthy science bias. And to put the world to rights with @drwilkinsonsci.bsky.social
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Christian Moore-Anderson @cmooreanderson.eurosky.social · 24/05/2025
Your weekend read ↓ Why questioning in lessons often fails (and what to do about it) #EduBlogUK #EduSky #UKEd
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Ben Preston @prestonscience.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
I like the idea of shared resources that are focused on well-crafted questions. Then teachers can focus on planning their explanations and the way they ask and get responses to those questions… food for thought with gained time around the corner!
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Ben Preston @prestonscience.bsky.social · 18/05/2025
My first action in my current post 7 years ago was changing from end of topic tests to just two summative assessments per year, allowing everyone to focus on teaching better and improving the quality of low stakes, frequent retrieval practice in every lesson. No complaints, results much better now👍
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Shaun Allison @shaun-allison.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
How we’ve tried to make professional development more regular and relevant open.substack.com/pub/shaunall...
open.substack.com
Mind The Gap
How can we support a more regular and relevant approach to teacher development?
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Sam Strickland @strickomaster.bsky.social · 20/04/2025
New Blog Subject Knowledge - Our Greatest Treasure samstrickland384843542.wordpress.com/2025/04/20/s...
samstrickland384843542.wordpress.com
Subject Knowledge: Our Greatest Treasure
My reasoning for writing this blog is to champion the cause and case of subject knowledge. Some will question why. Some will cite but that’s so obvious isn’t it or shout out but of course subject k…
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Ben Preston @prestonscience.bsky.social · 23/03/2025
This year’s birthday cake
Birthday cake decorated with candles and the words “Tax wealth not work”
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Pritesh Raichura @priteshraichura.bsky.social · 22/02/2025
Extraordinary blogs with lots of excellent ideas.
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Ben Preston @prestonscience.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
Movies you’ve watched more than six times, gifs only
media.tenor.com
two men sitting at a table with a candle and a napkin
ALT: two men sitting at a table with a candle and a napkin
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Ben Preston @prestonscience.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
If you feel like you’re competing with everyone, of course you’ll get stuck in “us vs them” thinking. But are you? Or are we actually, mostly, on the same side? I wrote about the myth of competition. open.substack.com/pub/explaini... Any feedback, here or in the comments, welcome 🙏
open.substack.com
You are not in competition with everyone else
The challenge of overcoming the myth of competition, so we can build something better for everyone.
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Ben Preston @prestonscience.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
open.substack.com/pub/rebeccab...
open.substack.com
On the Sir Ken Fallacy
Or a book review of Johann Hari's 'Stolen Focus'
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Dr. Hilary Rose Dawson @hilaryrosed.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
If you need some positive science in your feed, check out @nerdychristie.bsky.social’s piece about how we can use #conservation dogs to find fungal diversity, inspired by the first #truffle paper my sister and I co-authored. www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪🌎 #mycology @ecol-evol.bsky.social
science.org
‘Good boy!’ Truffle-sniffing dogs are helping uncover hidden underground ecosystems
Their keen noses are helping researchers document the diversity of fungi living underneath Pacific Northwest forests
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Ben Preston @prestonscience.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
#SciTeachUK Personally this is one of a few things I’m excited about this year - CLEAPSS developing guidance on using slime mould in schools. @cmooreanderson.bsky.social can you think of ways to use it in biology teaching? Look at that action shot! @cleapss.bsky.social 🙏
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Ben Preston @prestonscience.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
RIP David Lynch 🫀
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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 02/01/2025
I think schools are the part of that ecosystem that have on the whole stayed most consistent, stable and predictable. I worry very much that pressure to solve problems outside our gift could damage that.
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Humanists UK @humanists.uk · 02/01/2025
A conscientious objector during the war, he was imprisoned for civil disobedience in 1943. That year, he spoke at a pacifist gathering, ‘We need to temper the “prophetic gloom” into which we are apt to descend, with a proper and joyful humanism.’
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Vicent J. Martínez @vicentjm.bsky.social · 01/01/2025
Today, 100 years ago (January 1, 1925) was the day we found the universe. The detailed story of that day is magnificently told in Marcia Bartusiak's book 'The Day We Found the Universe.' We refer to her book in #ReinventionofScience.🧪⚛️🔭
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Helen Reynolds @helenrey.bsky.social · 31/12/2024
If you haven't seen this EXCELLENT blog about learning, check it out. A copy of that Model of Memory is super useful to print out, pin on the board, point to a lot. Classic quote from one of my Ss: 'Miss, I think I just made a line!'. #cogscisci #iteachphysics researched.org.uk/2018/09/26/f...
researched.org.uk
From neuroscience to the classroom | ResearchED
Can neuroscience add anything to our understanding of the classroom? And what should teachers make of it? Efrat Furst looks into how this lens might prove useful in the future.  [...]Read More...
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Ben Preston @prestonscience.bsky.social · 31/12/2024
A truly tiny forest
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Ben Preston @prestonscience.bsky.social · 31/12/2024
@daisychristo.bsky.social interesting - looks like these scores were made using a type of comparative judgement, with councillors given pairs of MPs to rate as more left or right wing!
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Ed Conway @edconway.bsky.social · 30/12/2024
If you're interested in energy/climate you've probably heard the nugget that "kerosene/crude oil helped save the whales", by reducing demand for whale oil in lanterns. I've even trotted it out myself🤦‍♂️ But it turns out it's NOT true. Here's what actually happened edconway.substack.com/p/no-kerosen...
edconway.substack.com
No, Kerosene did NOT save the Sperm Whale
How we carried on exploiting sperm whales long after the conventional wisdom said we'd stopped. Forgotten Material #1
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Superbugs 🦠🔬🏫🧒🏽 @superbugs.bsky.social · 29/12/2024
Last Sunday of 2024. The perfect moment to give our Wordle one last try. The only science and health inspired Wordle that is simultaneously available in English, Welsh, Gaelic and Irish. 🧫🦠🔬🧩 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇮🇪
superbugs.online
Wordle — Superbugs - The microbial world in, on and around us
Try to solve our Superbugs-themed 'Wordle' in as few attempts as possible. Each guess must be a valid 5-letter word. Hit the enter button to submit your guess! After each round, the colour of the ti...
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Ben Preston @prestonscience.bsky.social · 27/12/2024
Is anyone demanding a wealth tax, or are we just going to carry on as we are?
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Ben Preston @prestonscience.bsky.social · 26/12/2024
Thought it was time for a Boxing Day 📦 playlist open.spotify.com/playlist/0En...
open.spotify.com
Boxing Day 📦
Playlist · Ben Preston · 42 items
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Ben Preston @prestonscience.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
In case you don’t already have one, here’s my Xmas playlist. Some well known, a few less so. Festivetimes. #xmasmusic xmastime open.spotify.com/playlist/1NO... PS please reply with any suggestions to add / remove. Happy Solstice for yesterday 🌏 🌎 🌍
open.spotify.com
xmastime
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Ben Preston @prestonscience.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
“If you just put people in prison, and treat them badly, then nothing very much will change.” Dr Gwen Adshead’s answer to the Q “Do you think prison is a place of rehabilitation?” End of a thought provoking first #ReithLecture www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
bbc.co.uk
The Reith Lectures - Gwen Adshead - Four Questions about Violence - Is Violence Normal? - BBC Sounds
Forensic psychiatrist Dr Gwen Adshead asks if violence is normal.
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Ben Preston @prestonscience.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
The best student Xmas card I’ve ever received. Not that I get many. 😊🎄
Christmas card thanking Biology teacher for getting the class to repeat words, for visual teaching and for simplifying complicated ideas
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
The disconnect between the clean energy policy and the coverage is particularly acute. Granted, it is fiendishly technical. But it is also one of the most substantial initiatives in this area we've ever seen. It would be nice if news outlets at least tried to explain it to their readers.
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Michael Freeman @afreeparticle.com · 16/12/2024
#iTeachPhysics: Dynamics Cart 2.0! - Pull with two handles in 2D - Include friction & air resistance - Free-body diagrams - Position, velocity, acceleration, & force vs time graphs. - Graph matching challenges Link in reply 🍎🎢⚛️♾️ Video Description: screen grab of these features on the simulation.
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Rich Attert0n @escapeteacher.bsky.social · 15/09/2024
You can never post this too often!
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David Beauchamp @physmus.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
Apparently Stoke is the centre of British Esperanto! www.thepotteries.org/photo_wk/154...
thepotteries.org
Green Star Public House, Esperanto Way, Smallthorne, Stoke-on-Trent
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Alom Shaha @alomshaha.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
This thread is worth a read. None of my maths teachers made maths engaging for me - it was simply a tool that let me do Physics. I only learned how wonderful maths was when researching for a documentary I made about it. When teaching Physics, I try to take this approach - as describe in my book:
alomshaha.com
Why Don’t Things Fall Up?
Why Don’t Things Fall Up? delivers what every adult and schoolchild deserves, but often doesn’t get: an authoritative and accessible account of the key ideas in science. The book is rooted in Alom’…
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Ben Preston @prestonscience.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
We had a “well-being day” on Friday. So obviously I went for a visit to Michaela Community School in Wembley! Very enjoyable visit, and great to see what’s possible. Anyone work there now or in the past, or had experience in setting up a similarly high-expectations school over the last decade?
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Ben Preston @prestonscience.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
@priteshraichura.bsky.social Just rewatched this from 2020 after visiting your old school today - really appreciate your concision and clarity, & think it’s a valuable resource to share with teachers. youtu.be/7C7K-r7J6-w?... I wondered if any of your thinking has changed since then? Happy Fri!
youtu.be
researchED Home Pritesh Raichura: Planning Effective Teacher Led Lessons (rED Loom session)
YouTube video by ResearchED
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Adam Robbins @mrarobbins.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
Might be of interest to #cogscisci this is my first bluesky only thread so interested to see how engagement goes
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Christian Moore-Anderson @cmooreanderson.eurosky.social · 01/12/2024
New blog post: ⭐Knowledge doesn't equal understanding⭐ cmooreanderson.wixsite.com/teachingbiol... #UKEd #EduBlogUK #EruditePedagogy #Cogscisci #SciTeachUK
cmooreanderson.wixsite.com
Knowledge doesn't equal understanding
Does knowledge = understanding? This simple equation suggests that the extent of a person's understanding is purely equal to the extent of their knowledge. Proponents of this claim suggest that it gro...
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Ben Preston @prestonscience.bsky.social · 24/11/2024
Update on mum’s book: “A memoir, a love story, a tale of hope and recovery.” Will strike a chord if you know anyone who’s been affected by gambling addiction. Check out her Kickstarter page to support & get your copy when printed👇 www.kickstarter.com/projects/di2... #gamblersanonymous #gamanon
kickstarter.com
Flutter
Publishing a book - a memoir, a love story, and a tale of hope and recovery
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Ben Preston @prestonscience.bsky.social · 24/11/2024
An I right to assume everyone has listened to all of The Coming Storm?
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Ben Preston @prestonscience.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
My mum wrote a book - it’s about her and my dad, and his secret gambling addiction - and the Kickstarter campaign to get it published and printed launches at 8pm tonight! 👇📖💷🙏🏼 www.kickstarter.com/projects/di2... Feel free to share :)
kickstarter.com
Coming soon: Flutter
Publishing a book
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Ben Preston @prestonscience.bsky.social · 06/11/2024
Has anyone in my network here worked in a brand new school in its first few years, and would be happy to tell me about how it went? #edusky #edubloguk #cogscisci #sciteachuk
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Ben Preston @prestonscience.bsky.social · 20/10/2024
I’ll be interested to see the outcome of this survey!
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Ed Durbin @edurbin.bsky.social · 18/10/2024
But at secondary, I think individual departments can square this circle. You can have a shared curriculum but, each year, each teacher (or maybe n experienced planned paired with a new teacher) takes responsibility for one SOW and either improves it or rewrites it - that way you get innovation but..
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Emma Turner FCCT @emmaturner75.bsky.social · 18/10/2024
New blog, "The lost art of planning". thinkingflexibly.com/2024/10/18/t...
thinkingflexibly.com
The lost art of planning
On my travels, I speak to hundreds if not thousands of experienced teachers and school leaders and there’s a common conversation in an, “all roads lead to Rome” way, that always seems to crop up in…
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