Well what an amazing week we had! Apologies for the extremely long post but there is so much to write about! There were so many science and STEM based activities taking place across the school and such a buzz as pupils were enthused in their learning. Thank-you to all, pupils, staff and families that supported British Science Week as you all contributed to making it an outstanding success.
I will start with the three home-school link events that were set. The pop-up science pocket money shop was an incredible success and had lots of visitors every night after school. Many thanks particularly to the STEM Ambassador pupils who stayed behind after school to help run this event. They also got some maths practice at handling money and giving change! The profit raised from the event will be used to further enhance science learning within school and provide needed resources for the after-school STEM Club. We hope to run a similar event in the Summer term as we were so pleased with how it was supported.
The second challenge was to build a balloon powered vehicle and many of you got into the spirit of this one with lots of creative designs. The class winners Jack, Thea, Bethany, Chloe and Holly, and also Katy demonstrated their vehicles in a ‘race-off’ in a whole-school assembly with Katy being victorious. Well done to all who entered.
The final home-school link activity was to email in a science related ‘selfie’ photo to the school office. We had some fantastic entries and the overall winner was Thea, with an excellent demonstration of light reflection. You can see the science selfies below.
Mr Carey, a chemist who is a parent of ours, visited two classes this week to introduce them to the pharmaceutical company that he works for and a career as a chemist. He carried out an investigation with the pupils to test the ph value of a range of different household items and the children very much enjoyed getting involved by predicting if a liquid was an acid or an alkali and then dipping the test strips in the liquid to see what colour they would turn. Also looking at different STEM careers were class 3 and 4 who considered what sort of STEM related job they might like to do in the future and what skills they might need to do so.
Our whole-school challenge was to design a wind turbine that would function for 15 minutes. This was based on the true story of William Kamkwamba, a teenager from a poor family in Malawi who taught himself about wind power and built a wind turbine from scrap materials to provide power in his home and village. William went on to become an engineer after being given the opportunity to study around the world. Once again we had some very innovative and creative designs from all of the classes. The children very much enjoyed designing them and working collaboratively to make them.
Key Stage One had the chance to experience a virtual live lesson delivered by Farm Live! linking tractors to space, This was a very interactive presentation followed up with some work which complemented the unit they have been studying in science on materials.
Another activity that was enjoyed by all the classes was the opportunity to use the microscope set that was on loan from the Royal Microscopial Society. The children were amazed at how different everyday objects looked when they were viewed close up.
Around the school, there were many investigations being undertaken, developing the children’s skills in working scientifically. Foundation Stage investigated what would happen if they put a gummy bear sweet into a beaker of water. There was some great discussion about this and they are definitely scientists in the making! Class 1 carried out an excellent investigation into floating and sinking and recorded their predictions and results in a table. Meanwhile class 2 were investigating the best material to make a waterproof coat or umbrella for teddy and they too recorded their predictions and results in a table.
Finally we extended an open invitation to the school community to help us plant trees and improve the Wildlife garden. As this took place on a Saturday, we knew that some people would have other commitments but we were very lucky in the amount of support that was offered. We planted wild cherry, silver birch and rowan trees that we had successfully applied to receive from the Woodland Trust. In addition, we received a mixture of ten crab apple and hazel trees from Quick and Clarke Hornsea who had pledged to donate them under the Queen’s Green Canopy Scheme. We were also able to install three bird boxes, a number of bird feeders, a bird bath, a bird table and a ‘toad abode’ thanks to our successful bid for funding through Learning Through Landscapes. We sprinkled lots of wild flower seeds, planted bulbs and replenished the old large-scale bug hotel to complement the new bug hotel kindly provided by JP Developers Ltd just a couple of weeks ago. The wildlife garden is looking amazing and will hopefully attract lots of birds, bug and hedgehogs and who knows what else? We are already visited by squirrels quite regularly and there are newts on the pond. The children worked hard all morning and they really are the environmental guardians of the future. We look forward to taking our learning outdoors during the warmer months and fully utilising the Wildlife Garden, especially as we now also have a purpose made tarpaulin and floor carpet to provide a den or shelter.
It really was a fantastic week and I really look forward to seeing what science learning looks like across the school over the rest of the school year. After that I will be planning British Science week 2024!