STEM Blog

At STEM Club this week we carried out two activities. Firstly we reviewed the different glues we made last week to determine which was the strongest and which would wash off clothing most easily. Having concluded which of our samples functioned the best, we turned to this week’s challenge.

We were investigating whether or not fingerprints are individual enough to be able to use them as a digital register or for example to withdraw books from a school library. The pupils had white and black card, cocoa powder, flour, sellotape and dusting brushes. They rolled their thumb in their choice of powder and transferred their print to sellotape and then onto card. It took a few goes to get clear prints.

Once they had done that, the pupils examined their prints against a set of fingerprint patterns to establish if they had arches, loops or whorls. They then compared all of their prints together to see if they were different to each other, Safe to say that the fingerprints of our STEM Club pupils are definitely individually unique!

Tonight we were investigating different ingredients for making glue (child friendly). The pupils had 3 different sets of ingredients to make their different glues from. When they had made them, they tested them for strength, washability and waterproof properties. The pupils used their glue samples to stick two pieces of cardboard together to test for strength. Next they used each sample to stick two lolly sticks together. When the glue has dried, the sticks will be put in a bowl of warm water to test f the sticks stay together which would suggest the glue is waterproof. The final experiment was to coat small pieces of fabric with each glue sample. When these are dry, the pupils will use warm soapy water to see if the glue comes off. We will complete our results and conclusions next week.

As you can see from the photos, it really was a sticky problem!

We were very excited and proud last week to receive confirmation of our Primary Science Quality Mark award (PSQM). This marks the culmination of a whole academic year of collaborative work within our school to drive teaching and learning of science forward. In order to achieve PSQM we had to formulate an action plan and then work towards achieving the outcomes that we had set ourselves. Areas covered included teaching, learning, subject leadership and wider opportunities for pupils. We were particularly highly commended on our work relating to raising the profile of outdoor learning. We facilitated this through firstly developing our own school wildlife garden and also creating a community planting event of trees in our school grounds that had been obtained through the Woodland Trust. We were also praised for our commitment to increasing pupil science capital through the many enrichment opportunities that we offered to pupils last year. This included the weekly after-school STEM Club, home/school link events during British Science Week, the science pop-up shop, attending two cluster STEM Summits on the environment, workshops in school provided by external visitors such as the Dogs Trust and participation in the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust 30 Days Wild. Our award lasts until 2026 when we will be invited to renew it.

Following on from last week’s work on making toothpaste, this week our STEM Club members were investigating the effectiveness of different toothpaste brands. Each group had samples of Colgate, Aquafresh and Tesco’s own brand toothpaste and had to mark them out of ten for appearance, smell and effectiveness at removing stains. The pupils used the same procedure as last week to test effectiveness. They had a tile with permanent marker on and also black shoe polish. They scrubbed the stains with toothbrushes. We made this a fair test by using the same tiles and toothbrushes and the same amount of shoe polish and marker pen. The pupils also scrubbed at the stains for the same amount of time and did their best to keep the force applied the same each time too. They used a sample of each toothpaste to see which brand performed best in stain removal. Overall both groups decided that Aquafresh amassed the most points across all three categories. The pupils have now completed two out of the eight tasks that they need to do in order to qualify for the Crest Awards certificate and badge for participation in STEM activities.

We then discussed how the Aquafresh toothpaste’s red and blue stripes come out of the tube so uniformly without mixing into the white toothpaste. We thought that this might have something to do with the tube’s internal design so we cut it open to have a look. Unfortunately this didn’t answer our question as the tube turned out to be just a regular tube. We also looked on Youtube to see if there were any videos that could shed some light on our question but to no avail. I have tweeted Aquafresh asking them how this is achieved, so if I receive a response I will post it on the STEM Blog.

Tonight was the first session of the year 5/6 STEM Club for the Autumn term. I was very pleased to welcome back our STEM ambassadors Freddie, Georgina and Evie who have all agreed to be ambassadors for another year. Their contributions last year included helping the younger pupils at STEM Club, promoting STEM events in assemblies, representing Brandesburton School at a cluster STEM summit, running the pop-up science shop and helping with British Science Week. Thank-you for all you did, you certainly made my job easier!

This term the STEM Club is following the Crest Award Scheme. When the pupils have completed eight activities from a wide choice, their efforts will be recognised by a certificate and badge. Tonight’s activity was making, testing and improving toothpaste. The pupils worked in small groups with a baseline ‘recipe’ and prepared their toothpaste. They then had to test its efficiency by using it with a toothbrush to try and remove permanent marker pen and also shoe polish from a tile. After that, they needed to make adjustments to their ingredients to try and improve their toothpaste. They also had the choice of adding red, blue or yellow colouring and lemon or mint flavouring. (Although they weren’t allowed to taste the toothpaste, the flavouring enhanced the smell.) They then gave both their toothpaste formulas marks out of ten for effective cleaning, smell, appearance and texture.

The pupils worked really well collaboratively and showed great communication skills. They positively demonstrated aspects of our school ‘toolkit for life’. They all enjoyed this week’s activity and the opportunity to be real scientists.

Last Wednesday we beat the rain to hold a combined parents/carers and y1/2 STEM Club session. We were also very appreciate of one pupil’s grandparents who had to take two buses to get to us.
First of all we held a family scavenger hunt in the school grounds. This was similar to the one the pupils did last week but with a few surprise additions! Mrs Irvin put her creative hat on and made us a dragonfly, caterpillar, butterfly and snail all on sticks that were then hidden ‘in plain sight’ to bring an extra challenge to the scavenger hunt.

After that, we all moved into the Wildlife Garden where Mr Mallison had been carefully watching over our fire pit fire. Marshmallows on sticks were handed out and the children toasted them in small groups and then sandwiched them between two chocolate biscuits to create S’mores treats. The adults enjoyed these too! Mrs Gell, our fab school cook, had also made buttered jacket potatoes for an extra delicious treat.

It really was an amazing end to our y1/2 STEM Club sessions as we have focussed very much on using our outdoor spaces and Wildlife Garden and addressing environmental issues.

This week saw the pupils at STEM Club searching the school grounds in small groups, eager to tick off items on their list. Hardest to spot were butterfly, caterpillar and snail whereas everyone managed to find a spider web, rough bark and a yellow flower, amongst others. The pupils were also tasked with using the IPads to photograph their finds rather than just tick them off. Top scoring team was Leo, Rupert and Patrick who managed to evidence an impressive 17 items out of 24 on their list.
Look out for next week’s blog post on our final STEM Club session of the year where we are going to have S’mores around our fire pit in our wildlife garden.

This week at STEM Club saw the children making balloon rockets. Working co-operatively in small groups, the children had to inflate their balloon and attach it to a drinking straw that had been fed onto a length of string tied between two chairs. As they released the end of their balloon, they whooshed across the string at a super speed! The children then had to vary the length of string and inflation of the balloon in order to see what impact this had on the performance of their balloon rockets.

This week we were embracing the E of STEM by completing two engineering challenges. Firstly, in groups of four, the y1 and 2 pupils faced the spaghetti marshmallow challenge. The pupils had the same amount of spaghetti sticks and marshmallows and they had to see which group could complete the tallest tower.
The different strategies used and amounts of collaborative working were great to see. Some groups broke their spaghetti sticks up, some kept them whole. Some used individual sticks, some grouped them together for extra strength. Some groups broke up their marshmallows to make them go further and some kept them whole. All groups showed determination and resilience.
Unfortunately we had voted to work outside and it was extremely hot and our marshmallows started to melt resulting in incredibly sticky hands! We decided which group had created the tallest tower and after that we retreated inside to wash our hands and completed separate challenge in the hall.
This time each group had to complete their tower using just three sheets of newspaper and some masking tape. Again everyone tried really hard and I was super impressed by the levels of co-operation. The STEM ambassadors Evie, Freddie and Georgina were on hand to support and guide the younger pupils which again was lovely to see.

This week at STEM Club, we investigated different bubble mixtures to see if more water or less water with washing up liquid produced the best bubbles. We also tried a mixture with a secret ingredient (glycerin!) which made the bubbles last much longer.

The children also had fun experimenting with different objects to make their bubbles including colanders, air-hoc balls, spatulas, cookie cutters and string! They were also able to try and make giant bubbles using hoops joined together with string that were carefully dipped into the bubble mixture in a tuff tray.

The weather was very kind to us and we had a fun hour enjoying our outdoor learning. Some pupils also had a try at leaf and bark rubbings and really enjoyed it. We hope to try and do some more rubbings at our next session.