Together we believe, together we achieve.
This week we were outside again creating nature collages in support of #30dayswild launched by the Wildlife Trusts. There was lots of creativity shown as rabbits, foxes, trees, butterflies and flowers were re-created using any natural resources that the children could find.
It’s been a busy few weeks at after school STEM Club for year one and two. Unfortunately we had some technological issues which have prevented me from updating the blog so here is a round up of what we have been up to during the last three sessions before half-term.
We gathered lots of materials form our school community in order to create some additional small scale bug hotels in our wildlife garden. The children were really creative with their designs, ably guided by the STEM Ambassador pupils. The bug hotels will provide additional shelter for the minibeasts that live in our garden.
The following week we were trying to support the eco environment by making butterfly feeders. The children had great fun making these and adding the sugar solution to the centres. We had enough resources left over to make up additional kits for other pupils to make their own butterfly feeder over the half-term break too. Hopefully the butterflies will be very much in evidence in Brandesburton and the surrounding areas.
In our last session we learnt about how important bees are to our environment and briefly looked at a simple version of pollination. We watched a video clip that encouraged us all to do ‘the Waggle Dance’ just like the bees do when they are visiting different flowers. We also had time for a story about how a poorly bee was rescued and we discussed how the children could do this (with an adult) if they came across a very tired bee. Our practical activity for this week was making seed bombs. When the seed bombs are thrown or scattered in a suitable area, wild flowers should spring up that will provide additional sources of nectar for the bees.
This week our year 1 and 2 STEM Club pupils were once again out in the Wildlife Garden. Today we were making bird feeders. The first task was to gather some sticks that would serve as the perches for the birds to land on. Next everyone got a cardboard tube to poke holes into the bottom of to push the sticks through. This bit proved quite tricky! After that came the messy bit – the children had to coat the outside of their tube with lard without getting it all over themselves – quite a skill! Then they rolled their tubes in birdseed and added some string to hang them up with. Hopefully they will be really successful in attracting birds to the children’s gardens.
Our lunchtime ‘bug and bird’ club was also in full swing this week. Year two pupils went on a hunt for minibeasts using the lunchtime science bags which contain magnifying glasses, binoculars, tweezers, bug containers and scavenger hunt lists. Also popular was bird colouring, using the bird book to help them identify and colour the birds correctly.
What brilliant weather we had to start off our block of outdoor learning at the y1/2 after-school STEM Club. This half-term we will be aiming to make the most of our school Wildlife Garden after its recent refurbishment. It was a good opportunity to check on the seeds that were sown and the bulbs and trees that were planted as part of our Community Planting Morning back in March. We also topped up the bird bath, birds feeders and bird table at the same time.
This week we briefly discussed what an invertebrate was before the children, ably supervised by the STEM Ambassadors, set off on their own minibeast hunts. We made use of some of the resources contained in the science lunchtime bags that Key Stage One have access to over the Summer term. The resources include lenses, containers, larger magnifying glasses and binoculars. After a great time searching under logs and rocks and in the bug hotels, the children were able to catch some different creatures for a short while to observe them
We also had a go at worm charming by banging sticks against some metal forks stuck into the soil. This created the vibrations that make the worms think it is raining and it brings them to the surface. It certainly worked for us and the children were fascinated by this. All of the children had a great time and can’t wait for next week’s session.
Last Thursday saw the last STEM Club session of the term and the last session for year 3 and 4. Following a recent visit from chemist, Mr Carey, who showed some classes haw to test the ph value of acids and alkalis, we investigated the mixing of an alkali with an acid to see what would happen. We used every day household products which were vinegar (acid) and bicarbonate of soda (alkali). The groups had to work out the best combinations of liquids to create a chemical reaction that resulted in lots of fizzing and foaming. A further investigation was to secure a rubber glove to the top of their bottle that had the bicarbonate of soda in it. They tipped the glove upright to transfer the bicarbonate of soda into the bottle containing vinegar below. They discovered that mixing the two chemicals produced a gas which inflated the rubber glove! The children loved this investigation and it was great to end the term with an investigative science experiment.
Today several pupils from our school including two of our STEM Ambassadors represented us at the STEM environmental summit at Hilderthorpe School. There were a number of local schools there who had all been working really hard on their pledge to improve their local environment and increase their commitment to recycling within school. In addition, pupils in year 4 in each school had been set the challenge of producing a wind turbine that would spin the fastest over 15 seconds and a further challenge for the wind turbine that could lift the heaviest load. We were extremely excited to learn that we won the award for the best Wind Turbine Design and also the award for the greatest impact for the environment. We felt very proud of ourselves. The children delivered their presentation with confidence and enthusiasm and represented our school so well. They were able to talk about all of the recent environmental initiatives that we have put into place such as tree planting and improving the Wildlife Garden.
Here are some of our pupils who attended the event and their thoughts on the morning.
We watched a video recording of a lady called Jenny who is a wind turbine engineer. She answered questions that had been put to her by Hilderthorpe School and our school. We learnt that last year 25% of our electrical power was provided by wind turbines. Jenny has to solve problems when things go wrong with the wind turbines and she said that her love of maths at school has certainly helped with this.
We talked about our re-love reuse sale and we showed the other schools our wind turbines. I loved it when we came 1st place, we were all so happy.
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!
On Tuesday 7th March we had a visit from Russell who works for JP developers Ltd. At the STEM environmental summit that some of our pupils attended in the Autumn term, Russell had offered to supply materials for a bug hotel on receipt of detailed, labelled pupil sketches outlining what they wanted. Our STEM Ambassadors emailed our sketches to him and he was delighted to to come and bring the materials. Not only that, he offered to help the pupils build their bug hotel so they all spent a pleasant afternoon in the Wildlife Garden doing just that. Here are the amazing results.
We look forward to complementing this work when we plant our trees that we have received from the Woodland Trust later this month and also install the toad abode, bird nesting boxes, wildlife camera, bird bath and bird feeders that we obtained through our grant from Learning through Landscapes.
This week at STEM Club we had another engineering challenge. We looked at the work of the engineer Emily Roebling. Then the pupils divided into three teams, each led by a STEM Ambassador. Each team had newspaper sheets, paper clips and card and they had to work collaboratively to build a bridge capable of supporting a 10g, 50g and 100g weight. All pupils rose to the challenge but we did have a clear winner who had made tubular supports for their bridge.
This week we looked at the work of the engineer Gustave Eiffel. We discussed who had visited or been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. We looked at its construction and marvelled at this feat of engineering that was constructed in the 1800’s without the aid of modern technology or up to the minute CAD technology. The pupils were really curious as to how people get to the top and were amazed to discover that there are lifts running up the inside of the framework. We discussed how the base of the tower was shaped for the best stability.
Following that, the pupils split into two teams and were tasked with designing and building their own tower. One team had spaghetti and marshmallows and one team had cocktail sticks and midget gems. They worked really co-operatively to make a stable structure and all of them participated enthusiastically in the task under the watchful eye of the STEM ambassadors.
It was really hard to judge an overall winner as the ‘spaghetti’ team had the tallest tower and the ‘cocktail stick’ team had the most stable, so stickers were given to all and they got to eat the left-over marshmallows and midget gems!
Jack said ‘triangles and pyramids are always strong and are nearly unbreakable’. This appeared to be true as they demonstrated throwing the pyramid part of their structure around the hall and it held together really well.
