Compare and Group Together Everyday Materials on the Basis of Their Properties
Children in Team AF and LL recapped their learning and knowledge of properties of materials. They revisited and defined property language such as: insulating, magnetic, flammable, permeable, flexible, magnetic and absorbent. The children collected a range of materials and suggested a range of tests they could carry out to test certain properties. Pupils developed their own recording methods and criteria for testing and measuring. They compared, described and sorted a range of materials by their properties. Pupils recorded their findings and fed back to the class.
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This year the theme for science week is ‘growth’. This can be interpreted in many different ways from the growth of an animal or plant to the growth of the population on our planet! Here at Park Street we all took part in a variety of activities to celebrate this! Firstly, Year 1-6 all took part in the annual poster competition following the theme of 'growth'. Each class interpreted this in their own way and produced some amazing pieces! Alongside this, each class carried out an investigation in their teams following this years theme. If this wasn't enough, we also took part in 'smashing stereotypes'. This allowed the children to be introduced to a variety of careers in science and given the opportunity to learn about some amazing men and women who have contributed to this field. This certainly created a buzz for jobs in this field and left many of our children feeling aspirational! During this session, the class discussed how sometimes our growing bodies use rules and guesses when they look at or experience something. To test this, the children were shown the Jastrow illusion and asked which arch was bigger. Unanimously, the children all believed that B was bigger. To test this children cut out each arch, swapped their position and laid them on top of each other, eventually concluding that they were both the same size after measuring with a ruler. We then investigated the Ebbinghaus illusion. Again, children all thought that the largest orange circle was in the smaller flower. To prove that they were in fact both the same, we cut them out. Extending from this activity, children created their own illusion using two 10cm lines. We discussed why one line appeared longer than the other despite knowing that they were the same length. As a class we explored how our brain can sometimes work so quickly that it seeks to make links that are not actually a true reflection of the experience at hand.
Today we have set up some experiments that we will measure over time. The first one is called the naked egg. We placed an egg in a jar and filled it with white vinegar and we will observe what happens over the space of a week. Initially we saw lots of bubbles on the eggshell so we assumed that the acid in the vinegar was dissolving the shell. The second experiment is to look at bacterial growth. We sliced some potato and placed them into zip lock bags. Into bag 1 we placed a slice of potato that had been coughed on. Into bag 2 we placed a slice of potato that had been rubbed on the floor. In bag three we placed a slice of potato that had been rubbed on someone's hands. Into bag 4 we placed a slice of potato with some flour. I wonder what the slices of potato will look like after a week? What would you expect to see? Watch this space... This half terms focus enquiry is observation over time. In Team JF we decided to observe changes to cress plants and what the best condition for them to grow in could be. We each planted our own cress plant, using seeds, cotton wool and a plant pot. Next, each table was given a condition to grow their plant in: blue table had no light, green table were inside, pink table had no water and yellow table were outside. After one week we had a look at our cress plants and found out that yellow tables cress plants grew the best. Our enquiry focus for this half term is problem solving. Problem solving in science involves children thinking creatively to implement a solution to a problem from a scientific perspective. It often includes and is centred on a ‘big question’ for children to investigate. Our big question in Team CB was “What is the best structure to protect an egg from breaking?” Using a basic set of supplies, in teams the class had to collectively design and create a holder for an egg that would be dropped from a given height. The class had time to create an initial design before we went outside to test our structures. We had some success but some structures needed further refinement. As such, the class were given time to problem solve and make amendments to their design, taking what they had learned from successful designs. We then tested a second time where we had a higher rate of success in protecting the egg. To conclude the session, we discussed what structures worked best and discussed the need for “absorption”, “compactness” and “security”.
This half term, Team LF have focussed on sound. They were given the challenge of using their knowledge of sound (including pitch and loudness) to design and create their own instruments. Each group had to think carefully about how their instrument would make quiet, loud, high and low sounds. Through using junk modelling items, the class worked in small teams to design, make and evaluate their instruments (string, wind or percussion). This half term the amazing scientists in Team JF were presented with a problem. They received a letter from some very upset goats pleading for their help! The goats had their bridge destroyed and couldn't get to the field as the mean troll was stopping them! Team JF knew they had to help! They decided to design the trolls a new bridge to get them across to safety. The children had to think really carefully about the design of their bridge to ensure it was suitable to cross. First we looked at a range of designs from curved, straight, narrow and wide bridges. From this we studied the materials they were made from and started our creations! The mini scientists in Team JF have been working incredibly hard to investigate sinking and floating. The children started off in their groups observing the materials they were testing and making sensible predictions. From this, they discussed how they could make it a fair test and decided on the best way to carry out the investigation. The children were absolutely amazing throughout and remained very professional! As the investigation drew to a close, we looked at our findings to see if we had made the correct prediction and thought carefully about what we would change if we did it again. I think it is fair to say we have some incredible scientists in our team! |
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April 2024
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