Atwood’s Science Week really ‘connected’ with the children- Mrs Gill explains
What a fantastic science week all the children at Atwood have had! They have expanded their knowledge of science and participated in a variety of hands-on science lessons.
All classes have enjoyed a fantastic science workshop by the Science Wizards. They found out how a tin can can be balanced on its side with the help of gravity and how ping pong balls can be kept up in the air using a hairdryer! Some of the children were able to help during the investigations and looked like real scientists wearing safety goggles.
Reception classes have been exploring people who help us. During science week, they explored scientists such as doctors and vets and extended this onto who helps the animals in the ocean. They read the book ‘Ocean Clean up’ and discussed what different jobs a marine biologist does to help keep animals in the ocean safe and keep our environment clean and healthy for the animals to live in. There was even a visit from a sea turtle (Miss Goodey!).
Year 1 went outside to observe the plants they could find in the outdoor environment around the school. They did this by becoming a human camera. Mrs Gill (science leader) was lucky enough to listen to Miss Daulton’s teaching input and was impressed by the children’s knowledge of plants, which they had learnt in previous lessons.
To link with the theme ‘connections’ Year 2 and 6 looked at fingerprints and identified any patterns. Year 2 also continued with their ‘animals including humans topic’ and created a flow diagram of the human life cycle.
Year 3 have been exploring science in many different ways! They explored shadows by going outside and used torches in the classroom to investigate how the strength and distance of a light source can affect shadows, changing the darkness, size and shape. Mrs Gill was also invited into this lesson and enjoyed observing the children participate in their investigations. They used fantastic science vocabulary, great collaboration skills and could make great predications using their scientific knowledge. Year 3 then decided to investigate structures, linking it to the science week theme ‘Connections’. Their task was to create the strongest bridge using just paper and sticky tape, which was a lot of fun! First they found out about different well known bridges from around the world and learnt about what makes them strong and stable. With this knowledge, they created some designs and then worked in teams to create ‘the strongest bridge’ (in other words, the bridge that could take the weight of the most books!). They experimented by rolling, layering and folding the paper in different ways to develop our structures until finally they came up with bridges that they thought would be the best. The winning bridge managed to hold 18 chapter books!
During science week, Year 4 had a deeper look at their unit, Electricity. They created a fact file on Ben Franklin and discovered how he was the first person to study electricity in depth, with his most important findings showing that lightning was electrical! They carried out an investigation to find out whether materials are ‘conductors’ or ‘insulators’. Both classes enjoyed creating the circuits, while adding in each material to test whether they could conduct electricity! Lastly, they had a look at the role of the cell and switch in a series circuit and the effect each of them had on the circuit.
Year 5 read job profiles of different scientists such as technical directors, engineers and an aquanaut. They drew a scientist and then thought about all of the different skills a scientist needed to do their job. Next, they thought about the skills an artist does and discussed how ‘creativity’ crossed over. They talked about why scientists and artists need to think creatively in their roles.
Each year group discovered many new and exciting facts about a scientist, which linked to their current topic.
Don’t forget the science poster competition! The deadline is Wednesday 29th March, so there is still time!
