Here Comes The Science Bit…
Eager Nursery Hatch A Plan To See Fluffy Ducklings
The Nursery children have witnessed first hand one of the most wonderful aspects of science and nature – the hatching of ducklings in the spring. The children were lucky enough to make several visits to the Reception classrooms to get a close look at the fluffy new arrivals. Being careful not to frighten the ducklings, the Nursery children quietly lined up before taking turns to peek at them waddling about in their cage. The class talked about where the eggs had come from, how we kept them warm under the incubator, and how they broke through the eggshell to hatch. This discussion led on pondering many different lifecycles, including frogs, and we even took a walk over to the pond to see if any frog spawn had appeared. Over the week, the children have looked at lifecycle books together and shared ideas of how many different things actually grow. One child said it was like in ballet class “when we are caterpillars that turn in to beautiful butterflies”. An egg-citing week ended with another eagerly-awaited trip to the Reception classrooms, this time to watch the ducklings swim.
Kerry Chapman, Nursery Class Teacher
Science Experiments Spark Reception’s Imagination
Science in early childhood is about providing experiences that can stimulate young children’s curiosity and motivate them to become interested in their environment and in the mechanisms of nature. Science encourages and teaches children how to discover and wonder about everything in the world around them. This week, the Reception children have been exposed to a range of different science investigations, promoting problem solving, enquiry, experimentation, investigating and hypothesising. The young scientists of tomorrow took part in a ‘floating and sinking’ activity where they made predictions on what would happen to different materials immersed in liquid. It was a great opportunity for the children to understand that things don’t always go the way you think they might. Working together, the children also investigated how they could build a circuit, with the end result of lighting up a bulb. As well as giving Reception the chance to take part in a hands-on scientific experiment, it also gave them the chance to familiarise themselves with some key words and phrases linked to the electrical components they were using. The children also really enjoyed taking on the role of a civil engineer. They looked at pictures of different bridges and designed their own bridges, thinking carefully about the way in which they were structured, what made them strong, and what they wanted them to be used for. It was wonderful listening to the discussions and the engineering language that was being used.
Jessie Millsom, Reception Class Teacher
Year 1 Visit To Weald And Downland Brings History To Life
As part of their fascinating Great Fire of London topic, Year 1 took a trip back in time with a visit to the Weald and Downland Museum at Singleton, near Chichester. An interactive workshop at the museum – called The Fire in the Bakehouse – was fantastic and gave the children the opportunity to pass a leather bucket along a supply line to experience the challenge that this technique posed when trying to stop the fire in Pudding Lane in 1666. Year 1 also got the chance to witness the art of bread-making in yesteryear, seeing how the flour was ground in the working flour mill before getting to sample some delicious, freshly-baked bread, while a look at the ‘Homes from the Past’ exhibit gave the children the chance to compare the building techniques and lifestyles of a bygone era to that of today. The children asked some really interesting questions throughout the day and thoroughly enjoyed their informative visit to the popular museum. Back at school, Year 1 rounded off a wonderful week by showcasing their term’s work in a vibrant and colourful spring assembly in front of their proud mums and dads. The assembly included the children’s work in Spanish, the Fire of London, music, facts about habitats learnt in science lessons, PSHE collaborative dreams and goals in PSHE, and poetry. Confident voices and proud children could be seen and heard throughout. It’s been another great week for Year 1.
Rebecca Lane, Year 1 Class Teacher
Year 2 Engineers Over The Moon With Bridge-Building Prowess
Year 2’s mission to space is coming to an end. Before they returned to Earth, just like the reusable Space X rockets, they finalised their astronomical mission facts about our colossal solar system and beyond. The children’s latest encounter has been exploring the closest lunar rock that orbits our planet, the Moon. The phases of the moon have been discussed and exceptional moon buggy models constructed, ready to share with NASA. Now, scientists, engineers and astronauts are the careers most associated with space, but there’s another key activity far older than the history of human spaceflight that has come onto the children’s radar, the humble craft of sewing. Seamstress Jeanne Wilson, who designed and produced the spacesuits for Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin for their Apollo 11 mission, has been an inspiration to Year 2 as they developed, created, revamped and completed their moon buggies. But before Nasa can accept these incredible models for its Artemis programme, the buggies need to be tested. As part of science week, the children looked into ‘Making Connections’ using bridges. These megastructures have been designed, pillars installed and quality checks undertaken. The superstructures were ready for the lunar vehicles to test. But could our cohort of exceptionally talented future engineers build durable bridges while completing geotechnical analysis and inspecting the site conditions? Discussing the different variables of fair testing was their primary focus and the children were astonished with their constructions and how well they faired. Was it a bridge too far for Year 2? Not a chance!
Charlie Millsom, Head of Year 2
Health-Conscious Year 3 Up To The Breakfast Challenge
Healthy eating was this week’s focus for Year 3 – and when it came to creating brilliant breakfasts, the children were definitely up to the challenge. Building on their term’s work of the importance of healthy minds and healthy bodies, the attention on Thursday turned to the Healthy Breakfast Challenge instigated by the lovely Mrs Martin, who split the children into teams – complete with cool names and snazzy chef’s hats. What followed was a dizzyingly delightful selection of dishes featuring oats, eggs, fruit juice, berries and bacon, and other culinary delights. The finished dishes were judged by our panel of experts – namely Mrs Cryer, Mr Nicholas and catering gurus Marco and Kelly – and all proved to be a huge it! Away from the kitchen, Year 3 have also been celebrating differences during PSHE. With our Diversity Week culminating in a thought-provoking assembly on Monday, the revelled in learning about where their classmates came from, what languages they spoke and the different cultures we associate with and the beliefs and religions we all belong to. Year 3 discovered that celebrating differences helps us unite and educate us.
Robert Grech, Year 3 Class Teacher
Year 4 Dig Deep In Quest For Creepy Crawlies
Intrigued Year 4 headed out into the woods this week on a fact-finding mission as part of their latest science topic. The exciting hunt for invertebrates – commonly known by the children as creepy crawlies – as part of their ‘Living Things and their Habitats’ project was the perfect activity during British Science Week. With magnifying glasses in hand and pencils and clipboards at the ready to record their findings, Year 4 took full advantage of our wonderful and expansive natural environment to search in the grass, under logs and behind leaves to see what invertebrates – or animals without a backbone – they could find in their natural habitats. The eager explorers then used a classification key to identify the various creatures they discovered before noting them down and drawing a sketch. Back in the classroom, the children then looked more closely at the physical form of the bugs they found prior to drawing them in more detail and labelling the different parts of the anatomy. On a damp day, Year 4’s scientific voyage of discovery in the woods bore fruit, with woodlice, spiders, slugs, centipedes, beetles and larvae among the exciting discoveries.
Rosie Dachtler, Year 4 Class Teacher
Bragging Rights On Offer In Year 5 Battle Of The Bots
To mark British Science Week, Year 5 have this week been busy making junkbots. Using a variety of waste materials from home and school, including plastic bottles, cardboard and straws, the aim of the task was to see whose bot could travel along a straight track the quickest. The children showed great enthusiasm, industry and creativity to build their bots during their science lessons. The bots were powered using an electric motor connected to an eccentrically attached cork designed to cause the vehicle to vibrate its way along the track. It was at this point that the children had to use a process of trial and error to work out the best position for the power pack and cork to ensure their bot travelled in a straight line rather than going round and round in circles.
Peter Hesselmann, Year 5 Science Teacher
Year 6 Classwork Brought To Life At The Science Museum
As part of British Science Week, Year 6 had an eye-opening trip to the Science Museum in London on Tuesday. The visit to one of the capital’s great museums gave the children the chance to visit myriad galleries featuring work they have covered over the past 18 months. Part of the trip was allocated to the WonderLab: The Equinor Gallery – a large interactive workspace on the top floor of the museum which is dedicated to amazing live science shows and demonstrations and covers physics, chemistry and biology. In the Wonderlab, the children used simple pulleys to lift themselves off the floor to hang in mid-air, observed how differing amounts of friction affect the speed they could travel on a slide, and were even involved in a chemistry demonstration with dry ice (something Mr Backhouse will be attempting in one of his own science lessons next term). This was followed by a rocket demonstration which tested the children’s knowledge of elements and their properties before being treated to a variety of explosions and testing projectiles based on their density. Year 6 found it to be an incredibly enjoyable and worthwhile visit to the Science Museum and were amazed how much they crammed in the space of just a few hours!
Oliver Hamilton, Head of Science
World Of Wonder As Year 7 Visit Museum’s WonderLab
On Thursday, it was the turn of Year 7 to venture into London to take in the brilliant Science Museum as part our British Science Week activities. After delays caused by strike action, the children were eager to witness the WonderShow, a rocket demonstration which had plenty of loud bangs, bright explosions and projectiles being fired in their direction! This was followed by their slot in the WonderLab, which was the undoubted highlight of their trip – a whole hour of hands-on investigative and practical work from the three Science disciplines – physics, chemistry and biology! The afternoon provided Year 7 with opportunities to visit the ‘Exploring Space’, ‘Medicine’ and ‘Flight’ galleries, where they searched for answers to various questions selected from the many specimens and donations on display. They learned about horrors of medieval medicine, dissection and autopsy, chance discoveries leading to scientific breakthroughs, the advancement of technology in the development of the aeroplane, how man made it to the moon, and even the fascinating V1 and V2 rocket programme which sparked the Race to Space at the end of the Second World War. In the classroom, Year 7 got to study a lung dissection as this term the children have learned about the different body systems and how they work together. Part of this topic covers the respiratory system, learning about the adaptations of the lungs, the effects of exercise on our lungs, and how to keep healthy. The children observed a demonstration of a sheep’s lungs being inflated, noting the size at full expansion, the cartilaginous trachea with its U-shaped structure and linked this back to the work covered on the circulatory system and the proximity of heart in relation to the lungs, discussing the relative thickness of both ventricles and seeing first-hand why these vary so greatly.
Oliver Hamilton, Head of Science
Year 8 Get A Reaction On Issue Of Iron Ore
Year 8 have been studying chemical reactions this half term. To finish off the topic, and with a nod to British Science Week, the children looked at the application of displacement and Redox reactions in displacing metals from their ores using carbon. They specifically looked at getting iron from iron ore in a blast furnace and the conditions needed for the reaction. We discussed the need and purpose of this process and why most metals on Earth are found as ore. To demonstrate this in action, a mixture of carbon and copper oxide was heated using a bunsen burner. The children could see pinkish-brown copper being formed along with carbon dioxide gas. This showed that the copper oxide had been reduced to copper and gave the children visual proof on the theory being taught.
Oli Backhouse, Year 8 Science Teacher
