Science
Exploring our school environment to see what impact we have on it and consider how we can make positive changes. We were shocked to see exactly how we’ve damaged the outdoor classroom area and how that has contributed to the playground flooding when it pours with rain. We made some terrific observations and great suggestions for our future actions.
Digestion
A practical model of the human digestive system
There was A LOT of ooohing, bleughhing and squealing during this session!
Using cutlery, we simulated the different teeth ripping, shredding, crushing and mushing, mixing the food with saliva before each 'mouthful' was swallowed. The bolus travelled down the oesophagus to the stomach where it was met with an acid attack. Here, we acted as the stomach muscles that pummel and pound the food until we considered the chyme clean enough to pass into the small intestine where digestion actually occurs. The tiny holes in the tights acted like the walls of the small intestine as we could see the 'goodness' pass through them. The final stage - the large intestine - gave the most gore as we absorbed the water from the leftover waste to form a semi-solid lump. Cutting the toe off the tights meant we could even simulate the toilet trip!
It's not every school day that you get to poop on the desk!
Engineers of the future
This morning we had a visit from Dr Irene, Engineering Lecturer, from Lancaster University.
Dr Irene set a series of engineering challenges, the first being to see if we could fit ourselves through a sheet of A4 paper! Many groups managed to get 1 person through but with Dr Irene’s “thinking outside the box” and “problem solving skills” we managed to squeeze 10 children through one sheet of A4 paper at the same time!
Our next engineering feat was to protect a magic apple. The children had to design a way of protecting the apple and slowing it from a high fall. If the apple was to get damaged it would loose its magic powers!
The groups of children had a limited amount of resources and needed to design a parachute like structure to slow the fall.
The children learnt about the force of friction.
The most successful groups had a circle shaped parachute with a strong, fixed frame to maximise the wind resistance and create drag.
Overall we learnt that engineers create many prototypes before they have a finished product. They learn through sharing ideas, making predictions, observing others, solving problems, cooperation and are resilient.
Living Things and their Habitats
Our first dip into this learning took us outside on a glorious day to see what living things we could find in our school grounds and where. It as a terrific opportunity to venture into our newly cleared and redesigned pond and wild area. We learned quickly that our outside voices scared away many living creatures but our observing eyes still discovered lots.
An introduction to dichotomous keys through simple sorting using questions that require a yes/no response.
