Science Week Bowmansgreen children enjoyed a week of science; they threw themselves into the work and enjoyed the investigations, a workshop and they also looked after the Bowmansgreen chicks! Below are some highlights of the week. Science Workshop All children attended a Science Workshop where they were treated to an array of science experiments which got the children thinking and asking questions. They saw that a straw can be used as a musical instrument and that the pitch can be increased or decreased dependent on the length of the straw. A short straw creates a high pitch and a longer straw creates a lower pitch. The longer the straw is, then the longer the wavelength of the sound. Believe it or not but this plastic bag was filled full of air from just one breath!
The children became a real live circuit and acted as a switch to turn a light on and off. A surprise was in store when a plastic bottle was unscrewed and suddenly water squirted from numerous small holes at the base of the bottle. This was explained to be caused by air pressure and surface tension.
The grand finale involved firing a water rocket across the school hall. Our visiting scientist used the rocket to demonstrate Newton s 3 rd Law of Motion, where every force has an equal and opposite force. The workshop was fantastic and the children sat in awe as each experiment took place. The science didn t just stop in the workshop but continued in the classrooms Year 1 Sound Investigation We have been thinking about Sound. We asked the question, Do sounds get louder when they are further away? We then predicted what we thought - Kyle said clearly" When they are closer they are louder...when they are further away they are quieter" so we put that in a speech bubble as a conjecture and designed an investigation together to try to prove this. The whole year group went outside with the musical instruments - the drum, school bell, rainshaker and another shaker and the children listened whilst groups of children made noises with the instruments moving further away each time. The children were very excited to be chosen to play the instruments and realised that we needed to use hand signals by the end as we couldn't hear across the field. But the school bell could be heard across the junior playground which led to good discussion as to why it was chosen to end break-time. This investigation led to a lot of discussion and gave the children a good idea as to how to design an investigation and some of the things to think about.
Year 2 The highlight for us was babysitting the newly hatched chicks! The children were constantly amazed to see how quickly they had grown! Fascination prevailed! Words used to describe them were cute, fast, funny, fluffy and chirpy but often they would peck your hand if you put it too close! Our focus this week centred on lifecycles. We learnt how the chicks grow and change, as well as using the laptops to find out more about other lifecycles such as plants and caterpillars. During the science workshops we were amazed to see how far a rocket could travel after launching it tentatively across the hall! A fantastic week had by all.
Year 3 Discovering Chicks! On Tuesday, during Science Week, 3S looked after three chicks for the day. The children were able to gently hold them and they commented on how soft the chicks felt. We discovered that if one child tapped the floor, all three chicks would run towards the sound. This is how a Mother hen lets her chicks know where they can find food. Then the children spent time making sketches of the chicks. The following day, using the class laptops, the children researched how to look after chickens and used this information to make booklets. Year 4 During Science Week we welcomed Bowmansgreen s newest arrivals, Chirpie, KitKat, and Leopardy, into our class for the day. These are the chicks which hatched here at school, and each class has had to share in the responsibility of looking after them. We fed and watered them for the day, and more importantly, made sure they had lots of care and attention (with the odd cuddle thrown in for good measure!) It was lovely having them for the day, and after they left, the room seemed strangely quiet without the sound of their chirping and pecking. As part of Science Week, we performed several experiments in class throughout the week, including writing secret messages to each other! This was really fun.
On Friday we enjoyed our visit with a real-life scientist who showed us all kinds of weird and wacky science experiments. We all were determined to try them at home over the weekend, especially the one where we try to find ways to fit a round biscuit into our mouths! Year 5 In science week, year 5 invented some mechanisms to attempt to slow down the fall of a multilink cube. Year 5 had to show how they were going to make their inventions in their science books. Some children created parachutes and some made propellers. Then they made their diagrams in real life. We found out that the bigger the surface area, the bigger the air resistance and this causes the multilink to fall slower.
Year 6 In Year 6 our aim was to make a safety helmet for a raw egg, that would protect the egg and prevent it from breaking when dropped from a table top onto a hard floor. The question was posed, Can we prevent it from breaking? We tried to be creative in our planning and thought of lots of different types of helmets for the eggs. You can see some of our ideas below.
Overall, Science Week was great fun for the children and we really hope it has sparked an interest in them to want to discover more about the world around them.