A journey into Science Week
From 8-17 March we took part in British Science Week, a fantastic chance to inspire the scientists, engineers and mathematicians amongst all of us. This year’s theme was ‘Journeys’. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the opening of the Tunnel, the British Science Association partnered with Eurotunnel with the aim of sharing knowledge and excitement about this ambitious engineering project with a new generation. Check out these amazing facts about Eurotunnel, the longest undersea tunnel in the world.
Here’s a glimpse of the exciting things we got up to around school.
The JOURNEY of the caterpillar
This week early years have been discovering more about the journey a caterpillar makes during its life time. We have our own class caterpillars which we have been watching closely and making notes of any changes we can see. We made butterfly finger paintings and caterpillar models in art and Orson even made a pupa out of playdough. The children have also made a time capsule that is not to be opened until 2025 when Reception are in year 6 (Gulp!) When they open the capsule it will take them on their own journey through time as they look back fondly at their time in Early Years.
The journey of a plastic bag
Year 1 found out about the journey of a plastic bag. They understand now how important it is to recycle and reuse so the plastic does not end up in the oceans.
A watery journey
Year 2 are working on a book called "Beware of the Storybook Wolves" where two wolves make a big journey and jump out of the book to make a huge watery mess for Herb to clean up.
We gathered together materials to test for absorbency. We had to find out which material was the most absorbent and which would then be most helpful to Herb. We were careful to make the test fair by measuring out carefully the amount of water we used.
What do Scientists do?
A Lunar Lego journey
At the Year 3/4 Lego workshop the children worked in pairs sharing the work to build a lunar rover. They had to follow instructions carefully and work as a team. Afterwards they had free play with Lego bricks, making some wonderful imaginative creations.
Year 4/5 have thoroughly enjoyed science week. An interesting variety of scientific journey posters have been designed as well as enjoying a Lego workshop where we made Lego “lunar models “ in small groups. We have continued with our light topic too and carried out experiments with water and pictures to show the effect of refraction. We couldn’t resist designing some paper planes and seeing if we could get them to fly from the far wall in our classroom down the fire escape (none did but some flew very close!).
The journey of electricity
Year 6 were working on the journey of electricity. We were investigating static electricity using balloons and plastic rods and cloths.
Our Science Week posters
During Science week, we asked children to design a poster showing a journey. They were asked to interpret this as they wished with some link to Science. Here are some examples of these. They had some very creative ideas.
