Science Week 2023

We launched our week by reading a book called ‘Not all Scientists Wear Lab Coats’ and talked about what a scientist is and challenged the different stereotypes that we might associate with scientists. We were really pleased that many of our children did not talk about scientists being older, eccentric gentlemen with wiry hair and a lab coat.

Each class thought of questions that we would like to ask a scientist and then Mrs Maynard answered these questions in an assembly as she worked as a scientist in a lab before she became a teacher.

EYFS

The Happy Hedgehogs were busy learning about space. They created rocket mice and propelled them from plastic bottles. They enthusiastically talked about how larger bottles made the rockets travel further as there was more air. They also learnt about the scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock.

Year 1

The Fantastic Foxes learnt about everyday materials. They made predictions about which material they thought would be the most common around school, and which would be the least common. To help them with this, they looked around their classroom and identified where the following everyday materials could be found: metal, plastic, glass, wood, rock and water. They used this knowledge to inform their prediction of what they would discover when they went around the school.  The Foxes discovered that they were correct with their prediction of the least common material, but most of them were incorrect with their prediction of the most common material. They talked about why this was and realised that it was ok to be wrong and that it helps them to learn! They learnt about the scientist Caroline Haslett.

Year 2

The Marvellous Mice learnt about different categories of animals and how to sort them into different groups. They also been learnt about what a food chain is and used their knowledge of what animals eat to create food chains of their own. They also learnt about the scientist David Attenborough.

Year 3

The Super Squirrels learnt about the scientist Mary Anning and carried out their own research to find out more about her. They also learnt about the Greek philosopher, Archimedes. They learnt about the story of Archimedes in the bath and water displacement. They investigated what happened to water levels when different amounts of blocks were put into the jug. They also made boats to see how many pennies they would hold.

Year 4

The Brilliant Badgers read about the scientist Sau Lan Wu, a Chinese American particle physicist. They also learnt about sound and how it travels. They had great fun making telephones to investigate this. They tested a range of situations, such as whether sound could travel around a corner and if there was a knot in the string.

Year 5

The Outstanding Otters read about the life of Sir Isaac Newton and how he discovered gravity. They had a great afternoon investigating air resistance by making different parachutes. They had a discussion about different variables and the difference between dependent and independent variables. The children worked in groups and chose their own independent variable to change and then ensured they kept the others the same to have a fair test. Later in the week, the Otters had a STEM workshop with the RAF as organised by the Smallpeice Trust. This session supported their previous learning about gravity and air resistance and allowed them to improve their collaboration skills. They worked in small teams to make their own rockets which they could blow from a straw. They investigated the effect the angle of launch would have on the rocket’s trajectory.

Year 6

The Dynamic Deer learnt about Alexander Fleming. They also investigated how mirrors reflect light and created their own versions of kaleidoscopes. The children used their maths knowledge and carried out an investigation which looked into the relationship between the angle between two mirrors and the number of objects which could be seen. They formed predictions, conclusion and drew line graphs about their results, too.