Last week was the launch of British Science Week. We have been very busy doing lots of different types of enquiries.
Cress Test
This was a fair test enquiry. Does cress grow better in soil or cotton wool?
“We need to put water in it” Clara
“I enjoyed looking at the cress with Safia” Amina
“I like looking through the magnifying glass” Jack
“They are seedlings. They are called cress seeds. If you put water in it it will go into the root so it can grow” Corey
“We put soil in the green pot” Mohtada
“We put cotton wool in the pink pot” Ethan
“When we put the seeds in they growed, they growed in 3 sleeps” Alfie
“Cotton wool didn’t grow the seeds properly” Mason
“The seeds growed in soil” Morgan
Gummy Bear Osmosis
This was an observation over time enquiry. What happens when we put gummy bears in water?
“We put the jelly bears in the water. The one that was in the water went big” Johnpaul
“When you put the water in the red bear turned white” [clear] Alfie
“The one that did not have water it stayed the same” Alfie
“The gummy bear expanded” Amina
Hand size
This was a pattern seeking enquiry. Do our hands get bigger as we get older?
We measured each of our hands and then lined up from the smallest to the biggest hand size. We then chose the middle person to represent our class. Our median hand size is 12.5cm. We asked all the classes in the school to measure their hands too.
“We were measuring our hands” Alfie
“We were testing if our hands get bigger as we get older” Corey
Scrap Vegetable Growing
In our tuff tray we left scrap bits of vegetables and plopped them in some water.
“We were growing carrots and different foods” Mason
Balloon growth!
We observed what happened when we mixed two ingredients together. There was a chemical reaction and gas was formed. This gas expanded the balloon.
“We were doing an experiment. We made a balloon go big because the air” Morgan
“We put [bicarbonate of] soda in the balloon” Emily
“We put the balloon on the bottle of vinegar” Morgan
“It made bubbles.” Oskar
“The powder made the vinegar go fizzy because it mixed together and it made the balloon blow up” Jack
Choosing
During choosing a group of pupils tried out the experiment without adult intervention. There was excellent communication where they had to decide who was going to help do each step so it felt fair.
“We were doing an experiment” Mason
“I was using the blue thing to get it in the balloon and Corey was holding it and Mason was putting it in” Tafari
“We were working as a team” Mason
Certificates
The Primary 7 House Captains hand out certificates every Friday
“The P7s came and give us certificates because we finished our house point chart” Jack
Primary 2 Showcase Assembly
Well done Primary 2 on your assembly celebrating different cultures.
“P2 were doing a show” Georgie-Lee
“It was about chinese [new year]” Emily
“They singed a song” Johnpaul
Maths
We have been looking at place value this week, in particular using base 10 blocks (also known as Dienes blocks)
We count up using this flip card counter
https://ictgames.com/mobilePage/flipCounter/
We enjoyed playing this game https://www.ictgames.com/sharkNumbers/mobile/index.html
You can find online interactive Base 10/Dienes blocks here https://www.coolmath4kids.com/manipulatives/base-ten-blocks
“We were playing a game and when we got 10 blocks we give it to [Miss Copeland] and [she] gives us a stick of 10” Corey
Pupil Council Trip
Amina went on her first trip as our pupil council representative. She met a very brave police officer and dog. The dog was injured while working as a police dog. They are trying to change the law so that there are stronger punishments for people who hurt animals.
“I went to the Parliament and I got to pet a dog. It was a police dog. He got hurt but now he’s better” Amina.
Royal Mile Primary School 