Science Week 2021
Class 3
In Class 3, albeit a little of a whirlwind as the children finally returned to school this week, they all had an amazing time during Science week this year. We had to stay within our class bubbles, rather than working in mixed ages like last year, but the children still had a great time exploring innovation and engineering! The message behind this year’s science week has been ‘innovating for the future’! We explored how innovation is a part of people, materials, animals, nature or anything else in our everyday lives and it has been wonderful watching the children work together and show kindness and love towards one another, even after so long apart!
To continue our ongoing Science unit of ’Light and Dark’, the children watched a shadow puppet theatre on YouTube and they described how the shapes are formed (by the light source shining behind the puppets, which cast a shadow on the screen as they’re blocking out the light!). The children then designed, engineered and performed their own shadow puppet theatres! They had to think carefully about the shapes they are creating as they will only be able to see the shadows not the features (e.g. if they wanted their puppets to have eyes, they had to cut them out). The children also experimented with what happens when they moved the puppet nearer or further away from the light source!
Today, the children investigated what would happen if they left an old coin in a salt and vinegar solution for 10 seconds! They quickly realised that a chemical reaction was happening, and it was a great way to clean the coins! This is how cleaning products are innovated! The vinegar made the pennies shiny. Pennies become dull over time as copper on the surface reacts with oxygen from the air. The two elements combine to form dark chemicals called copper oxides. The acetic acid in vinegar dissolves these chemicals and leaves the copper surface of the penny looking shiny!
Class 2
For British science week we did a few experiments that linked to our science topic this term: materials. We used different resources to see which would be best to protect an egg if it was dropped. We discussed as a class how the materials needed to be strong and flexible enough to wrap around the egg, but also shock absorbing so the egg didn’t crack. Working in pairs, we created different egg protectors using materials such as wood, plastic, metal and cardboard. We made it a fair test by dropping all the eggs from the same height and at the end of the lesson we ranked our egg protectors from the best to the worst protection. We really enjoyed this!
We also investigated how different methods can make ice melt quicker. We discussed the changes of state that occur and how water particles change between a solid, liquid and a gas. We went outside and had to work as a team to represent the particles in each matter of state that water could be in. Then we used our new knowledge of particles and applied different methods to try and get a block of ice to melt. We linked this investigation to our science topic of this term by wrapping some of the ice cubes in different materials such as tin foil, bubble wrap and cling film. As a class we decided that the hairdryer was the best method as it applied the most heat to the block of ice over a short period of time. We were very competitive!
Early Years
We had a fantastic time celebrating science week in Class 1. Our classroom magically turned into the ‘Rainbow Lab’ where we explored rainbows. We carefully observed what happens to skittles when they are placed in warm water. Skittles are coated in food colouring and sugar. When you pour water over the skittles the coloured coating dissolves spreading through the water. The colour and sugar dissolve into the water and then diffuse through the water, making it the colour of the skittle. We were amazed by the reaction.
We also grew our own rainbows. Capillary action is what causes the water to move up the paper towel. Water adheres to the walls of the small vessels in the paper towel, causing an upward force on the liquid at the edge. In simpler terms, capillary action allows liquid to move through or along the surface of another material (the wall) in spite of other forces such as gravity. It was almost by magic a rainbow appeared! (We all know it is science)
