This week our children became scientists of Sacriston as they celebrated British Science Week!
Our Reception children loved learning about the importance of water, including how water survives and why people need clean water. The group made their own water purifiers and were amazed at how much dirt they had managed to separate!
Key Stage 1, Year 1 and 2 used their tastebuds to investigate the taste of irregularly shaped fruits and vegetables. They wanted to find out whether the way food looks affects how it tastes. After examining perfect and wonky fruit and vegetables, the children predicted which they thought would taste better. They then tasted the fruit and vegetables, unaware of which was which - most children could not tell the difference!
Over in Year 3, pupils looked at the impact that plastic has on the world. The group were extremely passionate about the importance of recycling properly! They investigated four different plastic samples to define and classify them as recyclable or not.
Robert was very shocked to find out that microbeads of plastic that are found in many products such as toothpaste, make their way through sewers into our oceans.
Year 3 then debated about which straws were best to use and concluded that metal were the best over plastic or paper. The class finished off their learning by testing the buoyancy of natural materials to take a look at what future innovation could look like as the world fights excessive plastic use.
Our eldest children in Year 6 celebrated British Science Week with an afternoon full of activities. Their main focus was checking the reliability of ‘facts’ on the internet. Lucy said: “Even if you see photos they could be photoshopped and edited.” She then added: “You should look for more than one source and use trusted sources such as scientific journals and approved websites.” As a Rights Respecting school, this activity linked well to Rights Respecting Article 17 - The right to information that is not harmful.
Year 6 are currently studying ‘Frozen Kingdoms’ as part of their topic learning so during the week they looked at the impact of climate change in Antarctica. After reading a BBC News article about a huge iceberg piece bigger than London breaking away, pupils looked into how ice melts. The class discovered that different variables affect the rate that ice melts after conducting an experiment with ice cubes and salt.
We were very proud of how hard our super scientists worked!