Science Week
Science Week
Science Week has been wonderfully busy with lots of learning about habitats, change and adaptation. We were also lucky enough to learn from a range of expert visitors who shared their experience of science.
In Reception, the children focused on learning how animals adapt to their different habitats. They considered which features of specific animals make them better suited to certain habitats and why. The children also recapped their learning about how seasons change and how animals change during their life cycle. They also joined Year 1 for a live lesson about biodiversity on a farm.
Year 1 had an online lesson led by the NFU. They looked around Lufti and Ruby's farm and looked at how they have increased their biodiversity. They have planted 3000 trees, built a pond and re-used old vegetables to feed the animals and used their poo as manure to grow more plants. The children thought about how we could encourage more birds around our school grounds and designed and made their own bird feeders.
Year 2 learnt about how different types of birds have different beaks dependent on their diet. They designed and made their own bird feeders with different foods in so that they could observe which types of birds visit each feeder. Dr Chambers, an immunologist, also visited Class 2 on Friday to tell them all about her job. She taught the children about white blood cells and the biological army. We learnt lots about her work to do with skin and the role white blood cells play. Thank you!
Year 3 shared their learning this morning in Celebration Assembly and told us all about how they have observed different micro habitats for minibeasts in the wildlife garden. They discovered the most diverse habitat was under an old decaying log. They found ants, worms, slugs, centipedes, millipedes, spiders and even a ladybird. They also made their own minibeast micro habitats to help increase the biodiversity within our school grounds.
In Year 4, Science Week has been full of Slinkys with children having the opportunity to complete a comparative test, investigating how quickly Slinkys with different diameters move down steps. This led to pupils creating their own Slinkys using paper, changing and adapting materials from traditionally created ones. We finally raced our handmade Slinkys down steps to see which one was the fastest.
Year 5 had a live lesson with astronaut Tim Peake and also a visit from Dave and Emma from Airbus in Stevenage. They learnt many interesting facts about space and all about the Airbus robot which will be going to Mars in 2028. They have even been invited to Airbus for a tour around their facility and to see the ‘Mars Yard’ where they test the rovers. They have also managed to learn about pollinators and to make pollinating containers from recycled plastics such as bottles and food boxes. They planted flowers to attract the pollinators and are hoping to be able to observe more pollinators in the wildlife garden soon.
Class 6 explored the school playground, field and wildlife garden for biodiversity and decided that they should try to attract more pollinators. They set about making a variety of feeding stations and shelters. Their re-purposed plastic designs were totally ingenious and the explanation texts they wrote about them showed how carefully they had thought about ways to attract pollinators to our grounds. A live lesson on Wednesday allowed them to think harder about how farmers are changing and adapting their practices in the light of climate change, and they learned about selective breeding, 'net zero' and the fight against food waste.