British Science Week at Alveston
In Reception, we learnt about Sir David Attenborough. We discovered that alongside making programmes about animals, Sir David Attenborough has also made programmes about Dinosaurs. (Our topic this half term). We made our own timelines, thinking about how we have changed from birth to school age. We also added Dinosaurs and a Space Rocket to our timeline. Finally, we had an exciting science share with our Year 6 Buddies. Year 6 showed Reception their learning on making a circuit and we shared our knowledge of Sir David Attenborough. Reception Class also went on their first school trip to the Lapworth Museum of Geology in Birmingham. They were able to experience Dinosaur fossils first hand.
Year 1 researched the scientist, Mary Anning who was a famous fossil collector and is known for finding fossils of dinosaurs on the South Coast of the United Kingdom. Year 1 then designed pendulums to measure time. They found out that the shorter the string the faster the swing.
Year 2 learnt about Jane Coldon, a famous botanist, and experimented with apples and cress. We learnt that plants only survive with light and water. On Friday, we got together with Year 1 and shared what we had learnt.
In Year 3, we carried out a scientific investigation into air resistance as an introduction to our work on forces. We also worked collaboratively to solve a problem based on Galileo's work with pendulums. The children needed to construct a time measuring device which could measure thirty seconds as accurately as possible using string, a mass and a metre stick.
In line with our topic, Year 4 considered the adaptations animals have to make over time in order to survive. We remembered our previous topic, “No Planet B” and all the reasons habitats change over time such as deforestation, climate change, farming and extreme weather conditions. Animals must adapt their features and behaviours in order to keep up with these changes. Year 4 took our learning outside by playing a game of moth catcher. We designed our moths to be camouflaged to the habitat of the school grounds. A “moth eater” then came along. If the moth could be seen, it was eaten. This helped us understand the importance of adaptations to survival. Finally, we learnt about the work of Charles Darwin and presented our findings to year 3 as a Science Share.
Year 5 researched all about the scientist Jane Goodall and her amazing discoveries about chimpanzees. On the time theme of Science Week, we researched and compared the different life cycles of birds, mammals, insects and amphibians. We also played a Science Week themed game of categories. We finished off with a lovely learning share with Year 6.
For British Science Week, Year 6 had a busy one! We studied, 'Ice Core Detectives'. We learnt about Antarctic scientists and how they can discover what happened in the past by drilling into the ice and removing layers. Each day we wrote the temperature and drew the weather on a strip of paper. At the end of the week, we layered the strips of paper to demonstrate how air bubbles trapped in ice cores help us to understand what the climate was like in the past. Our current class topic is electricity, so in addition to learning about ice cores, we researched famous electrical scientists and made posters. We investigated voltage and what happens to a lightbulb when we increase the volts. We also enjoyed going to see our Reception buddies for some, 'buddy science' where we shared our knowledge of circuits and circuit symbols. Finally, we finished the week by sharing our week's learning with Year 5.
