St James’ Science week went off with a BANG this year!
The whole school joined in with the ‘If I were an engineer’ competition – more news to come about some special winners! Our children joined live events, questioning real life engineers and what they do for work. There is a big push at the moment to inspire more girls to join the engineering field so it was great to see so many girls and boys feeling inspired to be engineers and engineering their own invention.
We also were joined by a representative from Wessex Water, who met with every year group and held a whole school assembly.
Reception and Year 1 looked at how we use water e.g. drinking, washing, cooking and toilets and had a demonstration of ‘sewage soup’ (how we make water dirty as we use it) and then where it goes to be cleaned.
Year 2 looked at how plants need water, light and a suitable temperature to grow and stay healthy. The children then joined in an activity called Flower Power, where children coloured flower petals, folded them and put them in water trays and then observe them opening as they absorbed water. They also looked at the questions, where is water in the world? Is all water the same? Where do humans get there water from? Can you drink water from rivers and seas?
Year 3 compared and grouped together different kinds of rocks on the basis of their appearance and simple physical properties. They investigated what happens when we put water on them and measured how much water would infiltrate through in a set time.
Year 4 explored the water cycle and how we can look after our water and water usage.
Year 5 investigated Stop The Block where they investigated what happens to different materials when flushed (The Shake Test) linking to the properties of materials.
Year 6 looked at the micro-organisms that are used to treat our waste water and the process water goes through.
We also owe a huge thank you to all of our parents who came in as experts in their field, to show our children just how exciting science can be; how it is accessible to all and that it can be fun! We had a vast range of experts from an occupational therapist discussing amputee rehab and prosthetics, Military scientists showing us how we use science in the military, surgeons taking us through knee and hip replacement surgery and what a knee joint looks like, a neuroscientist talking us through the brain and our sensory systems, a cardiologist showing us the anatomy and physiology of the heart and a scientist showing us how we can manipulate sounds with computers and how to record noise using a microphone.
Wow, wow, wow. We are so lucky as a school to have so many scientists in our community and the key message that each child took away from the week was that anyone and everyone is a scientist.
Please enjoy a selection of photos from our fantastic science week.
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