Science

We are Science investigators

As part of our Electricity unit, Year 6 pupils have been investigating if different components affect the brightness of a bulb. Pupils planned their investigation, looking carefully at the variables and how to ensure to make it a fair test. Pupils then used different components to test the brightness of a bulb… great work Barley class!

Year 4 - The Water Cycle

In science we have been learning about how water constantly changes from solids, liquids and gases through the water cycle. to help the children understand about evaporation, condensation and precipitation we made it ‘rain in a bag’ by putting some water in a bag, sticking it to a window and watching it. Try it at home and see for yourself!

Magnetic Materials

Today in year 3 science we have been looking at which materials are magnetic, and whether a magnet would attract or repel them. We made predictions on each material and then tested them with our magnets to gain a result.

“I recalled that magnets have two sides, and now I know they are called the North and South Poles”
“One of the materials surprised me with the result because it repelled and I really thought it was going to attract the magnet”
“I loved using the magnets around school to see which materials were magnetic” 
“If we made a hide and seek game for year 1 using magnetic materials, I would hide a paper clip for the magnet to pick up”

Year 4 Changes of State

The children had lots of fun learning about changes of state from solids to liquids to gases. We played a game where they pretended to be particles and they had to move to show the different states of matter.

Taster Session

Our New year 6 pupils went to Healing Academy this week to take part in a taster session with a Science theme! They had a great morning completing a range of Science based activities!

Georgia O’Keeffe

In art this week we created our own Georgia O’Keeffe inspired abstract drawings. 

In a framed section, we sketched what we could see, including the lines and outlines of shapes into one of the rectangles. We then chose one composition to draw as a final piece on a larger scale. This linked to work we had already completed in science linking to plants, so we could already scientifically name the different parts we were drawing. 
“I used oil pastels to shade my art work in”
“I chose to draw the leaf”
“I liked looking at all the different flowers that people have grown for our school to look nice”

Anglian Water

Year 3 and 4 had a great morning with Anglian Water. We met with Richard and Caroline who talked us through the work they do from making the water clean to how we can be more water efficient.

Caroline did a filtration experiment with us like Anglian water do to clean their water and explained the process from the screening, to coagulation and air flotation just to name a few.

"I will definitely be telling my family to be more water efficient"
"My favourite fact was that we can waste a bucket and a half from just letting the tap run when we brush our teeth."

Learning Share

This morning, we had our learning share. We had different activities set up all linking to different parts of our curriculum. We had to label a skeleton, find artefacts and label European countries with their flags just to name a few. Pumpkin class and staff would like to thank everyone who came to our event today! 

"Lovely morning, especially the wonderful singing"
"Brilliant, really enjoyed seeing what the children do in school"
"The children seem to really enjoy this year, well done Miss Purshouse" 
"It is so lovely to come into school and have the opportunity to see the children's learning" 

Investigating Refraction

Today, in year 6, we were being scientists 🧑‍🔬 We have been investigating refraction and how light changes direction when travelling through different mediums. We worked in teams to predict, investigate and observe the effects of refraction by viewing images through a glass of water. We noticed that the image flipped upside down or even completely disappeared!

Year 1 Plant Life Cycles

This week Year 1s have begun their plant studies in Science by reading a story called ‘The Tiny Seed’.

The story gave us information about the growth and re-growth of a sunflower. We have been making our own life-cycle pictures by sequencing real photos of sunflowers. Next week we will be planting our own and helping them to grow.

Child 1: The story goes round and round and round again.
Child 2: I liked when we pretended to be a seed floating in the air and then growing in the ground.
Child 3: I think it’s sad that the sunflower goes droopy and dies. But the seeds live on so it’s happy.
Child 4: I worked with my partner as a team to get the cycle right.

Body Parts

As part of our science learning this term Year 1s have been learning about different parts of the body.

We had fun labelling our friends!

Pupil 1: It was so funny sticking labels on our friends!
Pupil 2: I learnt what elbows do
Pupil 3: We had to write and read the labels too

Daisy Class Science Experience

This week Daisy class enjoyed a VR activity. This involved using headsets to experience the virtual reality of the scientific world. We learnt about global warming and climate change. Back in class children were able to talk about how they would contribute towards saving the planet. These are some of our ideas:

Pupil 1: scooting to school instead of using the car.
Pupil 2: recycling our plastic waste.
Pupil 3: having a shower instead of a bath.

Yorkshire Wildlife Park

As part of the learning this term in year 4, we have focused on the rainforests of the world and the biodiversity found there. To enrich the classroom learning in this topic, we took a trip to the Yorkshire Wildlife Park. While there, we had an excellent education session, that consolidated our knowledge about the layers of the rainforest and we even got to handle some creatures. After a rainy start, the weather cleared and we toured the park, trying to spot animals that we might see in the rainforest, as well as other habitats. Around the park there was lots of information about where the animals came from, what their type of diet was and if they are endangered, linking to our work on habitats, food chains and conservation.

Science Week

Buttercup Class

We have been exploring how creatures can camouflage themselves for protection or to sneak up on their prey.
We mixed paint to make crocodile colours
We printed using different things to make the texture of the crocodile’s skin.
We used different materials to create habitats for crocodiles.
We enjoyed looking at photos trying to spot the camouflaged animals.

Sunflower Eco Warriors!

The Sunflowers really enjoyed an amazing Virtual Reality workshop led by Carys Jones from the Education Group. They virtually visited the planet Earth and were guided by the expert droid Glido and his friends. Glido brought to their attention the important topic of climate change. The children discussed real-life issues such as pollution, over-fishing, agriculture and plastic waste.

‘Disappearing Dinos’

The Year 2 children got involved in some debating and research about the extinction of dinosaurs.  Before they looked in books and went on the internet, they discussed their own scientific theories about what they thought had happened to the dinosaurs long ago.

J- I think that the dinosaurs are extinct because there was a meteorite, exploding volcanoes, a sand storm and a flood. I think it was so powerful that it killed all the dinosaurs.

N- I think an asteroid hit the Earth and that killed them.

B- Maybe they all got eaten by cave men who killed them.

N- I found out that there was an ice age and I think the cold conditions would’ve been too hard for the dinosaurs to survive.

Year 3

For Science week pumpkin class have had a go at making their own biodegradable plastic. This experiment linked with science week the theme of 'time' but also our English book 'One Plastic Bag. We learnt that plastic takes many years to decompose; causing land pollution. Therefore, biodegradable bags are more environmentally friendly, reducing pollution.

Pumpkin class had a great time during the VR workshop. We got to see how global warming is changing the world and what we can do to become more environmentally friendly. We followed this workshop up by creating our own ECO manifestos of what we will do to help the environment.

"I wrote about walking to school more and reducing by carbon footprint"

"The VR headsets were SO cool!"

"It was so fun!"

"In my manifesto I am going to stop asking my mum to buy be clothes to reduce the production of fast fashion"

Year 4

During science week, each class got to experience a fantastic immersive VR experience. The children got to travel without having to leave the room, through the magic of the headset. The VR experience was about conservation and caring for our planet. We continued our learning about this as we went back to the classroom and researched endangered animals.

Year 5

This year's Science week focus was 'time'. In the classroom we learnt all about pendulums. We learnt about why pendulums are used and where we might see examples of pendulums in everyday life. We then made our very own pendulums and investigated how we could change the speed of the movement. We were also very lucky to participate in a VR headset session. The children discovered different ways that they could reduce their carbon footprint and saw the impacts of climate change.

Year 6

Barley class had a wonderful experience at our VR workshop, learning all about the environment !! We got to see how global warming is changing the world and what we can do to become more environmentally friendly.

Virtual Reality Workshop

We were so lucky to experience VR glasses to go on an adventure looking at our planet.  We shared what we thought of this experience.

C “liked the robots telling us about rubbish and packaging.”
R “I saw  the Earth and the robots called it a planet.”
N “I saw the whole planet.  I saw everything.  It looked amazing.”
FD “There was a speed car.  It was electric.”
M “The robots showed different parts of the world.”
T “The robot’s hands were so realistic.”
MC “They showed us how rubbish was in the deep sea.”
M “The coral has changed colour and died”

Science Field Trip

This week Year 1 visited The Deep as part of their science learning about animals.

The children had an amazing time using their Geography skills on the way, spotting landmarks and got very excited as we crossed The Humber Bridge!
Once in The Deep we explored different animals and used our categorising skills to find mammals, fish, birds and amphibians.

We also learnt from a teacher their about the differences between sea turtles and river turtles.

Take a look at our photos.

Children shared their learning with these comments:

Pupil 1: I loved the swordfish best of all, we got see underneath it as it swam past us in the bubble lift.
Pupil 2: I liked helping out with the turtle story.
Pupil 3: I liked the teeny, weeny jellyfish; they were just so small!
Pupil 4: My favourite were the penguins because one dived into the water.
Pupil 5: I’ve learnt about the claws on the river turtle and I liked making my turtle too.

Pumpkin Class Plant Trees

Today Paul from NELC came to school to help us plant 4 new apple trees.

The project was launched by NELC to help increase the canopy cover across our borough, which is currently one of the lowest in the country.
Paul talked us through each step of planting a tree which links to our science topic of planting. We hope one day we can use the produce off these trees in our cooking club to help us towards being more sustainable. 

What makes a bed Comfy? Science Investigation

We agreed that a good bed should be soft and comfortable and keep us warm
We explored a range of materials to try and find the best materials.  We discussed the different textures and feel of a range of materials eg soft, squishy, bumpy, fluffy, scratchy, hard, cold, snuggly.

Outside we used materials to make a bed. It was not comfortable. It was hard, cold and the sack was scratchy and rough.

PX Ltd visit

In Year 5 we have been completing different investigations to help the engineers at PX Ltd in Hull with the 'Children Challenging Industry' programme. On the last day of half term, we were lucky enough to be invited over to visit the site. The children thoroughly enjoyed the activities in the morning, these included: wearing PPE, using an inferred thermometer and a tour around the Saltend chemicals park.

OB 'This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, we are so lucky to be able to do this.'
LS 'I want to work in an industry like this.'
FG 'I have really enjoyed taking up the role as PPE safety manager, making sure they are all wearing the correct PPE to keep them safe around the site.'

Science Investigation- Soil Permeability

Today in Pumpkin class we have been scientists. We identifed how to make careful observations and observed how much water had filtered through different types of soil. We made sure we used the same equipment and length of time for each observation to make our investigation a fair one. We also found that we were using skills from other lessons, such as maths for reading the units of measurement and time. The conclusion to our investigation was that the soil from our tyre plants was the most permeable. 

People that help us – Nurses

This afternoon we had a special visitor, Mrs Hurdman who told us all about her job working at the hospital as a Student Nurse.   We all had a go at using a stethoscope and listened to each other’s hearts.     We learnt that it is a busy job looking after people and helping them get well.  Lots of us want to be a nurse or Doctor when we are grown up.

Children Challenging Industry - Pastillator 🧫 🧪

Barley class continued their investigations into lanolin this week, as part of the Challenging Industry project. They had a challenge from Croda to investigate pastilles using different liquids and materials. The pastilles had to be of the same size and pupils worked within their teams to see if varying the liquid, changing the surface the liquid landed on or varying the tools in which they made the pastilles made a difference to the pastille formation and speed in which these could be made! Great scientific work!

Children Challenging Industry

Our Year 6 pupils are taking part in a fantastic programme ,with York University, which aims to give the opportunity of children learning about science and industry. The programme combines classroom science lessons led by expert advisory teachers, with visits to industry, tailored to meet the needs of the science curriculum.

In the first session this week, pupils worked together to complete an investigation on substances that needed separating. Our next session will be looking at particles. These investigations link with our industry visit to Croda at the end of the month!

Rocks

In Science we have started our new topic learning all about rocks. We looked at what different rocks there are; Igneous, Sedimentary, and Metamorphic Rocks. We compared the different types of rocks with the help of some sweets!

"Using sweets helped me understand the different types of rocks more"
"Making the sedimentary rock was my favourite because my hands got sticky"
"I know now that concrete is man made, I didn't know that" 

Mummification

In History this week we have looked at mummification and the process it entails. We learnt that when people were mummified to reduce the water in the body and to act as a preservative, they used Natron. We investigated using different kinds of salt on different fruits and vegetables to see which one would be a modern-day substitute for Natron. We scooped the insides of the fruit and veg out, weighed it and covered in different salts. Next week we will weigh the fruit and veg out again to see which salt has absorbed the most amount of water.

Being Scientists….

This week Year 1 have been studying Deciduous and Evergreen Trees. We went searching around school and found both types of tree. It was a windy day and we sat in the Nature area watching the leaves falling from the deciduous trees. We collected different leaves and took them back to class.

Because the Gardening Club have been working so hard making improvements in the wild area, we were able to use the new paths and seats to stay out of the mud. Thank you Gardening Club from all Year 1.

Pupil 1: I know that Evergreen trees stay green all year.

Pupil 2: Yes Evergreen trees never drop their leaves either.

Pupil 3: Deciduous trees have leaves that fall off.

Pupil 4: We drew Deciduous trees in the Summer with lots of green leaves and in Autumn with yellow, orange and brown leaves fallen to the floor.

Pupil 5: I loved going to the wild area and seeing the leaves falling.

Pupil 6: It was so windy the leaves blew around!

Year 1 Investigating Materials

The children were set a challenge to find the best material to cover a shelter and keep us dry. They decided that we should put water on different materials to see if the water stayed on the top of the materials or soaked through. If the material stayed on top of the material this meant that the material was waterproof.

We found out that rock and wood were waterproof. The children thought that rock might be too heavy for a shelter so the best material would be wood.

Magnets

In Pumpkin Class we have been learning all about magnets. This week we made our own games using paperclips and magnets. We used keywords such as: attract and repel.

"That was so much fun!"

"I'm taking mine home to show my little brother"

Magnetic Forces

In Science Pumpkin Class have been looking at forces and magnets. We noticed how magnetic forces can act at a distance and attract some materials and not others. We sorted these materials into magnetic and non-magnetic materials.

Y4 Hook Day - Scientists

Year 4 enjoyed their hook day last week where we learned about different types of scientific enquiry. We became rocket scientists in the morning and tested out how to launch balloon rockets across a wire. We made predictions and asked scientific questions, then tested to see what different variables would affect the speed of the balloons and the distance they could travel. We found that it helped to put some soap on the wire as well! Children also learned about some key scientific figures throughout history and dressed up to look the part.

We Are Scientists

Pumpkin Class have been learning about seed dispersal and they enjoyed investigating different kinds of fruit and finding out which ones contain seeds.

E- We used our observational skills.

A- We described the different shapes, sizes and quantities of seeds each fruit had.

H- We made predictions about how many seeds we thought would be in each piece of fruit.

V- I was surprised that a smaller piece of fruit had more seeds inside it, than a larger one.

J- We did some research to find out about different kinds of seed dispersal.

E- Seeds can be dispersed by the wind, water and animals.

R- Squirrels sometimes hide seeds in the ground and then they grow.

M- Animals eat fruit and sometimes the seeds come out whole in their poo. Then the seeds might grow.

R- I really enjoyed watching the videos of explosive dispersal. It was exciting to see the seeds shoot out of the pods.

Outdoor Science: Identification and Classification Skills

The Year 2 children have been learning all about different kinds of plants, flowers and trees.
They enjoyed exploring The Humber Bridge Country Park and were able to spot a wide range of wild plants and flowers and could identify and name trees by matching their leaves to their spotter’s guides.

J- Plants are all different in appearance. I had to look carefully at the shapes of leaves and the colour of petals
H- Classification is when you put plants into groups. Some plants produce seeds and some don’t.
S- I spotted some flowers that I hadn’t seen before. I had to look carefully at lots of pictures to find out what they were called.
R- If we went back to the park at a different time of year, I think we might see some different plants. In the springtime there might be flowers that grow from bulbs like daffodils.

Well-being Wednesday!

In Year 1 we have been taking extra care of all our plants we have. The plants link to our Science topic, so we have been making sure we know how to look after plants. We have found that watering plants can be very relaxing so we incorporated this into our well-being Wednesday this week.

"The plants need water to survive"

Saying Bye to the Butterflies

Recently in the classroom, we have been experiencing the miracle of metamorphosis, as we have had some special mini-beast visitors stay with us. We welcomed the caterpillars into our class before the half-term break and watched them grow, then they entered their pupal stage over the break. A few days after returning, the butterflies began to emerge. After spending a few days with us, we had to set them free. We hope that they will still come back to visit!

Y3 – How does water move through a plant?

In Science we learned about how water moves through a plant. When water evaporates from the leaves, water is sucked from the soil by the roots and travels up the stem in a similar way to us drinking through a straw. We put food colouring in the water and left the plants in different places to see how quickly the plants changed colour. The quickest change in colour was in the classroom. We managed to make a colourful vase of flowers by putting different colours in different test tubes.

Our Teeth and Gums

This week in year 6 we have been learning and understanding how best to look after our teeth and gums and how food and drink can affect our teeth. In this lesson we learnt about the different types of teeth we have: incisors, molars, canines, premolars and wisdom teeth. We then had a think about how much sugar is in some of the drinks we drink day to day, some of the children were shocked! But we understood that the occasional treat is perfectly fine as long as we take the right precautions in looking after our teeth 🦷

Y3 – Can I identify the parts of a flower

The children enjoyed investigating flowers using their observational skills to identify the different parts of a flower. They then learnt about the roles of each individual part and why they are important in the pollination process.

Science scavenger hunt!

Today our Year 1 scientists worked together to go on a senses scavenger hunt. We took our learning outdoors to see what we could smell, see, touch, hear and taste. Although the taste sense was tricky we decided to think back to what we tasted at dinner time. One of the main things we all could hear was a neighbour cutting their grass.

Year 3 - "Oh we do like to be beside the sea side!"

We had a great day on our fieldtrip to 'sunny' Cleethorpes. Nothing was going to stop our fun....rain, drizzle...we didn't care!

We looked at the differences between the human and physical aspects of Cleethorpes. The changing coastlines with the sand dunes and the vegetation which keeps the sand in place compared with the built sea defences. The children loved exploring the marsh land for creatures, shells and pebbles, trying to guess which types of rocks they were. We explored the sand dunes then we went to the bandstand to shelter from the elements and sketch some local wildlife. The sun finally came out for us so we had a brisk walk to get chips & ice cream! Yum! As the children had been so great we had a little free time on the beach then another walk back to the bus! We were all shattered but everyone loved the adventure we had!

Yorkshire Wildlife Park

Year 6 had a fantastic day at the wildlife park! We explored the different animals and how these have evolved over time. This linked with what we have been learning about in Science, evolution and inheritance! We discussed the different characteristics different animals have and how they are similar or different to us. A great day was had by all!

British Science Week 2023- We are scientists!

Foundation Stage and Year 1

Children in foundation stage have really enjoyed being scientists during British Science Week. We learned that science involves: exploring how things work, using enquiry skills, making predictions and learning about the world around us. We focused on the pioneering astronaut Mae Jemison and learned the names of the planets. We had fun making rockets, crafting alien spaceships and writing about things we would take into space. We also did plenty of investigations, including mixing colours in the water tray and testing magnetic materials. We did a class investigation into making ramps and the children made some great predictions:

Child 1 - I think the pencil will roll down the ramp.

Child 2 - The brick will slide down instead of roll.

Child 3 - The jar will roll further than the tube because it's heavier.

For science week this week we have looked at zoo's (linking to our topic of animals.) We looked at who invented the first non-caged zoo in the U.K and then watched an old advert from when it first opened. We then went on to creating our own posters to promote the new zoo!

Pumpkin Class

Pumpkin Class always enjoy a good investigation in Science.
Here they investigated the question: Are older children always taller than younger children?

The children investigated this with a very scientific approach:

1. They each made a prediction
2. Measured heights in centimetres using a height chart
3. Explained their method
4. Analysed and discussed the whole class results
5. Wrote their own conclusions

Nature Connections

To start British Science week Willow Class looked at nature connections, linking ecosystems of living and non-living things in the environment.

Year 6: Eggsperiment!

Year 6 enjoyed Science Week last week, completing our Eggsperiment! We used eggs to test which liquids would have the biggest effect on our teeth. We left them in liquids for 3 days, before observing what had happened to them. Finally, We've spent this week writing up our findings and seeing if our predictions were correct!

Signs of Spring...?

Children in foundation enjoyed exploring the snowfall this morning. We went outside and carefully walked around in the snow. We will shortly be looking for signs of Spring in our outdoor area, but experienced some very wintery weather today. We had fun drawing in the snow, making patterns with our shoes and the construction materials.

Y1 Science Trip to The Deep

In Year 1 we have been science explorers today, looking for different groups of animals.

We have been classifying fish, reptiles, mammals and amphibians at The Deep.

We spotted all kinds of fascinating creatures.

Child 1: my favourites were the blue poisonous frogs
Child 2: I loved going under the water to see the sharks!
Child 3: The penguins were great fun to watch

We also had a story about river turtles getting trapped in rubbish and learnt to put our rubbish in the bins so they don’t get harmed. To finish the day we made our own river turtles.

We hope you like our pictures!

Today, in year 6, we were being Scientists🥼

We firstly learnt about Alfred Wallace and his support of Charles Darwin in the discovery of natural selection. We then worked to understand how different beaks may affect a birds ability to survive and gather food. We did this by using a key, different coloured smarties representing different birds, and watched the survival of the fittest happen with some birds not surviving due to not having the right adaptations🦜

Testing Mass

Juniper class had fun doing a science experiment seeing if the mass of an object changed the impact it made into the flour. We tested a variety of objects to see the impact as the mass changed!

Year 6 Palaeontologists

We have really enjoyed being scientists this week in Year 6. We have reminded ourselves of the fossilisation and human evolution processes. We even had the chance to become Palaeontologists and have a look at some real life fossils!

How are fossils formed?

We have been learning about how fossils are formed. Animals die and are covered with layers of sediment. The body rots away leaving a mould (like a jelly mould) or a skeleton. The skeleton is slowly replaced by minerals and the moulds are sometimes filled with different sediment. Eventually the layers are covered by water which puts immense pressure and compacts the sediment & the body remains. The water disappears and the layers of rock & sediment erode away until the skeleton is exposed.

You never have a spare dead dinosaur when you need one.....luckily we had a willing volunteer to model this process!