Category Archives: Science

Minard and Kirn Primary Pupils learning outdoor together

Active Learning, Co-operative Learning, Communities and Culture, Curriculum for Excellence, environment, Events, Gardens, Outdoor Learning, Primary schools, Science,

Argyll & Bute may be geographically vast but that doesn’t prevent us from making the most of connections between schools to allow pupils the opportunity to learn co-operatively. On Friday 21st April five P4 pupils from Kirn Primary School in Cowal travelled with their teacher Mr Mair to join the Minard Primary School pupils in some outdoor learning activities in Minard Primary, near Inveraray. The Minard pupils were delighted to welcome pupils from far flung Cowal to share in the outdoor learning opportunities which are on their doorstep.

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BMT day at Glenbarr Primary School

Active Learning, Creativity, Events, Health and Wellbeing, Interdisciplinary, Literacy, PE, Performance, Personal Development, Primary schools, PSE, Science, Sport, , ,

On Friday 17th March, Rhunahaorine and Gigha pupils joined pupils at Glenbarr Primary School for a day of BMT (Better Movers and Thinkers). They were joined by Rona Young who led the day. In the morning P1-3 pupils got the chance to have some Active Start together while the p4-7 took part in some BMT activities in the classroom. They tried a variety of activities – Body Lift, Body Parts, Finger Taps, Clap Patterns and Fours on the Spot.

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“Lost at Sea” in Kirn

Active Learning, Creativity, Drama, Expressive arts, Interdisciplinary, Primary schools, Science, Secondary schools,

Catherine Wheels Theatre Company visited Cowal Schools at Dunoon Grammar School this week. “Lost at Sea” was a production about the scientific tracking of a shipment of rubber ducks which had fallen overboard. The play was performed in the round, and children of Toward, Kilmodan, Kirn, Strone and Strachur Primaries enjoyed a funny “out-of-the-box” dramatic experience.

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The Giant Egg Discovery

Co-operative Learning, History, Primary schools, Science, Topics

THE GIANT EGG INVESTIGATION

P1 and P2 at Rhu made an ‘eggxciting’ discovery in the playground earlier this term. Imagine our surprise when we found a giant nest with an enormous egg inside! On researching eggs, taking advice from our resident palaeontologist, dissecting droppings and reading lots of books, we thought it could be a dinosaur.

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St Andrew’s Primary Science Week

Curriculum for Excellence, Educational Visits from Universities, environment, Events, Interdisciplinary, Modern Studies, Primary schools, PSE, Science, Workshops

During SCIENCE WEEK we organised science workshops for all pupils exploring electricity, gravity, magnets and brain processing of information.

We also had experts in school who worked with our P 5-7s. Scientists from Edinburgh University and Heriot-Watt University worked with us on a Seabeasties project finding out about the beasties that live off our Scottish coasts. Pupils made nets to catch plankton and viewed findings through smartphone microscopes.

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‘Father of the iPod’ surprises DGS Pupils with Words of Support

Co-operative Learning, Creativity, Curriculum for Excellence, Events, Interdisciplinary, Modern Studies, Personal Development, PSE, Science, Secondary schools, Social Media, Topics,

A class of S3 Business pupils at Dunoon Grammar school received a pleasant surprise last week when Tony Fadell – dubbed the Father of the iPod – tweeted words of encouragement for a learning experience the pupils were working on.

The pupils studying Business were working on a creative team exercise – tasked to rebrand Apple’s iconic iPod and devise an effective marketing-mix to breathe new life into the flagging sales of the once all conquering multimedia player.

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Spotify in the DGS Spotlight to celebrate International Women’s Day

Communities and Culture, Creativity, Curriculum for Excellence, Events, Global Citizenship, Interdisciplinary, Modern Studies, Personal Development, PSE, RME, Science, Secondary schools, Social Enterprise, Topics,

Budding Business & Computing entrepreneurs from Dunoon Grammar school participated in an exclusive Question and Answer session with senior executives of the successful technology company Spotify – to mark International Women’s Day on 8 March 2017.

Spotify is a music, podcast, and video streaming service with over 100 million users across the globe

Dunoon Grammar was the only school in Scotland to take part and one of only four schools from across the UK involved in the event organised by Apps for Good.

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Dunoon pupils scoop top award at national event

Competitions, Curriculum for Excellence, Events, Interdisciplinary, Modern Studies, Personal Development, Science, Secondary schools,

A group of pupils from Dunoon Grammar School excelled in a national event last week when they scooped the top prize.

S1 students from the school’s business and computing department beat off stiff competition from across Scotland when they won Apps for Good’s first ever Scottish event.

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Game Design Bowmore Primary School P5/6/7

Interdisciplinary, Modern Studies, Personal Development, Primary schools, PSE, Science, Social Enterprise, Social Media, Topics,

Primary 5, 6 and 7 have been developing their computational skills through our game design topic. These have included problem solving, debugging and creating algorithms. The children have set up their own game design businesses and to ensure they met the needs of their target audience. Detailed questionnaires were created, handed out and then the information was collated and displayed as pie charts and bar graphs. The children worked hard to use their numeracy results to inform their game design.
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Dunoon Primary raise awareness of Down’s Syndrome

Communities and Culture, Events, Interdisciplinary, Learning Centres, Primary schools, PSE, Science,

Today, Tuesday 21st March, the staff and children of Dunoon Primary School have come to school wearing odd socks. Why? To take part in World Down’s Syndrome. Staff and children in the Learning Centre donated to World Down Syndrome Day and bought official “lots of socks” socks while other children choose to wear their brightest and most colourful socks.

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Nano Science Comes to Dunoon Primary

Curriculum for Excellence, Interdisciplinary, Modern Studies, Personal Development, Primary schools, PSE, Science

This week as part of British Science Week, Dr Joy Leckie and her team, came from Strathclyde University to Dunoon Primary School to introduce the P1-4s to Nano Science. The Primary 1 and 2 classes were involved in making nanojelly. Primary 3 and 4s learned about polymers, lacing beads to make a bracelet and had the experience of mixing ingredients to make a nanopolymer bouncy ball. It was a messy job, but thoroughly enjoyable! We are so lucky to have this fantastic team at our school, well done!

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Kirn’s P6 Digital Leaders click with Cowal Elderly Befrienders

Co-operative Learning, Communities and Culture, Curriculum for Excellence, Hospitality, Interdisciplinary, Modern Studies, Primary schools, PSE, Science, Social Media, Training,

The Digital Leaders from Kirn’s Primary 6 spent a morning being teachers for members of our community who felt they wanted to come back to school and find out more about the online world.

Using the school iPads P6 pupils began with the basics – turning the iPads on and and finding out what an app is. Then they were off! Soon holidays were being browsed and online shopping was being investigated.

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Junior Heart Start Training at Minard Primary

Communities, Events, Health and Wellbeing, Interdisciplinary, Personal Development, Primary schools, Science, Training,

Last week the pupils at Minard and Furnace Primary Schools learned skills for life when they undertook Junior Heart Start training with local specialist Andy Craven. Andy taught all of our pupils the ‘ABC’ of saving lives.
A – how to assess the situation if someone appears to be a casualty, to check for danger and ‘shake and shout’.
B – how to check for breathing, tilting the casualty’s head, lifting their chin, looking, listening and feeling for breath.

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STEM Focus at Dalintober PS & ELC

Curriculum for Excellence, Early Years, Events, Interdisciplinary, Maths, Primary schools, PSE, Science, ,

STEM has been a learning focus for pupils of Dalintober PS & ELC. Lots of activities and investigations took place with input from local STEM Ambassador, Joanna Holbrook, and various other partners. Pupils learned about, amongst other things, life cycles and how they can be recorded, drones and coding, buildings and structures and DNA. The focus ended with a whole ELC/school ‘Sharing Our Learning’ assembly.

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John Logie Baird Primary School – STEM Collaboration

Co-operative Learning, Creativity, Curriculum for Excellence, Early Years, Events, Interdisciplinary, Maths, Modern Studies, Primary schools, PSE, Science, Topics,

The children from John Logie Baird Primary 1 and nursery have been demonstrating their skills for life while working collaboratively on STEM experiences as part of their Early Level Class.

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Science & Technology in Kirn’s P6

Curriculum for Excellence, Events, Interdisciplinary, Modern Studies, Personal Development, Primary schools, PSE, Science, Workshops,

Kirn’s P6 have been immersing themselves in the world of science and technology. We have been learning about the science of electricity in class using BBC Science and enjoying a fantastic science and technology workshop with STEM ambassador Kirsty Jackson-Stark. Kirsty brought an amazing array of equipment to measure and observe how electrons behave, how electricity can be created and measured, and what it can be used for. All the children enjoyed a really interactive and experimental hands-on day.

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Bella Beatson visits Strachur Primary School

Communities, Donations, Events, Health and Wellbeing, Primary schools, PSE, Science

On Friday 24th February we had a very special visitor at Strachur Primary School – the mascot for the Beatson Hospital in Glasgow, Bella Beatson. The children were very excited and some came to school dressed in black and yellow to match Bella! Bella’s escort, Amy, told the children about the work the Beatson does and how people with cancer can be looked after there. We put our donations in Bella’s collection can and raised £121.30 for the charity.

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Junior Chef training at the Isle of Coll Hotel

Co-operative Learning, Communities and Culture, Curriculum for Excellence, Events, Health and Wellbeing, Home Economics, Hospitality, Personal Development, Primary schools, Science, Work Experience

Arinagour Primary Schools P4, P6 and P7 pupils enjoyed four trips to the Coll Hotel to participate in Junior Chef training sessions.

With the guidance of owner and chef Julie Oliphant, chef Graham Griffiths and hotel manager Laura Oliphant the pupils developed skills in food preparation. They identified ingredients, units of measure and equipment used in the cooking process.

They also learned about cleanliness, hygiene and safety

P1 and P2 pupils joined the senior pupils as guests to sample the meals that had been prepared.