Mega Marble Runs
Children in the ELCC have been making massive marble runs using their giant wooden blocks. The have discovered that you need to start marbles at the highest point to make them go and have had lots of opportunities to build different marble runs.
Solar Ovens
There was great excitement in P1/2/3…and a bit of envy from P4/5….as the solar ovens were used to cook marshmallows and melt chocolate digestives. Even although it was not particularly warn, we were amazed how quickly the ovens melted the chocolate and marshmallow. William is keen to cook pizza next!
African huts….using solar power
P1/2/3 have read the story of Handa’s Surprise and been learning about life in Africa. They have found out that it is very different in rural Africa from the city. They build these huts from straw, clay and wooden sticks….then added solar panels and LED lights. They were a great addition to the sand tray with all the African animals. The children learned how useful solar panels can be in helping children in rural Africa to do their homework. Evie’s mum showed the children a kerosene lamp that would be used – costly to run, dangerous and giving off nasty fumes. We researched case studies and made these Explain Everything to show what we had learned.
How strong are eggs?
We have been discovering how strong eggs are and learning to measure at the same time! Underneath this stack of books are only three eggs…..and two trays of eggs can support a small person! We were amazed when we watched a film clip of Richard Hammond balancing two crushed cars on a large array of eggs. Check it out.
Climate Change
Climate change is getting worse and worse every day because of us. Climate change is when lots of carbon emissions are released into the atmosphere which creates a lair of greenhouse gas which then traps heat in the earth causing global warming, which destroys habitats and can create tornados, tsunamis and hurricanes. This is also caused by surprisingly cows because of there farting and burping , this happens because the methane they let out.
The energy we use is also having an impact on the earth because of all the carbon emissions we use to run our homes,cars and electronics. We could change this by using renewables such as wind, solar and hydro power. We are destroying the Arctic so Polar bears and penguins won’t have habitats. So I feel that everyone needs to start using renewable energies.
You can see how global warming is happening using this climate spiral animation:
By Aidan and Jack
Nicola Davies Visit
Yesterday Nicola Davies came in to talk with us about her books as part of the Scottish Book Trust 20th Anniversary Tour. She has mostly based her stories with animals in them because before she was an author she was a zoologist and there was a book that she was telling us about and it was about a boy that got his arm pulled of by a lion, it’s name was The Lion Who Stole My Arm. The real story that it was based on was about a 5 year old boy who got attacked by a lion and even though his arm didn’t come off he had to get it amputated because the attack was so bad. She was also telling us about animals that she was looking at such as: lionesses, humpback whales etc. When she was talking to us about the humpback whales she noticed when she was studying them that mostly every day and hour of the day the whales would eat then eat then eat again. Also to have a little fun we learned how to sing like a whale. Nicola Davies also wrote a climate change book called Gaiya and because we are doing climate change as one of out topics that was very interesting. We also wrote climate change poems. We have been researching a lot of different facts and effects that climate change has on the world. We could either write a kenning, a haiku or a free verse poem. We thought that the visit as very exciting learning about lots of different animals.
By Rebecca and Rowan
Building jet engines
Neil Chattle, our Rolls-Royce mentor, visited the school on 26th April. He gave a talk to the whole school about jet engines and brought some model jet engines for us to try building. We had a great day and ended with a challenge for teams of children to work together to build the model engine in the fastest possible time!
Egg Engineering
This term we where doing Egg Engineering. We made parachutes and cars. We tested the cars the day after we made them in teams with other classes. Our class made parachutes for our eggs. Nearly all of our eggs lived, only 3 cracked. The egg cars were a success!Four cars passed the finish line on the day. Some of the cars went through the tunnel and some did not because they were too big.
Phoenix and Robyn
April Diary
Renewables Engineering Islay – April Diary
With Easter on the horizon the team decided that we’d do a bit of…..
Egg Engineering
All the children in the school have been finding out about the strength of eggs. P1/2/3 and the Pre-5 unit were amazed to watch a video clip showing that a huge tray of eggs could support the weight of two cars! In their joint play session they investigated to see if eggs could hold up a person. Primary children then engineered different ways to drop an egg without them breaking, learning about gravity and air resistance along the way. There were lots of parachutes……but also trampolines and some very innovative but simple designs. Primary 6/7 used Newton’s three laws when thinking about their engineering designs. Throughout the build the children were encouraged to think like engineers and use the engineering process to imagine, plan, create and improve on their designs. Since the whole school were involved in this, we used this as an opportunity to use maths skills within an engineering context. Children measured length, weight and volume of eggs. They worked out the area of parachutes and time taken for eggs to drop. Primary 6/7 children also calculated the speed of descent. At the end of the week the children worked in cross-stage groups to design and build wind-powered cars. We showed the children the incredible Theo Jansen strandbeests to inspire them. Parents were then invited to join us for the final testing seeing which vehicle went furthest, fastest and could cope with a tricky obstacle course while keeping the egg secure. Connor, P3, said It’s been great fun this week because we were building stuff and building is my thing. Ellen thought it was great fun and I liked how we got all the parents in. Aiden said I enjoyed racing the cars and learning all about friction and things.
Maureen MacDonald spoke to the parents about the Rolls-Royce Science Prize and what a great experience it had been for the school. She also said that we were planning a community event to celebrate all the work that had been done over the past few months.
Parents were also encouraged to do a little engineering themselves, building rafts to support an egg. It proved to be trickier than we thought! Comments from parents included Amazing experience for all the children with so much fun and learning, loved the teamwork, Well done Port Ellen Primary – what an interesting project, Fantastic – hope it encourages lots of budding engineers.
Knotts to Watts
Kate Brown and P4/5 have also had great parental involvement in helping to build a prototype floating wind turbine for the Knotts to Watts competition. It was very exciting for the children to see their own designs and models being scaled up and fantastic to have the support of a couple of dads. For two afternoons Dearbhla’s dad and Morgan’s dad worked with the group to develop the children’s design. It is very innovative with two turbine heads. Initial testing in the classroom got the blades turning and it did produce electricity. The class are looking forward to testing it out in the sea next week. The whole school is very proud that the group have been invited to test their design in a wave tank as part of the Young Scientists and Engineers event in Glasgow in June.
Gus Newman, one of the parents, commented I enjoy coming in to school and working with the young ones and getting them involved in future technology. I really like seeing their creativity.
Nuts and Bolts
The Parent Council are very supportive of everything that we do in school. They have helped us to set up our Nuts and Bolts shed in the playground. This is based around the idea of a scrap store with nets, ropes, crates, creels etc. The children have had great fun building lots of new things using the fish boxes donated by Drew’s dad. Kate Brown has taken responsibility for sourcing material for the shed…and we are hoping to build on this in the future. In the nursery outdoor play area Alison Logan has had dads in to develop a system of water chutes for children to explore.
STEM Homelinks
Maggie Harrison and Maureen MacDonald are thinking about how we move forward as a school after the Rolls-Royce project is over. We have started to use a STEM self-evaluation tool to help us. One of things we would like to improve is parental engagement with STEM. Maggie, in her role as Primary Cluster Mentor, has been working with two colleagues from other primary schools and as a team they have agreed to develop a series of STEM bags that can be sent home with activities that children can do with their parents.
Budget
Since we have been on holiday for two weeks we have had no outgoing this month so we still have £3280.99 in the budget. The children have expressed an interest in getting a wind turbine for the school and are in contact with George Dean to see how we could go about this.
Parachutes in P1/2/3
P1/2/3 have been learning about parachutes (air resistance) and they used Explain Everything to record their experiments inserting video clips of their tests, how they made their tests fair and the results. They were then able to use this information in the design of their own parachutes to protect an egg from smashing when dropped from the top of the stairs.
Computer Engineering Endeavour
A computer engineer is someone who writes codes/debugs a computer. Debugging is the process of identifying and removing errors from computer hardware or software. The code in the computer is a language which the computer understands and will follow the commands given. The computer needs commands to have the ability to do anything. If the computer didnt have commands, you wouldn’t even be able to switch it on.
For my Endeavour I am making a webpage from scratch. To do this, I dont have everything setup for me like a webpage creator online. To do it first you open notepad, then save it as something like your name, but after you’ve written your name, type .html, then open the file. You will have to write code into the notepad to make it appear in the webpage. However, If you want to write code in it, just research it. My webpage isnt currently online, but I am still working on it.
An electronic engineer would be the person who make the computer itself but a computer engineer is the one who makes everything on the computer work. If you press the window button, search cmd, then right click it, and select open as administrator, you can change some of the computer settings. It is possible to break the computer through the command window however, so be careful on what you type in. Its better to research all the possibilities of it so you know what things you can do and what they do.
What I think I am learning from my endeavour will help me be a computer engineer in the future. I could also be a webpage creator or a games designer.
Mechanical Engineering Endeavour
This year I chose to do mechanical engineering for my endeavour project. A mechanical engineer is someone who works on cars or lots of other stuff like working with gears and more. I chose mechanical engineering because I love cars and I play a lot of Forza which is a car game. After this endeavor I hope to have achieved a lot so that can help me in the future to maybe a mechanic. I would also like to be a mechanic when I’m older as I think it would be a good job for me.
For my endeavor I’m gonna make a Haynes model engine and a sway about all the different kinds of engine. I have also made a quiz that you have to label the parts of the car engine of a Chevrolet Camaro Zl1.
Taylor
Electrical Engineering Endeavour Project
My Endeavor project is about electronics. I have created a circuit with a soldering iron for a model for my endeavor to show off at the endeavor fair. What a soldering iron does is the tip gets really hot and you get some soldering wire and you put it at the tip and then put under the circuit board where you put your resister or a light anything that’s supposed to be with that will work with the circuit board and solder in the parts. So one day I thought about building a robot that can move i hope i can do this with spare. I didn’t know how I was going to to it or I could just make some circuits and I’ve made two so far and now I can make a lot of circuits if I don’t burn myself from the soldering iron.
THE GREAT EGG RACE
This afternoon our school will be building wind powered vehicles ready for a great egg race with parents tomorrow. We will be put into teams (which will include all of the classes). Once the teams are picked we have to design a vehicle that will transport our egg with out the egg breaking. We will be using a hair dryer to blow our vehicle so that it will move. There will be points for: Lightest design, prettiest design, vehicle that goes the furthest and whose egg gets least damaged.There will also be points getting taken off. Points will be taken off for: Wasting materials and damage to egg. We are doing the egg race to help us with our engeneering skills and it is also part of Rolls Royce Science Prize. We are doing a lot of engineering activities because engeneering can help the world with climate change. The engeneering activities are a lot of fun because it challenges us. I think that engeneering is very helpful to be doing in school because it uses math and science and it is also helpful because it tests us with our team working skills. I would like to do engineering challenges again.
Egg Drop ‘Egg’speriment
In class we have been learning about Newtons 3 laws of motion. The first one is the law of inertia. That law means that an object will stay in motion in till a force is acted upon it. The second law is Force=Mass x Acceleration. The third law is every action has an equal and opposite reaction. We have been looking at how strong an egg is. We did a an ‘egg’ speriment in class on how much an egg shell can hold. The egg shells cracked after 6kg and I was very surprised on how much it did hold. We also watched a short clip on how much at least 100 eggs can hold and it held 2 cars, and the were not boiled eggs. So eggs are stronger that you think. In class we have also been wanting to do an egg drop. So in groups we designed two ideas, one with a parachute and one without one. Then we decided on who’s idea we were going to do. Then we started building. Me an Donald made the idea without the parachute. Our idea was that we were going to have a cup that the egg was going to be in then four balloons around it to keep it floating But there was a problem. When we checked to see if it would float and it kept on tipping to the side so we had to find a solution. Then we thought of an arrow and at the end of an arrow there is something to keep it keep flying straight so we decided that we were going to make them and put them on our balloons and it would look like an arrow and when we tested it out with the egg in it and when it dropped to the ground the egg had no crack and was safe.I was so glad that our idea worked. Our second idea was with the parachute. Ellen and Abi made this one. The idea was that they made a pyramid to put the egg in and then the put pieces of straws around it so that when it dropped it wouldn’t put force on the pyramid with the egg in it it would put the force on the straws around it. Then they attached the parachute. When they tested it out with the egg in it there was no crack so both of our ideas worked and my group got 1st place.
Rowan
Paper Bridge Engineering
As part of our Engineering project this year we wanted to show we could get better at engineering. At the start of the project we had to build bridges, and ours were made from straws and did not work well or hold a lot of weight. We did the bridge building test again to see if we had improved, but this time we were only allowed to use paper to build our bridges. The point of it was to try and engineer a bridge that could hold a calculator, at first it was quite hard to make a bridge that could hold one. Me and Rowan decided to apply what we had learned in maths about 3D shapes and put cylinders under our bridge so that it could support the weight of a calculator, a lot of the bridges ended up being able to support a lot more than a calculator. Our bridge managed to hold 6kg in weight! I was surprised that it could hold that much because it was just paper and tape, eventually we over tested it and wrecked the cylinders on the bridge. Everyones bridge could hold at least a calculator and some bridges could hold more, our bridge could hold the most in the class which I was surprised about. We applied our engineering knowledge to building the bridge and this showed how much we improved!
By Holly
Spaghetti Engineering
Continuing on the sweetie theme, STEM club challenge this week was to build a structure with four levels to support Creme Eggs using only spaghettis and jelly babies. It was quite a challenge!
Chocolate Engineering
We had a great STEM club on Wednesday with the Young STEM Ambassadors from the High School. We were engineering with chocolate!! Our welded Milky Bar bridge held 8.5kg. Amazing…and tasty when it collapsed!
Thinking like Engineers
P1/2/3 have been using their engineering skills to design and build models that incorporate a working electric circuit. They worked hard to solve problems and try to improve their designs as they went along.
P6/7 Space Station
On Friday 24th P6/7 started to make Space Stations for living on Mars. They are all made out of paper they all have to be made from 3D shapes. Some had oxygen tanks, rocket ships and living quarters. It took P6/7 a couple of days and all of the Mars Space Stations are finished.
Switch Off Earth Hour
In our school we did switch off. That’s when you switch off your lights, WIFI and electronics for 1 hour so that we can help the environment. Sadly the environment is getting destroyed by global warming and only we can stop polluting the sea, sky and our earth. I don’t wont a bad environment that is polluted. I want a good and healthy environment. In school switch off was organised by P123.
Making Wind Streamers
In the ELCC we have been learning about the weather and how the wind makes things move. We have enjoyed making these wind streamers and have hung them in the trees in the outdoor area.
March Diary
Renewables Engineering Islay – March Diary
A key part of what we wanted to do with our project this year was to involve other primary schools on the islands. There are primary schools in Bowmore, Port Charlotte and Keills as well as Small Isles Primary School on the Isle of Jura. With National Science & Engineering Week coming up we decided that this would be an ideal time to get everyone together to work on a series of engineering challenges organised by Maggie Harrison, with the support of Jo Clark and Kate Brown.
Fairytale Engineering
The first session we ran was for children working at Early/First Level – from P1-P4. On the day we had 60 children meet together to work on some fairytale engineering. The focus was on developing creativity and children’s ideas for problem solving. The tasks were linked to the story of Rapunzel; first they had to build a tower for Rapunzel using mini marshmallows and cocktail sticks, exploring the strength of different shapes; then they had to work out a way for Rapunzel to escape the tower. Back in Port Ellen, P1/2/3 continued this learning, coming up with some amazingly good ideas – a glider, an elevator, a parachute, a hot air balloon and a zip wire.
At first I thought it was impossible but now I really want to do it again – Aiden, Port Charlotte Primary.
It was so much fun. My best bit was building the tower with marshmallows – Evie, Port Ellen
I loved getting to see the other school classes. I like working in a team. It was fun getting Rapunzel out of the tower – Callum, Bowmore Primary
Disaster!
Primary 4/5s from Port Ellen and Bowmore Primary Schools worked together to learn how engineering can be an important aspect of disaster relief. They thought about earthquakes and hurricanes that can devastate communities and lead to situations where emergency aid is unable to reach those who need it and how essential structures like air control towers need to withstand the powers of nature. Their first task was to design and build a mountain rescue stretcher to transport a patient (potato) to hospital; then all groups were given the same resources to build a tower which supported a tennis ball and withstood a hurricane!
I really enjoyed building with a time limit and enjoy building models that are real things but we make them mini – Millie, Port Ellen Primary
I loved it because we had to do challenges – James, Bowmore Primary
My class were all absolutely engaged in both activities. There were lots of discussions, problem solving and pride – Miss Brown, Port Ellen Primary.
Let’s Roll!
Older students met for a session looking at the engineering process, focussed on testing and improving. Groups of children from different schools built rollercoasters for marbles, trying to incorporate loop the loops and still catch the marble in a paper cup. Continuing on a marble theme, they then had to work out ways to increase the time taken for a marble to run down an inclined plane from 2.7 seconds to 10 seconds. It was fantastic to see the children from different schools work together, completely absorbed in solving the problem. Young STEM Ambassadors from Islay High School came along to help out on the day.
I enjoyed the session and learned a lot more about engineers – Neil, Port Charlotte Primary.
It was challenging because there were lots of different activities and we had a certain amount of time to do it in and we had to stick to the resources we had – Oliver, Keills. Primary
It was fun! – Elisa, Small Isles Primary.
I want to have another engineering day with all the schools again – Charlie, Port Ellen.
The activities were fun, engaging and appropriately challenging for the group. The children were actively involved and clearly developing their problem solving skills – Mrs Baker, Keills Primary
This session was held in Islay High School. Maggie Harrison and Maureen MacDonald are now in discussion with the Headteacher of the High School to look at delivering a similar workshop for S3 children.
Rescuing Humpty
National Science & Engineering week could not go by without involving out Pre-5 children. They had to find ways of rescuing Humpty so that he didn’t crack his head open getting down from the wall. Bubble wrap and cotton wool were turned into jackets and we also built a zip-wire and engineered baskets to help him get down from the wall safely!
Budget
| Date | Purchases | Cost |
| 22nd February | 4 copies Rosie Revere Engineer (for cluster schools) | £42.15 |
| 22nd February | External Hard Drive | £47.68 |
| 6th March | Pack cardboard tubes | £18.05 |
| Solder | £1.90 | |
| 3x Giant Lolly sticks | £5.88 | |
| 12xSellotape | £9.95 | |
| 3 packs masking tape | £10.77 | |
| Card | £4.99 | |
| Giant straws | £18.98 | |
| Wooden beads | £4.98 | |
| KNEX Imagination Makers Age 5-10 | £30.26 | |
| 2xKNEX Imagine Age 7+ | £61.02 | |
| The Boy who harnessed the Wind | £11.89 | |
| Bioengineering Projects | £12.49 | |
| 7th March | 4XKNEX Renewable Energy (for cluster schools) | £721.80 |
| Total Expenses | ||
| Remaining Money | £3280.99 |
P6 Engineering At The High School
On the 14th March the Primary 6’s from all over the island came to the high school for an engineering day. The P7s also came. Everyone got put into groups of three by Mrs Harrison. The first one was about a roller coaster, you had to make a marble get into a cup with some type of dip or loop. Most people were successful but some weren’t. The second challenge was to put your table at an angle using bricks. You had to try and make youre marble take ten seconds to go down a table. Some people added zig zags and peices of paper to try and slow down the marble. Overall the day was good and I would go back.
Fairytale Engineering
P1/2/3 joined P1/2/3 from Bowmore Primary and P1-4 from Port Charlotte Primary for some engineering challenges based on the fairytale Rapunzel. After a quick recap of the story, they used cocktail sticks and mini marshmallows to try and built the tallest tower that they could. Then they had to design and build ways to help the Rapunzel to escape from the tall tower. There were lots of ingenious designs – here is one of the ladders.
P7 Science Trip To I.H.S
On Wednesday 14th March P6/7 went to I.H.S. P6 did engineering and P7 did science. All of the primary schools from all around the island came. We did this because it would give us a chance to see what the classes are like in the high school, meet new friends from different schools and do science. The P7’s got split up into 3 groups and first of all my group was with Mrs McNaughton. When we were there we got a paper boat and filled it with boiling water and put it in a paper boat a checked the temperature. Then we got clay shapes and checked which shape would go to the bottom of the glue first and we found out that the sphere went down the fastest. The next class we went to was Mr Kitching’s class and there we were looking at crystals through a microscope. After that we went to Mrs Moran’s class and there we were doing experiments and saying whether the things we were doing were exothermic or endothermic. Overall I think that the day was fantastic and I would definitely go again.
By Rebecca Morris
Let’s Roll Engineering
P6 worked in groups with P5s and P6s from the other primary schools to hone their engineering skills. We talked about the range of engineers and the engineering process and how engineers continually have to assess their designs and improve on them. The children were given the challenge of building a roller coaster and then a marble run.
Disaster Engineering
P4/5 got together with P4/5 from Bowmore Primary for some engineering challenges based on disasters. The children learned about the range of different engineers and how their problem solving abilities really come in to their own is disaster situations. First the children had to design a collapsible, portable stretcher to transport a patient (potato) to hospital. They then learned about the hurricane which resulted in the air traffic control tower being destroyed and having to be quickly rebuilt to allow aircraft in with aid and other supplies. They had to build a tower of at least 30cm which would support a tennis ball in a simulated hurricane.
Engineering Art
Today on Friday 9th March Port Ellen Primary School had Elaine Johnston come and help the whole school create art. Primary 6/7 did an engineering abstract picture where we drew things that related to engineering like screws, cables and cogs. We used the art Eduardo Paolozzi as an inspiration for our work. We then had to paint them in only black, white and yellow we were allowed to mix the colours together. Once the paint had dried we outlined the picture in black and used metallic pens to add effect and texture to our pictures. It was a lot of fun and we would like to say thank you to her for helping us. The pictures will be on display for our year of engineering.
