Category: STEM

On Wednesday 15th March P6/7 from all over the island went to the Islay  High School  to work with the STEM  ambassadors and one of the activities was Minecraft Education. When we were tinkering with that we were learning how to use debugging because if you make something wrong you have to find out what is wrong and then you have to fix it yourself.  Also when I was playing on Minecraft I had to use logic because I had to figure out how to use Minecraft on a laptop because I had never used it before.  When I was playing  Minecraft I noticed that there were different materials that you can you such as cameras and different blocks.

When I got used to playing Minecraft education I started building myself a house but when I finished my house somebody blew it up so I just decided just to join a new world.

Overall I think that the day was great!

By Rebecca Morris

P6/7 went to the high school on Wednesday 15th March and we had a STEM day with lots of other schools on Islay. STEM stands for  S  science,  T  technology,  E  engineering  and  M  maths. We have been learning about STEM in class.  At the high school there was a lot of things to do. My favourite thing to do was Kodu. You got to make your own game and then once you are finished you swapped with the other people in your group. We learned to make our own game on Kodu. In my game you had to dodge all of the hills and try to get to the big castle and if you bumped into the castle you would win but you only have 60 seconds to complete the level and if you don’t get to the castle in that amount of time you would lose. When I was making my game I had to program my character to jump so it would go over the hills and before that I had to program him to move. Before I played the game I thought it would be very easy but when I played the game I thought it was very hard so I had to fix the game. To fix the game I had to put down the hills  so people will get to the castle easily.  After I fixed the game I could play the game and so could the other people in my group.     By Rowan

On Wednesday 15th March all the p6\7 from Islay and Jura came       to the Islay High School to do technology and science.  First we were put into groups with people from other schools.  We then got to learn about different technologies. The microbit was hard to use because first you had to program it, then download it, then put onto the microbit. First I made the lights on the middle to say hello.  After I did that I made the lights say ‘hi i am a micro chip’.   You had to use  skills like  perseverance a lot for the microbit.   At the end Ithought that it was easier than at the start.

On Wednesday the 15th of March P6/7 all over the island went to the high school to do STEM and there were different activities to do.One of the activities was Lego Wedo. What is Lego Wedo? Well Lego Wedo is when you get to make your own robot. There were three different choices and the one I did was like a bumblebee with  a long neck. There were other ones to do as well. To build the robot you had to go on an app on the iPad and you chose the robot that you chose of the sheet and then tap on to it and it will come up with the instructions  to build your robot.

  I learned how to build lego  on my own and how to use the app on the iPad. The skills I use was tinkering because I had to play around with it so that is would work. I also had to use debugging because the programing went wrong and it did not work. I also had to debug the robot because some parts of it were in the wrong direction and in the wrong places.

I think that the one I chose to build was the easiest to make because it was small and it had the least steps and it was not that hard to make.  I felt happy when I had made the robot because I got to build another robot like that but not the same and it was harder.

On Wednesday 15th March primary 6 and 7 went to the High School to do science and technology.  There was a 3D printer which was really cool.                                                                                                                              We were shown some of the things that they had printed.  There was two little cubes and a shark.  We then went on to the computers.  The computers were on an app where you get to create things in 2D then you can change it to 3D.  When the man was showing us how it works it didn’t work because something was covering the bit where all of the stuff that prints the stuff.

I learned how to use a new app,  how to turn something 2D to 3D on that app and how to add a text box on to your shape.  When I was trying to get the text box on to my shape the writing would only go along the box two letters and then it would move on to the next line. It was because I didn’t make the text box wide enough.  I really enjoyed it because it was something new and challenging.

On the 15th of March P6/7 went to the high school for a science day. P6/7 from different schools came as well, like Bowmore, Port Charlotte and Keills. We all got into groups to do different activities. P7 went to do science. We did Chemistry, Physics and also Biology.

In biology we had to find many different things about ourselves, like our heart rate, our temperature, our reaction time and about our lungs. After we had tested we had to write it down.

Also we had to get a sample of our DNA.  We did that by getting fairy liquid and pouring it into a tube. Then we had to getting a cotton wool stick and wipe it around our mouths. We would then stick it in the tubes. After we did that we got something that was ice cold, and put it in with the fairy liquid. We then put it in a beaker and poured it in somewhere else. To make sure it was ours we had to write our initials on it. We all learned how to get a sample of our own DNA and I think that is a good skill to learn. We all really enjoyed the different activities that we did, and cannot wait to do it again in high school.

On the 15th of March all of the P6/7 on Islay took part in STEM activities.  STEM is science, tecnnology, maths and engineering.

It felt really strange in the high school and we had three different science teachers.  I liked Mr Kitching’s class where we were learning about physics and magnetism.

We got to try out different machines that made electromagnets and we had to make the light turn. It was fun and I met lots of new friends for high school and the event made me meet a lot of new people.

On Monday 13th March we programmed robots when we had a visit from Generation Science for National Science Week.

The robots were made of Lego but they had a device on them. The device was what made the robots do what it was programmed to do, a micro processor. We had to get a computer then make programs on it. We had to add settings on an app on the computer then make it move forward by clicking a arrow facing forward and then add more setting and click on a stop button to make it stop.

Once we made the programs we had to get a cord then plug one end into the computer and the other into the robot. We then had to press a button on the computer to transport the programs onto the robot. Once the robot was programmed you had to take it to a race track to get it tested and if the robot passed the test, you can go onto the next challenge. The next challenge was to make it go forward then go backwards for 3 seconds. We had to make a new setting on the computer which had a backward arrow on it and then make it go backward for 3 seconds by clicking a button and writing 3 seconds down. We then tested it out again on the race track and then we got another challenge.

The challenge was to keep all the program but make it rotate.To do that we added a new setting and put it before the stop setting. we then just put rotate to 75 and then tested it out. For the next challenge we had to remove all our current programs then add new. We had to make it go forward and then dodge barrels then go back on track and make it to the end of the track. It was hard because we could not use any senses so it could not dodge barrels just by seeing the barrels so we had to judge the time it would take to hit the barrels. Not many people made it past the challenge and eventually we had to stop. We then had a few minutes to give our robot some programs and make it dance. We had a robot dance battle  but they were no winners.

On Monday, 13th March Mrs Bermingham came in to talk to us about keeping our teeth healthy and cleaning them properly. She talked about all of the good and bad bacteria in our mouths and why it’s important to eat healthy snacks. She also told us that we need to “spit, not rinse!” and Spitty Monkey squirted water at us! She also gave us a Healthy Snack reward chart to make sure we are bringing healthy snacks into school.

By Christopher and the P1-3’s

Today wednesday 1st March I got an email from David Wood about my bird Endeavour, he sent me tracks of greenland white fronted geese. That the RSPB track using tags, he sent me the tracks to show me where the greenland white fronted geese migrate to and I found it very interesting, they fly thousands of miles and they all fly in their families.