Category: STEM

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Silurian Visit

On Monday 25th April we went down to the pontoons at the pier to see the Silurian which is the boat of the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust. We had to put on life jackets.

The Silurian was a yacht. It was very nice and fancy. First we investigated the boat. We found out that the boat had ten beds, a galley, a bathroom, a dining room, a crows nest, a steering wheel, two masts and sails. The front of the boat is the bow and the back is the stern.

I learned about basking sharks. I also learned about the sounds of dolphins and whales and that people listen for the sounds underwater using a hydrophone.

 

By Ciaran, P4

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The Scottish Mathematical Challenge

P1020045This year pupils at Port Ellen primary school took part in the Scottish Mathematical Challenge where they had to answer problem solving questions 3 times over the year showing their working out. To get a bronze award you couldn’t lose more than 10 points, to get a silver award you couldn’t lose more than 6 points and to get a gold award you couldn’t lose more than 3 points. Rebecca, Katie, Ross and Matthew got a bronze award and I got a silver award missing out on a gold award by only one point! I feel happy because I got a silver I am also very surprised because I didn’t think my problem solving was that good. One of the questions was “Maureen, Alice and Siobhan are three young sisters, in that order of age. Alice is two years older than Siobhan. Each year, their wealthy aunt gives each of them, for each year of her age, as many pounds as she is years old. For example, on her first birthday a girl would receive one pound and on her third birthday nine pounds. The aunt has promised to continue this family custom with each girl until her twelth birthday. This year Maureen received as much as Alice and Siobhan put together.
How much will Siobhan receive next year?” I found this quite tricky.  There was also a question about a diagram that represents a rectangular net, which is made from string notted together at different points. Another one was about a diving competition where there are 5 judges that each awards a whole-number from 1-10 and you had to work out all the possible scores awarded.  It was really challenging but helped me get better at my maths problem solving.  There is an award ceremony in June in Glasgow.  Next year I will try to get a gold.

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Beat the Flood

IMG_2701For National Science and Engineering Week P3/4 were trying to Beat the Flood.  This was a challenge set by Practical Action to try and design and build a floodproof house that could stand up to flooding and monsoon rains.  The design also had to be sustainable, use materials available on a small Pacific Island and be cheap to build.  This innovative design has a water catcher and grows food on the roof so that people can still eat if the land around has been flooded.

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Wild Weather

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P3/4 investigated extreme weather events as part of their weather topic.  Charlet Rose found out about the flash flooding in Boscastle in 2004.  She discovered the cause of the flooding and used weather data to show the rainfall pattern over this event.  She found out how the flash flooding affected the people and the disruption it caused.  This was a great piece of work that pulled together learning in literacy, numeracy and social studies. Well done Charlet Rose.

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Investigating Microclimate

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P3/4 have been investigating the microclimate in the school grounds.  They used digital thermometers on loan from the Royal Meteorological Society to record the temperatures at different places in the school grounds.  It was a great way to consolidate all they had learned about maps as part of their orienteering.  They then worked in the group to produce a scientific report complete with prediction, method, results, bar chart and explanation.  A great piece of work!

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Waste Week

IMG_0145Last week the Eco group decided to do a waste week and  try to find out how much packaging  gets wasted at lunchtime in school.

We collected it for  only three days.  There was quite a lot and I don’t think that it was very good. I think we should do the waste week again because on Tuesday 15th we collected 650 grams and to me that is very wasteful. On  Wednesday  it got a little better and then on Thursday it was the same as Monday, terrible.  Hopefully we might be able to do it again and try to improve and have less packaging that gets wasted.

by Rowan

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The Rock Cycle

P1010993P567 at Port Ellen Primary have been doing Geology. This includes learning about rocks. So, we learned about how all the rocks are formed. They are formed by a cycle which is the Rock Cycle. There are 3 types of rock groups: Sedimentary rock, Metamorphic rock and Igneous rock. First, little broken up pieces of rocks, called Sediments cement and compact together to make Sedimentary rock. Sedimentary rock then heats up and gets lots of pressure building up on it. Then it turns into a Metamorphic rock. Next the Metamorphic rock travels to the core of the Earth and melts into magma. When magma crystallizes, it makes Igneous rock. Finally, Igneous rock then experiences Weathering, Erosion and Depostition. Then the Igneous rock turn back into Sediments. Then, It starts again. The process of the rock cycle takes millions of years to complete. When we were learning about the Rock Cycle, we all made A3 posters and we drew a diagram on the Rock Cycle. I thought learning about The Rock Cycle was really fun.

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Science Club

Mrs Clark has started a club called science club on Wednesdays from 3:30am to 4:30pm.  We have done it for 2 weeks; the 1st week we did it we were doing looking for worms for citizen science.  The next week we did balloon rockets and the boys won by 2 meters with 1 balloon because we put more air in it for the pressure.

 

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Science week at the High School

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On Wednesday 16th March all of the p7 in Argyll and Bute went over to the Islay High School to learn about science, because it was science week.

At the High School we made our own crystals and we also had to try and make a light go on by connecting wires. We all really enjoyed the science and we learnt a lot of new things to do with science. The next day in Port Ellen Primary School p3/4 and p5/6/7 invited our parents in to come and see some of the science we had done working with partners.

We set up lots of tables with lots of different activities such as a Islay map where you had to label lots of different rocks, cakes, the rock cycle, volcano, and much more.

It was great fun.

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British Science Week Parent Afternoon

After a week of science learning at Port Ellen we invited parents in to find out more about Rocks, Floods and Boats.

In P567 we have been doing geology this term, finding out about Islay’s interesting rocks and how they are formed.  Parents got to make rocks out of food, saw a cake model of the earths crust, our map of Islay’s geology and identified different types of rock by testing them.   They asked lots of interesting questions!

In P34 parents were presented with flood proof housing and has to test the houses to see if they worked!

In P123 they had to build waterproof boats that didn’t sink out of different materials and they also made paper.

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Geology With P5/6/7

p567 050P5/6/7 have been doing geology as their topic. They have been learning about renewable and non-renewable energy. Renewable sources are sources that will not run out and non-renewable sources are sources that will run out. They also have been learning how the energy is converted into electricity. They made posters on renewable and non-renewable sources. Some non-renewable sources are coal, gas, oil and nuclear power. Renewable sources are wind power, solar power, geothermal, tidal power and biomass. Wind power is using a wind-mill and when the wind comes it spins the wind-mill and creates electricity. They will be going on a field trip to smash up rocks next Friday.

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Weather

weatherPrimary 34 topic this term is weather.  They have been finding out which clouds are which, facts about storm Henry and they have been making graphs on excel about how high wind speeds are. We have made rain gauges and anonometers to measure the wind speed.  We have also made an animation of the water cycle.  It was very interesting to learn about.

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Bird Facts with the Nursery by the Eco Group

DSCN2116The nursery are doing a topic on birds and they have a bag of bird seed that will last a whole year.

Also they made bird food balls and this is how you make them you get: bird seed, bread crumbs, bread crusts and water. The crows try to steal the food but they can’t because the birdhouse that they made it too small for the crows to fit in.  They have also bought new bird feeders.

At Joint Sessions with P1/2 David Wood from the RSPB has been working with the children and he came into the school to tell them about birds and went bird watching around the school grounds with the children.

Since the weather  has been horrible they weren’t as many as they had hoped. They saw lots of geese in the field and lots of Black Hoods Crows.

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