Kirkcolm Primary got British Science Week off to a flying start today.  John McGill of Computer Xplorers travelled down from Ayr to deliver two workshops to our boys and girls.

Both classes explored Lego Wedo, using Lego components and modules alongside coding blocks to construct models from schematics. They were able to automate their models to perform increasingly complex functions; building up from changing light colours and producing a range of sounds to performing motorised functions.  The older children applied the use of gears to control motor speed when constructing and programming a cooling fan  – small gear = fast speed, large gear cog = slower speed.

The activities helped support a wide range of skill development, for example:

Computational thinking:

• decomposition – breaking a complex problem down into steps
• abstraction – focussing on the important parts only
• algorithms – developing step by step solutions to problem solve

Meta Skills for learning, life and work (Skills 4.0)

• Self Management – focussing, adapting, initiative
• Social Intelligence – communicating, collaborating, leading
• Innovation – curiosity, creativity, sense making, critical thinking

To culminate the investigative session, linking with the theme of growth for this year’s British Science Week, the older children investigated the key question of:

‘How do certain organisms contribute to the life cycle of plants?

They had to:

• Explore how different organisms take an active role in plant reproduction
• Create and program a model of a bee and flower to represent the relationship between the pollinator and the plant
• Present and document the different models created to depict plants and their pollinators.

They built a robotic model incorporating gears and infra-red motion sensors etc.  The bee is programmed to fly to the flower, emitting a buzzing sound. The bee then detects the flower and stops to collect pollen before flying off to visit another flower, promoting cross-pollination.

Everyone agreed that the workshops were highly engaging and educational – an excellent start to our upcoming week dedicated to science and all things STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths).  Our thanks to the British Science Association for granting our funding application and to John from Computer Xplorers for providing such  fabulous sessions for us.

# Successful Learners