To celebrate British Science Week on the Monday, we engaged with Mars Hour to celebrate Mars Day! This was hosted by ESA, ESERO-UK and Explorify to teach us about all things Mars related! We learned about different formations that can be found on the Red Planet itself as well as all things space travel.
Pupils got to see lots of different experiments live and in action! Such as seeing how rockets launch themselves into space to how meteors form craters on the surface of a planet. In addition to this we were able to hear from real-life ‘day job’ astronaut, Time Peake, about his experiences with space travel.
This gave pupils an idea on how the different mars missions allow us to gain information about the planet itself, how different features formed on the planet and facts about the planet itself (night temperature, day temperature etc.)
In class, P5-7 followed this us by designing our own Mars Rovers with some exceptional entries form pupils who really thought hard about space exploration essentials…
Later on in the week (after a brief interlude on the Tuesday to celebrate the joys of History… Sorry Science – oops!) We decided to put our engineering skills to the test in a challenge activity! With a wide variety of different supplies ranging from lollipop sticks and cardboard to tape and wood – pupils were tasked with designing and creating their own marble runs!
In mixed groups, the pupils set to work and wow – were us teachers ever so impressed with the finished products. Once again the pupils of Kirkcolm have proven themselves to be resourceful and inventive! We tested all of these at the end of the day and discussed what we thought we did well and ‘design tips’ for any future marble run endeavours…
Please see the photos below for exceptional teamwork skills and the finished product! (Surely even Dragon’s Den would be interested in these unique designs..?)
Thursday seen another day for the both classes to join forces for another STEM engineering activity (just can’t tear us apart, eh) This time, we focused on boats – and boats with a purpose! Pupils were split into groups again and given a wide variety of materials and were tasked with creating a boat that floated!? (surely the one thing a boat is intended to do…) Boys and girls designed their boats prior to choosing their materials and had to carefully consider the different properties of different materials (do they float or sink?) Altogether, we have an resounding success amongst all the groups with some very elaborate designs! Unfortunately, plans to venture outside were called off due to the rain but thankfully Friday had some sun in store for us…
On Friday we took a wonder down tot he beach to get stuck into another engineering and design challenge. We used balance and skills to work in small groups to balance stones on top of each other to create some beach art! As pointed out by young Mr Butler – this form of art can be detrimental to the environment so we made sure we didn’t obstruct any wild life making homes down at the beach and we cleared away our art work when we were done. It was such an amazing way to end such an amazing week filled with science and developing our teamwork and leadership skills and it’s not everyday the whole school gets to work together on tasks.
