P4-7 ask themselves the following scientific hypothesis:
Would tomato seeds thrive quicker in a green house construction compared to those not placed in a green house cloche?
To assist with this challenge, the pupils got their engineering design heads on today. In groups of 3 they planned and constructed a greenhouse structure using just straws, connectors and cling film.
The children applied collaboration, negotiation, self-evaluation and modification to their designs as part of the construction process. Each team successfully produced a free-standing structure that can simply be lifted away to aid watering.
Half the plants have been placed in the cloches and half are set aside for comparison. We will monitor growth over time to see which condition promotes the quickest growth.
As part of our week long activities for British Science Week (BSW), Portpatrick Primary invited families to join us for an open day event this morning.
Everyone took part in a carousel of STEM based activities (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths).
The range of challenges on offer were as follows:
Geology – Observational study of rock formation
Forces – Magnetism and materials
Electricity – Series circuits, conductors & insulators
Engineering – K’nex moving parts construction
Computing – Soundtrap pocast/music making
Computing – Coding
Biology – Place the internal organs on a body tunic
Biology – Studying life cycles – live caterpillars
Aerodynamics – Construct and test an ‘O’ glider
Aerodynamics – Construct and test a paper aeroplane
Science Terminology – Complete a vocabulary crossword
Everyone was fully engaged and there was much chat about the learning that took place.
P1-3 got busy today to tell the time by forming a human clock. The children had to work collaboratively to problem solve and calculate position. They ‘chained’ together to form the minute and hour hands of a clock to show given times. The task was differentiated appropriately.
P1 challenge – O’clock
P2 challenge – half past the hour
P3 – challenge – quarter to and quarter past the hour
As part of a British Science Week, P4-7 participated in an online chat group with 12 UK scientists today. This event is organised through funding from the Sustaining Excellence Award from Wellcome the UK’s largest charity.
The boys and girls interacted with the scientists, asking them a range of topical science questions on their field of expertise. The pool of scientists present in the session was varied, representing a balance of genders, a broad spectrum of ethnic groups and specialist fields. The children had an opportunity to explore the diversity of the world of work in this STEM sector.
We learned interesting facts about a wide range of subjects such as finding out about the ‘zombie fungus’ that takes over insects bodies and compels them to climb higher to 25 cm to more efficiently spread its spores at the right temperature and humidity.
The children asked questions about research into a vaccine for Covid-19. They were reassured to find out that there are many hundreds of scientists working on this right now. Also, the science team said that we can greatly reduce risk by simply using tissues to sneeze and cough, washing our hands and avoiding touching our faces.
It was a very interesting session, which follows on from our I’m a mathematician online chat at the beginning of the year.
The whole school were book worms today to celebrate World Book Day. There were many activities that the children participated in.
Alba & Izzy organised a second hand book sale as part of their library monitor responsibilities. The children had the opportunity to recycle and reuse by purchasing old book stock for the princely sum of 20p per title. P1-7 enjoyed. We raised £22, which equates to over 100 books purchased for our little school.
Ready to sell
Roaring trade
What will I choose?
Grab a bargain
Happy with our purchases
All of the children participated in DEAR – Drop Everything and Read. Everyone signed on to their new MyOn online reading accounts and enjoyed reading at least one book. We collectively read 1940 pages in 93 books. Our top three genre selections were longer books, adventure and sports.
P4-7 then took part in ‘Bookbusters’, a retro-style quiz based on the old TV series Blockbusters. The class split into two teams (blue and red) and answered questions on famous books by the letter of their title. The winners were the ones to first reach the other side of the board in a linked chain.
Bookbusters
The activities moved on to the children designing their own book cover for their favourite book. This is due in tomorrow, so there is still time to polish the artwork before the winner is judged.
Finally, P4-7 had the challenge of writing the best book review in the class. Children can bring their completed entries to school tomorrow. The winner will receive a copy of ‘The Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book‘ to create their own memoirs for when they are famous.
P4-7 took part in a science workshop event organised and delivered by S6 Stranraer Academy STEM Ambassadors Lilly and Emma.
The young ladies delivered a carousel of four activities. First up, the children used their sense of smell to determine whether the could smell as well as a shark. The pupils had to sniff vials of varying strengths of water/perfume from zero, 20ppm, 200ppm and 100ppm. They then ranked them in order of weakest to strongest. Robin and Alfie were in full-on shark mode, getting the vials in the correct order.
samples to sniff
What strength is it?
Next up, the pupil had the very enjoyable activity of making slime like a slug. A simple mixture of cornflour and water was produced. The children explored the properties of this substance. The mixture flowed, but became stiff when squeezed or pushed by a spoon. We learned that this is an oobleck mixture that becomes more viscous when pressure is applied. This is beneficial to a slug as the creature can apply different pressure points with its foot to both slide and anchor in place.
Mix cornflour to a thick paste
Exploring properties
Try stirring – it’s not easy!
Following that activity, the pupils engaged in a brain challenge. They were presented with colour words written in a non-matching colour e.g. the word pink written in green pen. The children had to try and say the colour word and not the colour it was written in. It was a bit of a brain tease. Most people find it easier to say the word rather than the colour as the word has a strong influence on the brain. Words are read faster by the brain than colours are named. If you would like to find out more about this challenge, it is called a Stroop test.
Colour Word or Colour Shown?
The final activity was testing our peripheral vision. The boys and girls attached string to a protractor to create an arc with which to rotate an object into our field of view. We were using our rod cells to sense objects. There are fewer rod cells at the periphery of our retina. Hence, why we could not determine what the object was until it was more directly in front of us.
Lilly and Emma demonstrate
What’s the point for visibility?
Can you see it yet?
To bring the session to a close the STEM Ambassadors elicited the pupils’ thinking on the science behind each activity. The children explained what they had learned by carrying out the practical activities.
Thank you to Lilly and Emma for a great learning experience!
The whole school enjoyed celebrating Shrove Tuesday today. The children have been learning about this practice as part of our RME topics on Easter and Lent.
In P4-7, we applied HOTS creating skills by designing a range of topping choices for our pancakes: 1 healthy, 1 indulgent and the one they actually produced.
As P4-7 are also learning about fractions in maths this term, we applied this in context to engage with the recipe at differentiated levels. We did the following:
Halved the recipe ingredients to make a lesser quantity of pancake batter
Worked out the fraction of a litre we used for 200ml of milk (1/5th)
Worked out what fraction of a kilogram we used for 100g of flour (1/10th)
Converted between improper and mixed fractions i.e. when we added five, 1/4 teaspoons of sugar to our mixture. We calculated that this equates to 5/4 as an improper fraction and 1 whole + 1/4 as a mixed fraction.
P1-3 focussed on using and applying instructions as part of following recipes. The children used their maths skills to measure and weigh the correct amount of each ingredient to make the batter mix. The activity was followed up by creating and/or organising the correct sequenced steps for a pancake recipe. The boys and girls then had a mock pancake race for PE using beanbags and racquetes.
As part of estimating and measure, the class measured out 15 metres in the hall to visualise the circumference of the biggest pancake ever made. Everyone agreed it would have taken some eating!
Throughout the food technologies activity, all the boys and girls worked safely and hygienically to cook their individual pancakes before selecting their toppings to enjoy as a tasty snack.
Our P4-7 pupils carried out an interactive survey of their practices and attitudes to online activities. The children were asked a range of questions on their online habits. This was anonymous and conducted through a computer voting system not requiring any login details.
As per national trends, the results demonstrate to how our young people are engaging with social media and online devices.
Have a look at the video to view the results. The footage can be paused on each slide to allow you to digest the information displayed.
We are using these results to have a conversation on how to use online media safely and responsibly.
The class also undertook a class discussion quiz that focussed on how consent works in an online context. We explored how young people ask for, give and receive consent online. This covered aspects such as friendships or relationships, how they take and share images and videos or how they manage their privacy and data.
As part of Safer Internet Day (SID)2020, we would like to highlight available support and advice information for parents and carers that may be of interest to you. A great source for family home resources and information is the SID website link, as shown below:
The site contains a wide range of materials that can be used to talk to your child about online safety this Safer Internet Day. This includes activities, conversation starters and information to help parents and carers talk to their children about how to navigate the issue of online identity in a digital age in a safe, responsible and respectful way.
Attached is a sample Family Internet Safety Planner that allows you to formulate your own approach to internet safety in your home environment. There is also a resource sheet detailing links to further sources of information. Both are downloadable directly from this blog or from the website above.
Why not use the prompts shown in the image (click to enlarge), and below, to see how you can start a conversation with your child using the top 5 tips to keep our young people safe online. :
Our internet, our choice, so…
Choose to have a conversation
Talk regularly with your child about how they use technology, and find out what their digital life is like, including what their favourite sites and services are and also how being online makes them feel. Listening to your child will give you the best possible idea of how you can support them. Not sure where to begin? Have a look at our suggested conversation starters for parents.
Choose to take a balanced approach
As parents it’s natural to feel worried about the risks posed by your child being online, but for young people the online world is exciting and fun, as it brings so many opportunities for them. Remember that your child will use technology and the internet differently given that they are growing up in a world immersed in all things digital. Try to look at both the positive and negative aspects of being online and empower your child with safe choices they can make instead of overwhelming them with restrictions.
It can sometimes feel like young people are the experts in all things digital but remember – you are the life experts. You are always there to help your child but make sure you know how to get support too by visiting our Need Help? page. You can take steps to support your child online by using features such as privacy settings on social media and understanding how to make a report on a range of apps, games and services.
Choose to be current and topical
This Safer Internet Day focuses on the very relevant topic of consent in the digital world. Use this as an opportunity to support your child with how they tackle digital consent within relationships and friendships as well as how online services use the data we provide. Use our quick activities as a family this Safer Internet Day to help you unpick this topic together.
P4-7 braved the chilly day today to pop outside to have an outdoor maths session. The focus was measurement, perimeter and area.
P6 & 7 measured the length and breadth of our football pitch in metres. They recorded their length as 17m by 30m. They calculated that the perimeter was 94m and the area was 510 metres squared.
P4 & 5 measured the length and breadth of the paving slab, which was 60cm by 90cm. We calculated the perimeter as 300cm (3m). The area was 60 x 90 cm = 540cm squared. ( Some took an extra challenge of working in decimals: 0.6. x 0.9= 0.54 m squared)
As it was so chilly, we popped back inside and worked out the area and perimeter of our P.E. hall. Some children worked in whole numbers, whilst others worked accurately to 1 decimal place. The children produced a scale drawing of the measured area using cm squared paper.
We then applied real life problem solving to work out costs of placing a border around the hall and the price of carpeting the hall (differentiated by price per metre).
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