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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
# Successful Learners
