Category Archives: Latest News

Latest News, Science

Calls of the Wild

Calls of the wild gives anyone and everyone an opportunity to take part in important scientific research at home, school or even on the move on their mobile. This fun online activity takes 5-10 minutes and is a great way to get involved with real science.

Calls of the wild was first run for National Science & Engineering Week 2013. Working with researchers at the University of Surrey and the University of Salford, the study aimed to gain a deeper understanding into the emotions evoked by certain natural sounds.

Calls of the wild video

Calls of the wild

Latest News, Science

National Science and Engineering Week

Wildlife education charity Wildscreen has created a new online educational game, Team Wild, for National Science & Engineering Week. The game offers young people aged 7 to 14 a fun opportunity to find out about science careers.

Team wild highlights some of the lesser-known science careers and inspiring the next generation of science superheroes and environmental stewards.
From jungle to savanna, rainforest to coral reef, the Team WILD game will turn students into science superheroes by developing their speed, skill and coordination.

As they play, students will discover a diverse range of field tasks a conservation scientist or ecologist must do in order to protect the world’s species and habitats and will unlock exclusive videos to hear from leading conservationists about what careers in the natural world involve.

Team wild online

Latest News, Science

National Science and Engineering Week

To kick off National Science and Engineering Week, P3a,P3b, P4 and P4/5 took part in the Generation Science Good Vibrations workshop. During the workshop we learned that sound is made by particles vibrating in the air. We learned that sound can travel through solids, liquids and air and that the pitch of sound depends on how quickly the particles are vibrating. We used lots of unusual instruments to make sounds and we finished our workshop by making a class rap! Please ask us what else we know about making sounds and we can whisper or shout our knowledge to you.

Latest News, Literacy, World Book day

World Book Day

Christopher Brookmyre visited Primary 6 and 6/7 on World Book Day. As a former pupil of the school he had some funny stories to share. Life in school has certainly changed!  He also spent time answering some really probing questions, reading excerpts and provided writing tips to pupils. Well done Primary 6, 6/7 and thank you so much to Christopher.

Latest News, Science

Clyde in the Classroom

Blog 6

5 March 2014

Recently we have been discovering many changes to our trout. The yolk sac has almost disappeared and the alevin are getting bigger each day. The colour is now dark brown and they have a more “fish-like” appearance. When we visit each day the fish are starting to move much closer to the top of the tank – some of them are even jumping!

Over the weekend, two fish managed to escape from the tank and were found swimming around the top of the two tanks. Fortunately some water had been spilled so they were able to survive. It was very surprising and little bit funny. To say that we were shocked was an understatement. We were even more surprised when two more fish did this again on Monday night. We realised that the tank was too full and had to remove nearly 22 cups of water from the fish tank.

Yesterday we invited our parents and carers into the classroom for a short presentation. We prepared a slideshow for the parents, including lots of information and photographs of all that we have been doing over the last four weeks. Our parents were extremely interested in all we had to say and were asking us questions, all of which we could answer successfully.

The final part of this day included inviting our parents/carers into the P Pod to see our fish and discuss the progress they have made. We were extremely proud of ourselves and were true ambassadors for St Mark’s.

We are now excitedly waitng for the day we release the trout. Caroline will be accompanying us to the ABC park in Barrhead on Tuesday 11 March, where we will all be involved in the release of the fish! Look out for our next update and many more photographs.

Latest News

Parent’s Evening

Parent’s evening and book fair take place on 13th March. If you have not already done so please return the slip as soon as possible. If you do not return the slip an appointment will be allocated. Appointments will be issued on Friday 7th March. It has become tradition at St Mark’s to bring a bottle for the summer fair. These donations are much appreciated by the Parent Council and the school.

Latest News, Science

Chick,Chick,Chick, Chick, Chicken!

Primary 6/7 were excited to meet new additions to the St Luke’s family on Tuesday afternoon.

S1s received 10 living eggs at the start of last week which have now all successfully hatched. They are now the proud parents of 10 healthy (fluffy) newborn chicks. S1 pupils will take care of them and monitor their development over the next few days. Staff from the science department brought down the chicks to meet P7 as part of the transition programme from primary to secondary.

Health and Wellbeing, Latest News, Science

Clyde in the Classroom

Blog 5 

25th February 2014

Today we were visited by Mr Orr, who was able to demonstrate the gutting and filleting of a fish for us. We were a little anxious at first but from the pictures taken you will see we were all quite fascinated. Mr Orr was very knowledgeable and was able to answer all of the questions we had for him.

We saw the internal organs, including the heart during this process. There was only a small amount of blood, much less than we had expected. We were able to see the liver, lungs and the brain. We also examined the eye ball at Chloe’s request!!!!

 We loved the experience and are very grateful to Mr Orr for showing us so much – we would do it again!

 Primary 6

Fairtrade, Latest News

Fairtrade Fortnight

 Meet Foncho… a man with a plan

Sign his petition here Go Bananas Petition

This year’s Fairtrade Fortnight takes place from 24th February to 9th March and provides the opportunity for all pupils to find out more about Fairtrade and how they can support it. The theme for this year’s fortnight is “Go Bananas”.On Friday 7th March, there will be a Fairtrade Coffee Afternoon open to parents and carers. Tickets priced at £1 including tea and biscuits will be on sale in the very near future. Children will also be able to “Go Banana’s “and wear a yellow top to school showing their support of Fairtrade.Primary 4/5 , primary 7 and the Fairtrade Committee will be co-coordinating a range of activities within the school on the day. Fairtrade banana smoothies and banana loaf will be on sale along with a wide selection of Fairtrade products from Rainbow Turtle. P4/5 and P7  have  been  knitting and crafting a selection of “mug hugs” to sell and Primary 7 will be performing a fairtrade rap.

ECO, Latest News, Science

Clyde in the Classroom

Blog 4

24th February 2014

Every week we are noticing more and more changes. Our trout now swim much more and are approaching the top of our tank when we are visiting. They are much more active and their colouring is darkening daily. They have grown in size and we love checking on them after the weekend – we notice lots then.
We have included some pictures of us caring for the trout. You will see us checking the water temperature and  adding some iced water bottles to the tank. We will also be topping up the water into each tank, using the chlorine free water we’ve been preparing in our buckets.

You will also see a close up picture of our ALEVIN – shortly they will become FRY.

We’ve been given an estimated date of release for 10 March and are really looking forward to this step. Our parents and carers have been invited into our class on 4 March when will be reporting all that has happened since our project began. We are really looking forward to sharing our enthusiasm with them.