Category Archives: Science

Latest News, Pupils, Science

SmartSTEM free family event

SmartSTEMs are very excited to announce we are supporting the first Insp-Hire Event hosted by Nine Twenty on Saturday the 14th of September at Glasgow Caledonian University.

Come along and help up spread the word by sharing with – Colleague’s, students, friends, family and your school network.

Insp-Hire is an initiative geared towards targeting parents or guardians of children and young people (age 4-14) to learn about industry 4 and how this will impact their children.

We have inspirational speakers including Gillian Docherty from Data Lab, an amazing interactive exhibition space with virtual reality, digital twinning, 3D printers, electric vehicles and more plus 10 workshops where both parent and child can interact together to learn to solve a cyber security attack, code Lego and build your own Fitbit to name a few.

We have a routes to success area which shows the different paths you can take to reach your goals along with soft skills sessions.

On top of this, there will be a food and drink arena showcasing some of Scotland’s finest food and drink manufacturers with brief presentations on how their products are made.

To top it all off….this event is FREE of charge and a great day out for families.

Sign up to attend here https://insp-hire.eventbrite.co.uk

Kind Regards

Team SmartSTEMs

#CollabIsKey

#InspHire

Insp-Hire Event Flyer

Latest News, parent council, Pupils, Science

Explorathon is back!

Explorathon is back!

Friday 29th September

On Friday 29th September over 300 cities across Europe will celebrate research in a one-night continent-wide festival: Explorathon! All across Glasgow, get up close and hands-on with our world changing research. Discover the truth behind the headlines as we ask “Do you believe in Science?” at Kelvinhall. Sing along as we explore how Victorian novels are turned into hit musicals or join us for an evening of curiosity at the Riverside Museum, packed with hands-on activities. It’s all totally FREE! Check out the program and grab a ticket for your favourite event here: http://www.explorathon.co.uk/glasgow

 

Latest News, Science, Visitors

St Luke’s Science Visit

Pupils from St Luke’s visited this morning with some fluffy little chicks. After a brief presentation of their science project and how they hatched the eggs and cared for the chicks. Pupils were also given an opportunity to hold the fluffy little birds.

“They were really warm, fluffy and soft.”

“I learned how to properly care for chicks”

“I found out that fertilised eggs are softer than others.”

“I found out how to tell the difference between male and female”

“It’s really relaxing to hold them. They’re very, very cute”

 

Latest News, Science

Rouken Glen

I would like to remind you that Rouken Glen Park’s next Evening Talk is on Tuesday 29 September.  The talk will take place in the Pavilion Visitor Centre, Rouken Glen Park, Rouken Glen Road, Giffnock G46 7UG.  The talk is suitable for all family members.

Evening Talk: Fungi in the Park

Tuesday 29 September, 7 – 9 pm

Doors open at 6.45 pm for tea and coffee

Let Graeme Walker of Clyde and Argyll Fungus Group put the ‘fun’ in ‘fungi’ with a fascinating talk about local mushrooms and toadstools. Colourful slides and interesting anecdotes; increase your understanding of this neglected but absorbing kingdom. Graeme is one of the most experienced mycologists in Scotland.

No booking required.

I look forward to welcoming you to the evening talk next Tuesday 29 September.

Regards

Liz Rodger

Activity Project Officer – Rouken Glen Park

Latest News, Pupils, Science

‘Rouken Glen Park Nesting Birds Survey’

Rouken Glen Park’s Autumn and Winter Evening Talks Programme recommences on Tuesday 18 August.  The talk will take place in the Pavilion Visitor Centre, Rouken Glen Park, Rouken Glen Road, Giffnock G46 7UG.  The talk is suitable for all family members.

‘Rouken Glen Park Nesting Birds Survey’

Tuesday 18 August, 7 – 9 pm

  • Doors open at 6.45 pm for tea and coffee
  • Rouken Glen Park recently commissioned a nesting birds survey in the park and tonight we receive the results.
  • Discover which birds nest in the park, how to recognise birds from their calls and how we can protect their habitats.
  • Talk by Neil Middleton, an experienced ecological consultant.
  • Neil Middleton of Echoes Ecology returns to give another talk following his very informative bat evening in May 2015.
  • No booking required.

Future evening talks in Rouken Glen Park Pavilion:

Tuesday 8 September,  7 – 9 pm    Dragons in your Garden

Tuesday 29 September, 7 – 9 pm    Fungi in the Park

Tuesday 20 October, 6.30 – 8.30 pm   Bryophytes

Tuesday 3 November,  7 – 9 pm    Hessilhead  Rescue Centre

Tuesday 1 December, 7 – 9 pm    Rouken Glen Park Archaeology

Liz Rodger
Activity Project Officer – Rouken Glen Park
East Renfrewshire Council
Environment Department
Thornliebank Office
190 Carnwadric Road
Glasgow   G46 8HR

Tel:  0141-577 3912
Email: roukenglenpark@eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk

Citizenship, Latest News, Pupils, Science

Clyde in the Classroom 2015

Primary 6a are participating in Clyde in the Classroom. It is a hands-on project which uses the life history of a native Scottish species, the brown trout, to promote awareness of river ecology among young people across the River Clyde catchment.    Over the next seven weeks, P6 will engage with nature and develop a sense of pride in their local environment. The children will be responsible for the care of brown trout within their classroom and will work weekly with Clyde River Foundation scientists. The twin outcomes of developing citizenship and personal confidence will be illustrated by their personal and group work. Yesterday, P6a  visited the Science Centre in preparation for the project. They also had time to explore the Science mall. You can read P6’s Blog on the trip by following the link.

 

Health and Wellbeing, Literacy, Science

Clyde in the Classroom

Blog 7

On Tuesday 11 March we released our trout into the wild. In the morning we carried out our final checks. We made sure that all classes who wanted to had seen the trout before they left. We then visited as a class and got our photos taken beside the hatchery. Sadly, another two trout had died, which took our total to 30 dead eggs/alevin. That meant we were releasing approximately 170 trout.

During our lunchtime, Caroline captured our trout and put around 5 trout into each tub for us to release. When we arrived back from our lunch she was waiting for us in the classroom. At this point some of us started to feel quite sad and emotional because we would no longer be able to look after our trout. We would miss following the rota to see what duties needed to be performed. We also felt quite excited because we were finally releasing our trout – what we had been working towards for five weeks.

It was a beautiful sunny day and we walked to the ABC park. It was lovely to see so many of our parents and carers waiting for us at the park. Caroline helped us to get into groups of three and the first group was called forward to release their trout. If we were wearing wellies we could stand in the burn. We then had to open our tubs and gently put the tubs into the water. We then tipped the tubs slightly which allowed the waters to mix and many of our trout disappeared very quickly. A few of us were lucky enough to see our trout swim off but many were just too quick for us!

We have really loved this topic and will be sharing our thoughts with the rest of our school. We would also like to share our work with other schools who have not yet been involved in this topic. We really hope to do something similar to this again.

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.

Pupils, Science

Clyde in the Classroom

Blog 6

Our trout are still developing well and they are growing daily. We can see their eyes properly and their yolk sac has now disappeared. This tells us that they are now ready to be released and begin hunting for their own food. We are feeling quite nervous about this and we hope they will survive in the wild.

Over the weekend some more of our trout were leaving the tank to swim about the area at the top. Sadly this resulted in five of our fish dying. However, we are very pleased that so many have survived. So far we have removed 30 dead eggs or alevin over five weeks. Caroline predicted that we would lose up to 5 each day initially, with probably 100 eggs/alevin dying. We are delighted to be releasing approximately 170 alevin later on today. This is a result of us being extremely careful and checking and monitoring our eggs very carefully. Our four times daily checks were very worthwhile.

Yesterday we invited the children from each class to visit the trout and to see their progress firsthand. All of the children enjoyed this and many of them were able to ask us questions about the progress we’ve been making.

Later on today we are visiting the ABC park in Barrhead to release our trout. We are feeling a little upset because we will really miss the trout and our daily visits to them. We are also quite excited as we will see them swim off to start a new chapter in their lives. We hope that they will all thrive in the next stages of their life cycle.

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, 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

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.