Hi P7A readers, I wanted to update you on what we have been doing in our Learning Journeys since our last entry.

I was incredibly impressed with all of the STAT Wars presentations, with everyone successfully becoming experts on their issue and groups confidently imparting their knowledge with the class!

Afterwards, P7a started exploring how communicating and collaborating are life skills and the pupils  were encouraged to reflect on how they use them everyday. The class recognised that they had utilised these two META Skills during the STAT WARS project work when we respectfully listened to each other, compromised and took turns. We have also learned about the importance of communicating our emotions which we did through expressing our thanks to Miss Tenby for her wonderful teaching! We also applied our communication skills by writing an article about ourselves being local heroes in the future and we included a section about how we gave back to the community.

Our current Learning Journey is about the evolution of batteries. Mr McCormick from the science department at Eastwood High School came across and showed some of us how to create a fruit/vegetable battery! We then recorded the meter readings of lemons, limes, oranges, apples and potatoes and discussed why the results may differ. After exploring the components in batteries and how devices are powered we created a timeline showing how they have developed over the years! We also learned about how modern items have inbuilt features to make them more energy efficient and then we investigated how people can be wasteful with batteries. After exploring the impact batteries can have on the environment we created a diagram of the life cycle of batteries and discovered they can be recycled for many purposes including reusing the materials for grass fertiliser! Inspired from all of our research, Mr Atkinson challenged us to redesign devices that use batteries and to creatively replace them with alternative power sources.  We also had a heated debate with groups arguing for and against if we can live in a world without batteries. Finally, we have created information posters about how to dispose of batteries correctly.

Mr Atkinson

Hello to all the P7A blog readers, it’s Mr Atkinson here! As you will know this year I am doing NCCT for primary P7A with a focus on developing Crookfur’s Inquiry Based Learning approach so I wanted to give you an update of what we have been doing.

In our first Learning Journey – Plant Growth and Farming, we revisited parts of plants and what they require to survive. Once having been explained how fertilisers affect the development of plants the pupils then researched different types organic and inorganic fertilisers. We also studied some labels on fertilisers and discussed the importance of how to use them safely and we looked at the percentages of the chemicals in them.  The pupils then created farming maps of Scotland and made a key to label arable, dairy and mixed farming areas. We then had a heated debate about land use with pupils eagerly defending and arguing against who should get priority with developing land and who damages environments the most.  We have also partnered with the University of Glasgow and taken part in their educational programme Sci-Seedlets. In this project we did a science experiment to test and compare how maize seeds grow when given water or salty water. This was to check whether sea water would make a good alternative option to watering plants as droughts are increasing in parts of the world. We recorded the growth progress of the plants over a few days and at the end of the experiment we took them out the soil. The pupils observed that the roots were smaller in the salt water container and concluded that salt water could be used to feed plants but their  growth would be delayed.

Afterwards, the META Skills of Creativity and Curiosity were introduced to the class through a series of lessons and activities. We also discussed how these skills are relevant in everyday life and how they can be further developed.

Our current Learning Journey – Carbon Footprint, is being delivered through the STAT WARS competition tasks. First the class explored some of the sources of CO2. Then the pupils organised themselves  into groups and by using Excel recorded their individual carbon footprints which identified a shared common problem. Since then the pupils have displayed excellent teamwork and collaborative skills whilst designing their campaign posters using Adobe Express, summarising the project in a blog entry  and producing presentations with graphs and charts that they created. I have been incredibly impressed with their enthusiasm, resourcefulness and dedication throughout this Learning Journey!

Mr Atkinson