On Monday the 11^th of June 2018 Tim Pickering came to the school to help us learn more about biodiversity in our local area.

We wanted to find out how many different species of insects we could find in the croft next to the school.  First we needed to gather equipment such as magnifying glasses, clipboards and paper, insect identification keys and sample jars.  I predicted that we would find between 0 – 20 different types of insects.

Once we had everything we needed we walked to the  croft.  We started looking for insects in the ground, on the wall of a shed and under rocks.  When we found an insect we put it in the sample jar and drew a picture of it, we then wrote down the name of that bug. I found it difficult to read the latin names of the bugs.  At the end Tim Pickering showed us an ant nest and we guessed how many there were.

Together we found 11 different species of insects including wasp spider, wolf spider, earwig, black garden ant, orb spider, woodlouse, slugs, beetles, ticks, red velvet mite and midges.

We found 11 types of insect in one hour but there were probably a lot more insects we didn’t find.

On Monday 28^th of June we learnt about and made a presentation about endangered animals. We had to write about their habitats and food chain. Sandy wrote about the Giant Panda, Josh wrote about the Bengal Tiger, Chris wrote about the Blue Whale, and Donnie wrote about the mountain Gorilla. It is very important that we make sure we look after the animal kingdom and plants.

We looked at food chains of these animals and have been learning a lot about biodiversity.  Biodiversity means life diversity – we have so many different species of animals and plants on Earth.  The loss of biodiversity could cause animals to become extinct.  Different species may find it hard to survive if their habitats are being destroyed.

The ways you could help our world and animals from becoming extinct include: recycle your rubbish, not littering, not using harmful pesticides on plants or bugs.

We set up a Science experiment on Monday the 15^th of June to find out which plant would grow faster, the one with fertiliser or the one without.

The equipment we used for the experiment included a pot, soil, 70ml water, cress seeds.

I predicted that the plant with the fertiliser would grow the quickest..

To set up a fair experiment I made sure both plants had the same amount of water and sunlight every day.

Everyday we observed how much the plants had grown. The cress without fertiliser had grown to 4cm and looked very healthy.  The cress with the fertiliser had only grown a little and it didn’t look as healthy.

My prediction was wrong I thought that the fertiliser would make the cress grow quicker and the plant would look healthier but this wasn’t what happened.

The cress in the yellow dish is the plant without fertiliser.

On Monday the 14^th of May the whole school went for a walk to learn about Biodiversity in our local area.  We used hoops to look at the samples with magnifying glasses and we compared this with other areas. When we got back to school, we used ID keys and magnifying glasses to identify what we collected.

In the afternoon, we were learning about DNA, genetics and inheritance. We worked in pairs and were given male and female inheritance strips.  The strips had codes on them; we followed the instructions to make our own Reebops.

On Tuesday morning we created a digital story on Glow about Braw the Loch Ness monster. We all helped to write the story and each had our own parts to write.  We could see who was editing which part on the Smartboard.

After break we were designing pulleys for a zip wire. We had to make a device that would safely carry a basket for 2 metres.  Our designs were judged on how far they could travel and whether the journey was smooth or bumpy.  Rosanna’s design travelled the furthest.

On Wednesday we were learning about sound.  We were using tuning forks and a cup of water to demonstrate sound waves.  Then we created our own instruments.

In the afternoon we made our own microbes,  We classified some  microbes and then created our own microbes using polystyrene balls and pompoms. We had a most unique microbe competition and we had to explain whether the microbes were helpful or harmful. We gave them a name and had to tell everyone how our microbe would be spread and what would happen if you came into contact with it.

In the morning on Thursday we had a pneumatics workshop. we worked in groups to design models using syringes and balloons to make moving parts. Sandy, Donnie, Christopher and Enoch made a crocodile with a snappy mouth!

We were learning about coding in the afternoon.  We were working through scratch and micro-bit modules if we completed all six in a module we could get a coding club certificate.

This week is National Digital Learning Week across Scotland.  We have been making the most of the technology in our school all week.