Maths | Mayfield Primary 5/6

We have recently enjoyed taking part in STEM week. We had lots of interesting activities to take part in and we had some great visitors in.

One of our favourite activities was working with Jade from Robertson Construction to build a tower. This was really interesting because we had to consider the cost of the bricks, how tall it was and how long it took to build. Each of these categories had profits linked to it and we had to work out how much money our tower would make.

We also had a visit from Craig who talked to us about his work using computer aided design technology. He showed us how a drawing can be made into a computer design and how this is an important step in many manufacturing processes, including fashion. We even got a chance to draw our own designs for tshirts or a whole outfit. Craig then took them away and picked a few to be made into the computer design.

We had a STEM Fun Day at the end of the week where each teacher planned a STEM activity for us to try. We got to play with cornflour gloop, try to stick a kebab skewer through a balloon, made glitter tornadoes inside bottles and take part in K’Nex Challenges! This was a great day and we learned that STEM is all around us.

We got to take part in a Maths Roadshow which challenged us in our problem solving skills. We worked in pairs to try and complete as many challenges as we could around the stations. Some were easier than others and sometimes we needed a little bit of help along the way. It was great fun though and we really enjoyed getting our hands on the different activities.

We recently enjoyed Finance and World of Work Week with lots of interesting guests who came to talk to us. We had a visit from Mr Wood who came to talk to us about his work in the Navy. He told us that he was a submariner and a bit about his work on board the submarines. Mr Wood has been to lots of different countries and lots of us didn’t realise the opportunities that the Navy can offer. This was very interesting and we had lots of questions to ask him!

We also had a visit from volunteers from RBS Bank who came in to work with us on a budgeting exercise. We had to plan a party for a certain child and consider their likes and dislikes. We were trying to plan a party within a given budget and present our ideas on why we thought it was good value for money. Most groups managed to plan a party under the budget and could explain why they thought theirs was the best value for money. It was interesting to hear what the bank workers thought of our parties because we aren’t used to working within a budget.

Finally, we had a visit from a man who worked at the local Post Office. He told us about his work and the work that the Post Office do and he also told us about how the Post Office work with money such as exchange rates, mortgages and insurance. This was very interesting because most of us didn’t realise that the Post Office could offer so many different services.

World of Work and Finance week was great fun and we learned lots of valuable skills which will help us as we get older.

Just another blogs.glowscotland.org.uk – North Ayrshire site