Well done – what a great week! I have really enjoyed seeing your engineering and maths skills develop. Thank you for posting photos and videos of your science experiments from last week. I’ve also been able to view a few of the STEM videos on Twitter..did you see Mr Farnshaw? There are lots of jobs you could consider if you wanted a career in STEM.

The ice cube experiment.

Think what did you notice? What do you think that means? Does it influence colours we use for buildings or clothes? This solar energy  experiment is aimed at understanding the different heat absorbing capacity of different colours backgrounds and the effect of those on the melting rate of ice cubes. The black card or ice will melt fastest as it absorbs the most light; it is the most efficient Solar heat collector. The white will melt the slowest since it reflects most of the light. The other colours absorb all the light EXCEPT the ONE they reflect; this is the colour they appear to us.

Spaghetti Bridge Challenge

How did you get on – did you notice how you could strengthen the individual strands by putting them with others? This is what happens with steel strands supporting bridges.  The shapes we use are very important and we learn a lot from nature – the branches of a tree the shape of seashells.

Boat Challenge

Remember how the ball of Plasticine sank in class but when we changed the shape and spread it out it floated? Watch the videos again for more information on buoyancy. Shapes and distribution of weight is used by us when we load a caravan to travel on holiday or when cargo is put on a ship.

Mathematics

I’ve really enjoyed the Topmarks tessellation game I’ve played it quite a lot! The 4 colour rule is true! It takes time and you sometimes have to go back and change your work but you only need 4 colours for the whole world map!

What else did you learn?

I’ve enjoyed it so much I am going to include an A in STEM and turn it in to STEAM. Science. Technology, Engineering  Art & Design, Mathematics.  Next week we will focus on mathematics and art & design. Design is everywhere – in the taps we use, our sofas, cars even street lamps. We have the opportunity to take part in a design competition run by Stepps Pharmacy.  I will post it here on Monday and it will also appear on Twitter.