On Thursday 29th January, the pupils from Abernyte Primary were joined by Blairingone Primary and Logiealmond Primary for a day of Science and Photography.

Pupils got to know one another better before working collaboratively to test different foods for the presence of protein. This involved crushing up food with a pestle and mortar with water to create a solution, then filtering this solution using filter paper and a funnel, before testing these different food solutions for proteins using Albustix.

In the afternoon, renowned nature photographer Kenny Bean held a workshop where pupils learned to use the macro function on a digital camera, and some inspiring photography tips, before being set loose at Barry’s Wood to create their own photographs.  The children then had a chance to view and manipulate these pictures back in school.

Some of the pictures were so good that some may go on display as part of a Photojournalism exhibition showing at Strathearn Artspace in Crieff during March 2015.  A digital exhibition of a larger selection of images is also planned to be shown in Pullar House, Perth, and hopefully also at Perth Museum & Art Gallery.

Blairingone had this to say about the day:

“We had a fantastic day yesterday at Abernyte when we took part in science and photography workshops. Our pupils really enjoyed all the activities and they even made some new friends! They especially loved going out into the woods and photographing nature. Thank you so much for making us all feel welcome. Your hospitality was amazing.

Thanks again

All from Blairingone”

Having now received the CD of photos taken by the pupils, here are a couple of the best ones:

The computer game that was designed and created by Primary 6 pupils as part of Dare to be Digital 2013 is online now!

To play the game that pupils created themselves in a collaborative group, you will have to use an HTML5 capable internet browser such as Google Chrome (Internet Explorer will not work).  The game will be online for a limited time, so play it now while you can!

Head to the game over here and let us know what you think:

http://futurefossilstudios.com/darelaunchpad/14June/teampurple/build/index.html

Thanks to Future Fossil Studios for putting this together and hosting it.

On Friday 14th of June, Primary 6 from Abernyte Primary went along to the Dare Launchpad event at Abertay University to learn about the UK computer games industry and have a go at designing and creating their own platform game.

Pupils learned about some of the computer games that are produced in Britain and were given a tour of some of the teams that are developing games for the Dare to be Digital 2013 design challenge.  They learned about the inspiration and design process behind the games and what is needed to create a successful game.

After everyone was split into co-operative teams (P6 from Abernyte were joined by two pupils from Arngask), pupils decided if they wanted to be a Designer, Artist or Programmer before brainstorming and coming up with ideas for their own game.

After lunch, the Artists got to work on the graphics for the game using Gimp, the Programmer started building the level and the Programmers began coding the software needed for the individual elements of the game using GameMaker Studio. 

This collaborative process eventually resulted in a playable game which will be built to a web platform by Future Fossil Studios and hosted online.  As soon as they’re ready, we’ll update this post with a link to the game(s) for you to try out!