Tag Archives: STEM

Balloon rockets

This afternoon we have been building on our understanding of forces. We began the afternoon with discussions over what forces are and how they are used to propel rockets to space. We also looked at the impact friction, air and water resistance have on movement of objects.

These discussions then created more interest on rocket launches, with questions of how is a rocket launched and what happens when it goes wrong? We watched a few video clips to gain a better understanding.

After this, it was our chance to put some of this learning into action with investigations into how size and material (friction) impact on the distance a balloon rocket travels along a “track”.

This will form the foundations for further understanding and applications of our forces investigations.

 

 

Paper bridges

This morning we worked in pairs to see how strong we could make a bridge using only paper …

We investigated how a simple activity of adding folds or additional support structures could greatly increase the mass that one piece of paper could support.

Some then explored how this differed if we used card instead of paper.

There was a clear buzz in the classroom during the activity and it was great to see so many groups working so well together.

Well done P5/6

STEM Activities

There has been much excitement this term for both myself and the P5/6 pupils as we have started  our 4 week block of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) sessions with Emma Chittick, from Skills Development Scotland (SDS).

SDS are trying to encourage more pupils to consider future STEM careers by introducing them to ‘fun’ STEM activities through the latter years of primary school.

All pupils have been working really hard and enjoying the challenges set by Emma. So far we have used our coding skills to get our robots to orbit the Earth. Some of us were able to simulate a launch and change from a small orbit to a large orbit. This week we looked at “space junk” – we were able to programme the robots to orbit the Earth and divert around an obstacle to prevent dammage to our satellite.

 

 

I think the below comments from the pupils show how much they are enjoying this activity.

“STEM is really good” – Frankie

“STEM is really good because we get to learn with robots. I enjoy learning different things to do.” – Isabel and Kelsi.

“It’s good because it’s about robotics.” – Robert and Ronan

“We are enjoying it. It is fun” – Carla and Kayla

“It is quite hard at the moment but it’s fun.” – Robbie and Lucien

“It’s good, I love it, it’s my favourite thing to do.” – Amy