Tag Archives: STEM

Primary 5

P5 Den building

Leave a comment

Yesterday we headed down to the local woodlands to complete a STEM challenge.

We had to imagine we were in the Rainforest. We needed to build a shelter to keep us dry. Miss Cooke told us that it had to be at least a metre tall, everyone in the group could fit under it as well as keep us dry.

We used different materials that we found to build our frames and make it rain proof. Some of us found some really big sticks to use.

We discussed what skills we had used once we were back at school. We all agreed that we had used our Maths skills to estimate how tall our shelter was as well as ensuring materials we used weren’t too heavy. We also used Science to work out which materials would be better to keep us dry.

We had a great afternoon. We hope we get to go back and do more STEM challenges.

Primary 7, Uncategorized

Primary 7 STEM week

1 Comment

What a busy week we have had through STEM week. Firstly we visited the planetarium which was so impressive. The pupils asked lots of questions and found out lots of information about our solar system, the International Space Station and our night sky. We learned how to detect the North Star by following two stars in the constellation The Plough/Big  Dipper. Primary 7’s made a model of the Sun, Moon and Earth to show how they orbit each other. Perhaps the most heated part was the class debate on the conspiracy theory of the Moon Landing. Such interesting facts surround this theory but when it came to the class vote the believers won the vote with their convincing scientific arguments. For our open morning the class split into teams and used a variety of resources to make a working Moon Buggy.

Primary 4, Primary 5

Stem week in P5/4

1 Comment

Today is the first day of British Science week. We have been given the topic to learn about the moon.

First we wanted to find out different things about the moon.

Jaxon – why do people live on the earth instead of the moon?

Adam – why did people go to the moon?

Kaitlin – why do people not live on the moon?

Lucy – why do some people think the moon is made of cheese?

We used different books and the internet to find out our answers. We showed our answers as a poster.

We found out that Mrs Kerr and Deacon know lots about space and the moon.

This afternoon we learnt about the first man on the moon.

Lewis – 3 men went to the moon in July 1969.

Natalie – They went to the moon to study the rocks and dust.

Ellie – Neil Armstrong was the first man on the moon.

We cant wait to learn more about the Moon.

Primary 5

P5 Castles mini topic

1 Comment

Last week we learnt all about Castles as part of a mini topic.

We learnt when the first Castles were built and features of them. They were called Motte and Bailey. The Motte is a big mound of dirt where the tower would sit.

We researched how we could identify a stone castle. We found out that a keep is another word for tower and a palisade is a wooden fence.  Now it would be a metal fence.

We took part in two stem challenges.

We had to plan, design and make a catapult.  As a class we decided that it had to have unusual features as well as throw an object the furthest. It was very difficult.

We learnt that we worked well in teams as we used good communication skills, shared our ideas and tested them out. We found that we would need to know more about different designs of catapults so that all of our designs were successful.

We had a great week learning about castles and would love to learn more about them.

Primary 1, Primary 2, Primary 3, Primary 4, Primary 5, Primary 6, Primary 7

STEM Challenge Bins

Leave a comment

Each class have a selection of 4 STEM bins. There are 8 different bins altogether. These bins are tubs that contain 1-2 materials such as lolly sticks or cubes. They also have some starter challenge cards like ‘can you build a maze’ and ‘can you create a bridge to cross a 10cm gap’. The children can then work on their own, in pairs or in small groups to use the materials to build, lay out and create something to solve their challenge. The feedback from the children is that they love these and enjoy making their own challenges. It is great to see how different children will tackle a problem in such different ways and really show off their ideas and creativity. Next time you have a few empty boxes or tubes at home, set your child a challenge to use them to make something to solve a problem.  p3-stem-bins

Primary 5, Primary 6, Primary 7

Challenge club – wind powered vehicles

1 Comment

Today we accepted the challenge to build a wind powered vehicle.

We could use any materials in the challenge club box and were allowed one pair of scissors and a metre of sellotape.

 

The winning vehicle would be the one that travelled the furthest by using wind.

We needed to think about different ways to join the materials together as we didn’t have a lot of tape as well as how the vehicle would move using wind.

 

We will continue to make our wind powered vehicles next week

 

Primary 5, Primary 6

Earthquake building challenge

Leave a comment

Today we took part in a stem challenge to design and build a building that could survive an earthquake.

We were only allowed to use:

  • 20 pins
  • 70 paperclips
  • 2 metres of string
  • 30 straws
  • a cardboard base

Our buildings had to be at least a ruler tall.

We had 20 minutes to plan our design and talk about what we would like to do I n our teams of 3.

Once we had planned, we started building our earthquake proof buildings.

We worked really hard to make sure our buildings would survive.

“We had to think of a way to join it to the cardboard. We used pins to secure it” –  Bryoni

” We joined the straws together using paper clips ” – Jayden

Some of our buildings didn’t meet the criteria so we couldn’t see if they would survive an earthquake.

The winning building that survived the earthquake, which was Miss Cooke, was Rebecca, Jamie and Ryan.

 

Primary 6, Uncategorized

Greenrigg and Stoneyburn transition day

Leave a comment

Today Primary 6 from Greenrigg went to Stoneyburn Primary to work with the Primary 6s. Our transition topic this year is “Bridges”.

First of all we researched the 3 bridges that cross the Firth of Forth.

They are:

  • Forth Rail Bridge
  • Forth Road Bridge
  • Queensferry crossing.

We discussed what we would like to find out about each bridge.

We formed groups of 3 and got started using the Internet to find out the answers.

We produced a poster to share our information with others.

In the afternoon we took part in a stem challenge. We had to design a bridge which was at least the length of a ruler and could hold the weight of a hole punch. We could only use art straws and elastic bands.

We all had different designs and different ways to make sure the hole punch could be held on the bridge. Some of our bridges were successful and some were not.

We debriefed the challenge at the end and came up with our next steps for our bridge building challenge.

We can’t wait until the next transition day after Christmas.

Primary 7

P7/6 build a bone bridge challenge

1 Comment

Today we had a challenge to build a bridge of bones. Well actually they weren’t real bones but it was still a challenge. This was a STEM challenge so we had to work in groups and our designs had to meet certain criteria and constraints. We all found different ways to build our bridges and apart from one group who didn’t achieve it in th time limit, we all had a bridge. The bridges had to hover at least 2cm off the surface and be at least 2cm wide. The bridge had to balance a 1p coin without it falling though. We were only allowed to use our supply of pipe cleaners, cotton buds (bones) and lolly sticks. We really enjoyed this task and Miss Tuke was really impressed by our group work and ideas.