This week in Primary 7, we have had another busy week.

On Tuesday, we went to Craigshill Sports Centre and took part in a sports festival. We were put into two teams and had to go around lots of different activities.  Some were fun activities and others were timed and scored.  There were javelin throwing and shot putt stations, relay racing, long jumping and many more.  We had a great time, but were extremely tired after 2 hours!

**BREAKING NEWS**

On Friday afternoon, we were notified that we had 3 winners, had amassed a total of 50 points and finished second in our cluster!  If we are still in this position after all of the other West Lothian cluster events take place, then we will be heading to the regional finals!  

In Maths, we have been doing a ‘Murder Mystery’.  Using our knowledge of data analysis and information handling, we had to interpret different graphs, charts and statements to find :

• who murdered who;
• when it happened;
• where it happened.

Once we had those clues, we had to use a mixture of basic algebra and problem solving skills (looking for a pattern and working backwards) to find out why the person was murdered.  We worked with partners from different groups and this allowed us to discuss our work and to cross check our answers if we were unsure.

In Science, we have been investigating the Earth’s Core.  To understand how plate tectonics interact, each table filled up a tray with water.  Next, we ripped apart a polystyrene cup into twelve pieces.  We put these pieces into the water and moved them all around.  To our amazement, we found that some pieces tried to join back together.  They couldn’t fully join as there were curved edges trying to join with straight edges and so on.  When this happened, it looked like mini ridges (mountains) were being formed.  Next, in our experiment, we added in a condition.  This was called ‘Force’.   We pushed some pieces together, using force, and found out that some of them joined together, however, when this happened, lots of water started to spout out of the tray.

To apply our experiments to real life topical science, we watched some BBC Science clips about tectonic plates and made some notes.  We found it very interesting.  Did you know that the Earth has seven tectonic plates and they are all moving, some faster than others? We also found out that the North Atlantic Plate and European Plate were once fused together, but over many millions of years they have split apart.  Where they’ve split there’s now a huge chasm which is filled with water.  Other plates have slowly moved closer together, just like in our experiment, and they have created mountain ranges such as the Andes, Alps and Himalayas.  We also found out that as rocks are heated by the Earth’s core, the hotter rocks rise and the cooler rocks sink.  These rocks move sideways causing the Earth’s crust to be dragged apart, which, in turn, causes our continents to move.  Next week, we’re going to investigate volcanoes and make our own!  Watch this space!    

Finally, a ‘week in a word…….’

‘Great!’ Callum

‘Awesome!’ Ethan

‘Epic!’ Sophie

‘Fast!’ Fraser

‘Super!’ Gianpaolo