Category Archives: Sciences
Exploration and Discovery Outdoors
“OUTDOOR PLAY is among the greatest gifts we can give our children; and healthy, adventurous and curious children are among the greatest gifts we can give our communities.”
STEM Workshops in Primary 6 & 7
Today, Primary 6 and 7 had a great opportunity to hear from some experts working in STEM careers. Michael from Jacobs engineering and Daniel and Rob from GE Power spoke to the pupils all about their jobs and backgrounds in STEM. Also, pupils took part in two activities to put into practice some of the concepts they had been learning about. Daniel and Rob demonstrated how to create circuits using a battery pack, led lights and play doh! Michael led a session in creating bridges using everyday materials such as paper, blu tack and sellotape.
Many thanks to our visitors and well done to P6 and P7 for enthusiastically taking part in the workshops.
Primary 6 visit to West Lothian College
On Tuesday, Primary 6 had a great visit to West Lothian College. We were there to take part in three different activities linking to STEM and the World of Work. In the engineering department, pupils had the chance to see different workshops that students use to learn new skills and complete projects. They then took part in some tasks involving problem solving skills. In the hair and beauty department, pupils learned how to use various products as part of a hand massage. They also learned and practised some new hairdressing techniques.
We all really enjoyed our time there and it gave us a good insight into the work of a college student and how these skills link to jobs for the future.
STEM workshops
Primary 6 and 7 had a real treat this morning when they were visited by four parents working within STEM careers. The pupils had the chance to take part in two workshops, learning about different jobs through a variety of presentations and activities. It was great to see the pupils learning about the world of work and engaging with issues they had little previous experience of. I’m sure many were inspired to keep learning about STEM subjects and build on the skills they have already developed. As discussed with one of our visiting parents, pupils are preparing for jobs that perhaps do not even exist yet! The world of work is constantly changing and developing. Thank you to all those involved in making the event happen and well done P6 and P7 for listening well and engaging with the workshops.
The Nursery Bake Off!
The boys and girls have been taking part in bake off sessions in the nursery. So far they have made crispie cakes, scones, top hats and shortbread. They have enjoyed learning how chocolate melts, how to measure ingredients, the feeling and smells they experience while baking. We have all enjoyed this learning experience…including the staff! Keep watching for more bake off updates.
P1P Get Squeaky Clean!
LI: We are learning about the importance of cleanliness.
SC: I can demonstrate how to wash my hands thoroughly.
I know that I have to wash my hands after touching an animal, and before preparing or eating food.
I can talk about key points in the day when I have to wash my hands.
This week in P1P, we have been getting prepared for our farm trip next week. We discussed the importance of washing our hands after touching animals and before eating or making food to prevent the spreading of germs.
We took part in germ experiment. Miss Prior squeezed glitter paint into our hands and we then had to shake hands, hi 5 and pass a pencil between us to show how easy it is to spread germs. We found that the group that washed their hands straight away didn’t spread any germs. We then made safety posters to let other people know how important it is to wash your hands.
STEM Competition Preparation!
As part of our Junior Leadership Team, the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) group decided that they would like to learn about the construction of the new Queensferry Crossing. We spent some time in our sessions researching and watching videos around the construction of the bridge.
The children then decided that they would like to organise and run a STEM competition for the whole school as part of the upcoming British Science Week from the 9th to the 18th of March 2018.
Over the past few weeks we have been designing posters and experimenting with different ways and materials to construct bridges. We will now arrange a timetable for each class during British Science week to run the competition with each class, taking on a leadership role.
Float Our Boats – Science Skills in P5A and P5C
We were learning about floating and sinking in P5A. First we investigated whAT THINGS FLOATED AND WHAT THINGS SUNK. We learnt about buoyancy, upthrust and gravity and how the density of the material affected the buoyancy. Afterwards we designed boats thinking about their size and shape. We ran a fair test as we each used the same size of tinfoil. We predicted how many pennies our boats would hold . Then we tested the boat design and recorded how many pennies it held before sinking.
I found out that sometimes it is the shape and size of the boat that effects the buoyancy. Our small boat held 21 pennies but we had predicted that it would hold 10 (Ruari). It was so much fun making and testing our boats (Kai).
P2 Mid Calder Museum
At the end of our IDL topic about Dinosaurs, Primary 2 invited P1 and P7 to their Museum.
First, we made posters to inform the classes that the museum was about to open, and we put them up all around the school.
Then, we discussed the things we particularly enjoyed about our own visit to the National Museum of Scotland, and we talked about the kind of things we thought would have made our visit even better. For instance, we really enjoyed handling the dinosaur bones and looking at the huge skeleton models, but we thought that a short film about dinosaurs would have been really interesting too.
Thinking about these points, each Dino Discovery Team planned their own display. They had lots of amazing ideas! Soon, we had displays that included
- digging for fossils in the sand
- sorting dinosaur models into herbivores and carnivores
- working as a team to build an enormous jigsaw and name the dinosaurs
- using netbooks to create dinosaur pictures
- a quiz
- a short film clip about a stegosaurus
Primary 2 wanted their visitors to have lots of opportunities to pick things up and handle them, to play and to be creative as they learned about dinosaurs. They also created Fact Files about different dinosaurs, and carefully chose non-fiction books to display as well.
