Category Archives: Interdisciplinary Learning

Primary 2, Primary 3, STEM 2017, Technologies, Uncategorized

P2/3 STEM challenge – to design a bike accessory

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P2/3 for their STEM challenge at open day on Wednesday 15th March had to design a bike seat for Mr Tickles or Snuggles.

We learned to:

consider a design brief
take part in a group discussion in our bike teams
draw a design sketch
make a seat from cardboard that had fastenings and would be of an appropriate size
evaluate their designs

Alfie said it was quite hard to make the seat. He thought the cutting and shaping to make it fit was tricky.

Nathan thought it was fun and a little bit hard. It was hard to decide on who had the best design in his group.

Jessica thought it was fun to have the parents and grandparents come into the class to help. She thought her design was fun to make but was not so sure how practical it was.

Anytime Anywhere Learning, Community, Events, Maths & Numeracy, Nursery, Primary 1, Primary 2, Primary 3, Primary 5, Primary 7, Sciences, Technologies, Uncategorized

STEM Sharing the Learning Afternoon

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This afternoon we opened our doors to parents, carers and friends to come and explore our STEM interdisciplinary learning. In the different areas we had:

  • Nursery: STEM activities
  • P1 and P2/1: Building our Nursery
  • P3/2: Bike Challenge
  • P3: Baby Gym
  • P4: Project Planetarium
  • P5: Kidnapped: CSI
  • P6-7: Cool Chemistry

Visitors had an opportunity to take part in a range of science, technologies, engineering and mathematical activities with their children including chemistry experiments, designing the front of our new nursery, making parts of a bike, trying out toys for our baby gyms, making star constellations, fingerprint analysis and showcasing how we use digital learning.

The Nursery used this opportunity to try out their Go Pro, and Scarlet and Archie recorded the STEM afternoon through their eyes.

Our Technical Troopers also tried out using Microsoft Forms to collect information about out visitors’ experiences. This was a fantastic and instant way to gain feedback. You can complete the form by clicking here if you did not have time to do so during your visit.

Some of our feedback so far has included:

The most popular Science, Technologies or Mathematical skills evident during your visit:

  • Creativity
  • Observation
  • Problem Solving
  • Scientific inquiry and investigation
  • Discussion

We use a range of ways to involve parents/carers in their children’s learning. The methods you prefer are:

  • Newsletter
  • Parents Night
  • Sending jotters home
  • Sharing the Learning Afternoon

At Mid Calder we use digital technologies in a range of ways to enhance learning and teaching experiences. How do you feel the use of digital technologies enhances your child/ children’s learning?

  • To enhance learning for the future and modern living. Knowing what is safe and secure online. Learning new things that I may not be able to help with or understand.
  • Excellent , as technology is the future and will be used more and more as my child gets older and becomes an adult. I would encourage more use of technology in school and support the use of all types of digital technologies.
  • The use of digital learning will enhance their learning experiences and translate to real life.
  • I think they find it more engaging and interesting. Technology is everywhere, in leisure and the world of work and it helps to learn about it now. In the case of Sumdog, learning can be continued at home.
  • I feel that the digital technology used in the nursery is a great way to help the children’s understanding of how the things in the real world work. Everything is digital now and learning to use these technologies at a young age is beneficial as these can be used in a range of ways. We have a range of different devices in the household and although used more as a treat, I feel that my child knows how things work and can’t believe how quickly things can be picked up.

Thank you to everyone who came along to support the event.

Anytime Anywhere Learning, Maths & Numeracy, Nursery

Nursery Number Walks

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I can recognise numbers in the environment around me and I can talk about why they are important.

The nursery boys and girls have been learning more about numbers in the environment. At home they worked with their mummy’s and daddy’s to take photos of the numbers they saw at home and why those numbers were important. The children could tell us that buses have different numbers because they go different ways, everyone needs a different phone number and the houses on their street all have different numbers so the postman knows where to go!

The children decided that they wanted to go on a number hunt around the school! They were amazed at how many numbers they found. The children took photos with the ipads and have been trying to recognise the  numbers in the photos now they are back in the nursery. Thank you for all your help when we came over to visit your classrooms boys and girls. We really enjoyed it.

 

Primary 1, STEM 2017, Technologies

Building in P1

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We are learning that buildings are created for a variety of purposes                               

We are learning that different materials are used for different parts of a building

SC

  • I can name different types of buildings
  • I can name different parts of a building
  • I can describe the different materials used in a building and say why each one is effective

We started our new IDL by reading and talking about the story of The 3 Little Pigs. We explored the materials used to build the houses in the story, and decided why the straw and the sticks were not particularly suitable. The bricks were definitely the best choice!

We then watched a video clip about building a house, and considered some of the materials suggested for the different parts of the building – jelly walls? hair roof? newspaper windows? We could give very good reasons why these materials would not be appropriate, and we suggested much better alternatives. There were lots of examples of these building materials all around us in school- eg bricks, concrete, wood and glass.

We decided that these materials would probably be used for other types of buildings too.

We have now set up a Site Office in our classroom,  and we are going to keep an eye on the progress that is being made with the Nursery next door. Now, we plan to investigate some of the different types of work carried out when a new building is created, and we would also like to explore the various roles that people have throughout the process.

English & Literacy, Interdisciplinary Learning, Primary 5, STEM 2017

MISSING!

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L.I. We are learning to select key information from a description.

As part of our STEM topic, ‘KIDNAPPED’, Primary 5 have been helping the police in their search for the missing Green children who have been kidnapped from their home. This week we decided to create some Missing Persons posters to help with the investigation. We revised all the information we already had about the children and the circumstances of their disappearance.

In our investigation groups we discussed the information we had and selected the key points to include in our posters. We agreed that they had to:

  • be eyecatching, to hook people in
  • provide as much accurate information about the children as possible
  • give details of the date and time of the disappearance
  • give an accurate representation of how the children look
  • provide details of who to contact with information

Once we had planned our posters, we got to work in our teams and managed to produce some really eye-catching posters. We are hoping to get permission to display some around the school – look out for them!

Sciences, STEM 2017, Technologies

P4b’s Space-tacular Assembly!

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Well done to Primary 4B for a FANTASTIC assembly today all about their Project Planetarium STEM IDL Context. We have learned so much about the planets and the moon in our space missions so far and cant wait to find out what is next!
Thank you to all parents and carers who managed to attend. The children enjoyed preparing, practicing and presenting their assembly! Here are some pictures from the assembly and a link to the prezi presentation for any parents and carers who couldn’t attend and for the pupils to watch again!

Prezi Presentation: http://prezi.com/r6m6ljei5pt6/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Primary 7, Sciences, STEM 2017, Uncategorized

Cool Chemistry in P7/6

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LI: We are learning to identify the features of a fair test

LI: We are learning to classify materials

SC: I can identify that a material/substance has changed through decay, cooking, burning, rusting, melting and dissolving.

I can investigate what causes this change.

This week we kicked off our new topic ‘Cool Chemistry’ and we have been very busy discovery what chemistry is and what processes we have to go through when conducting an experiment.We are all excited that we are going to be learning about chemistry and what this involves. At the beginning of the week we looked how materials can changed through different processes. We were all given a small piece of clay which we examined and we had to describe its properties. Some of the words that we came up with were: flexible, moist, dusty, strong smell, squishy, gritty and soft. We then watched a film to see what happens to clay when it gets fired in a kiln. Once the clay had gone through the heating process the properties of it were very different. Some of the words that we used to describe the properties of the fired clay were: smooth, hard, fragile, rigid, breakable. We discussed how clay would not be able to go back to its original form and came up with other materials that this would happen to when they have gone through a change, we discussed that  bread and eggs could not go back to their original form.

We also learned about fair testing, what this involves and why it is necessary. Once we had learned about fair testing we then conducted our own investigation into what melts faster, butter or chocolate. We discussed how we could make this a fair test and decided that we had to keep the water at the same temperature when melting the butter and chocolate, the water had to be the same amount and the butter and chocolate had to be the same amount otherwise this would not be fair and our results might vary. We made predictions and were surprised at some of the results. We are looking forward to learning more about chemistry over the coming weeks.

 

Keep your eyes peeled for more experiments.

 

Miss Anderson

 

Interdisciplinary Learning, Primary 1, Primary 2, STEM 2017, Technologies

P2/1 – Building Our Nursery

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We are learning to understand that different materials are used for different purposes.

We are learning to investigate the properties of different materials.

  • I can name different materials and explain why they might be used for different parts of a building.
  • I can find a variety of materials around the school and explain why it has been used for the purpos

This week we have been exploring the different materials we can use to build and design, we had a choice of different rotations:

  • Using machinery in the sand to build.
  • Designing plans for the nursery in the architect’s office.
  • Selecting materials to build a nursery.
Primary 5, Sciences, STEM 2017, Technologies, Uncategorized

Mission 6: Fingerprint Discovered

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Learning Intention: We are learning what a fingerprint is
– I understand that everyone has a unique fingerprint
– I can identify the key features of my own fingerprint
– I know how and why the police use fingerprints to help them solve crimes

As part of our STEM IDL context, Kidnapped, P5B have been receiving missions from Police Chief Anderson to help Police HQ to find Jack and Sarah Green. This week, we discovered that a fingerprint was found on the strap of a watch belonging to Jack. Chief Anderson sent our investigation teams a fingerprinting kit so that we could find out more about our own fingerprints. 

We learned there are 3 main characteristics to look for; loop, whorl and arch. We put our fingerprints onto a balloon first and inflated it so that we could see our print pattern more clearly. We used magnifying glasses to get an even closer look.

We then took prints of all ten of our fingers and analysed them to find the specific characteristics of each one. It was interesting to compare all ten fingers and see which was the most common characteristic. We recorded out findings and added this to our growing case files.

We also discussed how difficult it must have been for the police to match fingerprints in the days before technology. We used our own and the school devices to find out when the first crime was solved using fingerprint evidence- all the way back in 1892!