Science

We love our messy Science investigations. This afternoon we investigated how we could use different separation techniques and equipment to filter the dirty water. Just look how clean we managed to finally get it.....

Miss Brown, who has a young baby, set us a challenge of finding out the best brand of nappies.  We worked in groups to carry out a comparative test of the absorbency of the different nappies and then reported back to Miss Brown our findings.  We were surprised to find out that the most expensive doesn't always mean the best!

Comparative testing to investigate which material works best as a thermal insulator and will keep the teachers' coffee warmer for longer when they are on break duty.

Beech class have been grouping and classifying materials according to their different properties.

We have been working on carrying out a fair test to investigate orbit times.  We used a ping pong ball tied to a string to model a planet and its orbit. We changed the size of the string so it was a smaller or larger orbit and then timed how long the orbit would take.   We had to consider which variables we had to keep the same to make the test fair and we also thought about why scientists repeat tests. We will now look closely at our results to determine if we can prove that the further the planet from the Sun, the longer the orbit time.

We have been learning about the different phases of the moon and used oreo cookies to represent a model of how the different stages. 

The Big Question

‘Is there a pattern between the size of a planet and the time it takes to travel around the Sun?’

We explored the planet fact cards to look for patterns and relationships.

Creating our solar systems in our pockets helped us to understand the distance between the planets and the Sun.  

In Science, we have been dissecting flowers to discover more about the female and male parts of the flower.

Comparing the life cycles of different groups of animals.

We have been developing our understanding of scientific vocabulary using our new science dictionaries.

We have been carrying out fair tests in Science to investigate the question- Does age affect your reaction times? We collected our results today and will analyse them next week.

Gestation Gurus- Pattern Seeking

We played a game to see if we could work out the different gestation periods for different mammals.  We learned that gestation is the process by which a mammal grows a baby and is the time between conception and birth.  Once we had worked out the correct gestation periods for different mammals, we were challenged to spot any patterns in the results.  We realised that there was a link between the size of the animal and how long it carried a baby for before giving birth.  

In most cases, the larger the animal the longer period of gestation.  Therefore, the smaller the animal, the shorter gestation time. 

We then carried out our own research to investigate if other animals followed this pattern and relationship.