Science Week
8 M - 12 M
I F
During Science week this year, we created fact files on Elijah McCoy, who was an inventor and created oil to make trains run quicker. His invention meant there was a reduction in pollution and the quantity of oil needed for travel. During the week we also planned and created our own Rube Goldberg devices! We worked in groups and found the most inefficient way to create a chain reaction, it was a lot of fun!
Sound
In our sound topic, we have looked at how sounds travel, how we hear, what is in our ear and the dangers of loud noises. With our bodies, we recreated the form of solids, liquids and gases and identified that sounds travel best through solids as the molecules are close together. We also researched how dolphins can hear different noises than humans! This is because they have ultrasound and can hear very high pitched noises. We now know what decibels are. Did you know a whisper is about 30 dB, a normal conversation is about 60 dB, and a motorcycle engine running is about 95 dB. If we listen to noises over 70 dB for a long time, we can cause damage to our ears.
Electricity
We have been studying all things ELECTRICITY! First, we had to go through some safety information before we started constructing our own circuits. We managed to identify what was needed for a bulb within a circuit to light. Our first circuit making lesson, we just used one bulb, one cell and 2 wires and we managed to make the bulb light. In our next lesson, it was a little bit trickier, we had to make 2 bulbs light.. but only using 1 cell. We observed that the bulbs were dimmer. We then added another cell, and the bulb became brighter!
Living things
During Autumn term, we have been studied vertebrates, finding out about their characteristics:
Mammals
Reptiles
Amphibians
Fish
Birds
As well as this, we have also identified invertebrates and found out lots of interesting facts about them.
Did you know...
Worms have no eyes! Instead, they have receptor cells in their skin that are sensitive to light and touch!