Science

Grade 1/2

Over the past few weeks, Grade 1/2 have been researching and investigating the sky, and how it changes with different weather. 

We made ‘rain in a glass’ where we used a glass full mop water with shaving cream on the top and dripped food dye onto the shaving cream. 

We then waited to see what happened when the dye worked it’s way through the shaving cream cloud and ‘rained’ in to the water. 

This was great fun and the children were able to make connections with what was happening in the cup and what they see in the sky. 

We have had lots of real clouds and rain episodes to compare it to lately! 

Over the last two weeks of school, these classes are making ‘Weather predictors” - a little bit of fun in the Science room!

Grade 3/4

This term we have been investigating what is “Beneath Our Feet”. 

This has included both soils and rocks and recently we have really focused on rocks - where they come from, what categories they belong to and how they are formed or changed by weathering and erosion. 

We have looked at several interesting rock formations in Australia (Uluru, Wave Rock, The 12 Apostles) and did some research into one or two of these.  

Leading g up to our Weathering Rocks investigation, Georgia Sessions (Gr 3/4 N) brought along her rock tumbler - this led to a really interesting  discussion and lots of questions that Georgia was able to answer for us. 

We sent home some of our rock samples for Georgia to tumble and await their return to see and compare if and how they have changed. 

Well done and thank you Georgia.

Grade 5/6

Over the past three weeks, Grade 5/6 students have been doing some research. 

They have chosen a particular earthquake to research and make a poster about it. 

There has been a keen interest in this topic, and many many questions about how earthquakes occur, the Richter scale and in particular the earthquake of 2021 at Mansfield which most of us here in Wangaratta felt.

Did you know that in the previous 3 weeks there have been several small earthquakes around the Mansfield / Alexandra area? 

When I showed the information about these to the students, there were many questions and discussion about them and why we didn’t feel them here, or what damage they caused etc. 

A topic like this is always more interesting when there are local and current examples to bring to the discussion!