Science at BPS

What an amazing start to our BPS Science program! All students have now spent 6 weeks in the Science room and are now used to coming in and putting on their lab coats! I have loved seeing all classes become scientists! 

We started the program with a bang! I couldn't resist doing the volcano experiment with all classes, and it certainly didn't disappoint! The Science room has also seen lava lamps, foam clouds, catapults, windmills, playdough, marble painting and so much more this term.

Foundation students have enjoyed becoming different types of Scientists, including Meteorologists and Environmental Scientists. And I am very pleased to say that every Foundation student can say 'meteorologist' and can explain what they do! We have had fun learning about Earth's natural resources such as wind, rain and temperature. We have made windmills to represent wind farms; we have made rain clouds in a jar; and we have made our very own weather stations. Nearing the end of the term we are learning about pollution and why it is so important to keep our oceans clean. 

Year 1 and 2 students have been looking at force and motion and learning about how different objects move in different ways and with different amounts of force! We have experimented with spinning, sliding and rolling objects and learnt how to record our experiments using predictions and observations. We have also done painting using marbles and different items that we collected outside such as sticks, tanbark and gumnuts. We made predictions about how the objects would move across the paper and created some amazing designs! To finish up the term we have had some fun making playdough and using it to investigate squishy and springy items! Did you know that playdough is squishy, meaning that once you change it's shape, it won't change back again!

In Years 3 and 4 we have been investigating different types of force, including potential and kinetic energy, friction, magnetism, gravity, air resistance and aerodynamics. We begun the term by making catapults, learning about potential and kinetic energy. Students made predictions about how far they could launch small objects and recorded their results. We then moved on to racing cars over different surfaces to learn about friction and then we created magnetic race tracks! Students found out about Isaac Newton's laws of gravity and created their own straw rockets - what goes up must come down! We watched an incredible experiment done at NASA's space craft testing facility where air was removed and a feather and a bowling ball fell at the same rate! We've finished up Term 1 by learning about basic aerodynamics and finding out which paper plane design goes the furthest. 

5 and 6 students have spent the term learning about the Solar System, focusing on the size of the planets and their distance from the sun. Students created their own Solar System out of playdough using a scale to represent each planet. We discovered that the first four planets are TINY compared to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Not to mention compared to the sun!! Using our scale, the smallest planet, Mercury, has a diameter of 2mm, compared to the Sun's diameter of 696mm! We also learnt about Astronomical Units, the unit of measurement that scientists use to measure the distance between the planets. We will finish up the term by making baking soda rockets and seeing if we can launch them in to space!

Next term we will be looking at Biological Sciences, including Botany and Paleontology. Dino-mite!!

Wendy Bennett

BPS Science Teacher