STEAM

F/1

This term we are being chemists looking at how materials change. We started off the term with some messy fun. Students looked at how changes occur when materials combine. We noticed cornflour go from powdery and dry, to hard and crumbly when mixed with a little bit of water, to runny and milky when we added a lot of water. We then looked out different ways to physically change materials including folding and scrunching. Students have practiced science skills like predicting how many times a piece of paper can be folded and answering questions about how easily materials can be scrunched. Students will use this knowledge later in the term to produce collages using different paper techniques.

2/3

The chemist theme is continuing into the 2/3 area where students are looking at the physical changes of materials between the states of matter. By exploring different objects, students have discovered that solids are objects that hold their own shape whilst liquids take on the shape of the container they are in. They explored ways that objects can change from a solid to a liquid. From lived experience, they claimed that heat causes this change. We tested out this theory and collected evidence to support their claim. Students also practised the skill of comparing predictions with other and their observations. We will continue to look at changes to state by exploring changes from liquid to solid. Later in the term, students will use their understanding of melting to create a piece of art. 

4/5/6

Students have completed their mission to space. They did a great job working their way through the design process. Using their knowledge of space they identified and solved real world problems - how can we find life on Mars. In collaborative groups, students built and programmed robot rovers to find potential life. They learned the important connection between hardware and software for their mission. They used distance sensors to avoid falling into craters, pressure sensors to detect boulders and colour sensors to find plant life. This term students will be biologists learning about the conditions in which living organisms thrive. We started our unit off by making observations of bread to generate questions that can be investigates. Who knew bread had anything to do with biology?