Science Projects from Year 6 Students

From Elizabeth, Year 6 teacher 

Making Shelters

Soham 6C 

Science was awesome, the interesting topic was well explained and very interactive. The topic was based on light and the way it reflects refracts and absorbs. After learning about this we designed our own shelters incorporating the knowledge we had about light. We all designed the shelters and then actually built the shelter. 

The way I and my partner built our shelter was inspired by a shelter for cold weather as it absorbs light and heat and keeps it in. Our structure was a cone-shaped design that was mainly built using sticks and bark. 

Along with the journey of creating, we discovered many things and experienced how the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people lived, according to temperature and weather. Overall it was very interesting and we learned many useful things along the process. 

Saiya and Charlotte 6B

Light. 

We see it every day. We use it every day. But, did you know that there are three properties of light? By the end of the first week back in term 3, the grade sixes became extra bright on this topic. Get it? Oh, never mind. We learned about how light can reflect, refract, and absorb objects.

Have you ever wondered why you can see a reflection of yourself in the mirror? When light hits a certain surface, it bounces back, producing a mirror image. Grab a spoon and a water glass, that is filled with water. Put the spoon in the glass of water and look through the glass. What do you see? The spoon looks very dislocated. This is because light refracts. 

Imagine it’s a really hot day and you didn’t think for five seconds about what to wear so right now, you’re wearing a black dress. It starts to get really really hot. Why do you ask? Because your dress is absorbing the light, turning it into heat! Best to get out of that dress!

Using the knowledge that we gained, the teachers put us to the task of designing and creating a shelter (after looking at some of the First Nation designs) that can sustain our chosen temperature - bearing in mind that we had to think about the natural materials we used and if they reflect, refract and absorb light. 

If we chose a cold climate, we would have to use materials that would absorb light to keep the shelter warm. If we chose a hot climate, we would have to use materials that reflect light to keep the shelter cool. 

It was really fun and we would like to thank the teachers for teaching us about this topic. 

Lily Martin 6D

Year 6 science, the wonders of light!

In science, we learned about the three behaviours of light. Reflect, refract and absorb. Reflection is when light bounces back from a surface (normally a light-coloured surface). Refraction is when light bends often in water and glass. Absorption is when something usually dark-coloured takes the energy from the light. We used this knowledge to create shelters that reflect, refract or absorb light depending on what season they were made for.