Sunday 26 July 2015

What's the Time Junior Syndicate?

This term, the whole school is about to embark on an inquiry based around time.
Tying in school wide themes, this term the juniors have to complete a technology unit.  What better time than now, to make their own clocks?  And of course, I'm sure we'll make a bit more time for some science in there too.

Starting with Year Three, the boys each had to decide on a shape that they would like their clock to be.  We had to discuss lots of things to think about during the design process eg would it be easy enough to cut out?  Will we be able to fit the numbers onto the clock face?  What shape would be interesting for each boy?  Once they had an idea in mind, they began to draft their shape.  Making sure it was the right size was tricky for some and after a number of drafts, all of the boys were ready to transfer their plan on to wood.  Then it was the fun part of using the scroll saw to cut out their shape.





Saturated Solutions and Separating Mixtures

First week back and the science room has been busy with boys using different science techniques.

After firmly deciding that dissolving does not involve disappearing, boys got to make a saturated solution.  They experimented using cold and hot water and looked at the rates of change.  We've saved some of the saturated solutions to see what happens to them over the next week.



They also got to work in groups to decide what would be the best method to separate mixtures of
*  Sand and sawdust
*  Iron filings and sand
*  Soil and water

Once they had decided, in their group they experimented with their agreed method and then carefully observed what happened and made conclusions on the best methods to separate these mixtures.




It's been great to see all of the boys enjoying science and applying their problem solving and reasoning skills in science.