Friday 13 November 2015

Forces can be Fun with Year Two

Our science focus in Year two this term has been forces.  In particular, we've been looking at friction and gravity.
The boys have completed a number of activities to help them to understand that even though we can't see a force, we can see its effect.  Over the sessions, I've been impressed with the number of boys who have begun to use the correct vocabulary and in the right context.


We made little pecking birds which showed gravity pulling the bird down, and friction between the rubber band and the piece of straw which created the birds pecking effect.  We also made a climbing man where friction helped the man climb up the string with a simple pull from the bottom.  Then gravity took over and let the man fall to the bottom, all ready to start his climb again.  Great to see the boys really engaged in some simple activities that reinforce their new learning.

Year 7 Box Cars

Every two years we have our school gala.
The Year 7 teachers are always keen to get involved and their students enjoy making something to sell.
This year we all collected lots of boxes and in class, the boys began designing and planning a cardboard box car for little kids to stand in and run around in.  Once their designs were complete, classes booked in a couple of days in the science and technology room to build them.






Armed with loads of tape, hot glue guns and cardboard the boys got stuck in and had a blast making their cars.  Once the cars began to take shape, many of them began to talk about wanting to buy their own at the gala.  They did a great job and produced lots of fun and appealing cars for the gala.  And yes, many of the students did buy their car on the day!




Monday 9 November 2015

Bee Bot Fun

Thanks to the fantastic Hutt Science centre, we were able to have a week trying out some coding and programming with Bee Bots and the junior syndicate.
Bee Bots are appealing, simple little robots that look like bees.  The boys use simple commands to control the robot and get it to move and follow directions.  They were instantly popular with all of our junior boys and even some of the older students were asking when they were going to have a turn.



It was a great opportunity for the boys to see how breaking things down into simple steps in a logical order can result in something working out.  As they worked through the challenges, they became more efficient at problem solving and thinking in a more logical and sequential way.

Using the Bee Bots the boys had lots of fun learning the first steps of programming.