A Scientific Journey Through Time

We recently celebrated British Science Week, a theme centred around the concept of time. This particular week saw children from Years 4-6 diving into a time-themed experiment to draw attention to STEM. As part of the celebration, all children were tasked with creating a STEM puppet representing a renowned engineer or scientist from history in a school STEM competition. Children in Years 1 through 4 also engaged in exciting, time-related science activities in their classrooms.

Year 4: Engineering Science and Maths: Children in Year 4 embarked on a thrilling journey, designing and constructing catapults. This hands-on activity involved timing their projectile flights and refining their designs based on the results. The adventure continued with an experiment to measure the burning time of a candle in various volumes of air. By plotting their findings on graphs, the year group understood the science and mathematics underpinning the concept of time.

Year 5: Technology and Physics: Year 5 delved into the world of coding by creating timing gates operated with micro bits. They then constructed ramps to measure the speed of moving vehicles. This multifaceted project brought technology, science, engineering, and mathematics together.

Year 6: Biology and Chemistry: Year 6 tackled the delicate task of dissecting a lamb’s heart, connecting the biological concept of a heartbeat to the theme of time. After they hung up their scrubs, they looked at chemistry with the measurement of iodine clock reactions. These fascinating chemical processes change colour after a predetermined period, illuminating time’s impact on chemical reactions.