Helford Class investigate forces at Penair
To kick off their learning about forces and magnets, Helford class visited Penair school and took part in an investigation about forces. Mr Brown asked lots of questions about what happens when we drop something and about how the children thought magnets work. There were lots of different answers like: ‘magnets stick together’ ‘ they push away’ ‘gravity is force that keeps us on the earth’.
Mr Brown helped the children to understand the forces of friction, pushes and pulls, attraction and repelling. He explained how gravity is a force and that we are all attracted to our earth!
The children went on to investigate magnets strength by using different types of magnets and paperclips to see how many they could make in a chain- with differing results! After the investigation we discussed their findings. And offered suggestions as to why they might be different.
Pupils then were asked: “Are all metals magnetic?” Which they investigated using different types of metal. We were shocked to discover that it is only a few metals that actually “stick”! Photos to follow!
Members of science club had fun today having a go at creating optical illusions. It was incredibly tricky!
Primary Engineer – Cornwall Celebration Event at RNAS Culdrose
We were delighted to be able to take 4 teams to the above event, to showcase their amazing cars shown below alongside a number of other schools. The children in Helford, Camel and Cober, class along with their teaching staff, Sam (an engineer from Culdrose) and Barry (an engineer from BT) worked so hard on their projects with great resilience and determination.
The children in Y2 , made push along cars which had to be launched down a ramp with the distance measured. They were also linked to a theme and ours were all about catching rabbits! They looked excellent, complete with nets and camouflage, and flame thrusters! They were interviewed by the judges (officers at Culdrose) who asked some quite in depth questions. Well done Camel team who could talk about thrust and had some idea of aerodynamics but not quite the word! They do now. They were delighted when they won runner up for best themed car (Helford), and overall best communicators (Camel). Well done!
Truro class had the opportunity to look up close using microscopes this week. We collected flowers and plants from the field to see them up close! We discovered how microscopes work by bending the light- we tried this first with a “bubble” of water and saw how this magnified images. We used the samples from our special microscope box and looked at wasps, grains of sand and much more. Lots of the pupils were surprised to discover that many grains look similar under the microscopes. Jayden discovered that an insect has many eyes!
On Thursday, Truro class visited Kea School (9 children stayed and performed for Mrs Warner’s class)and entertained the year 3 class with magic and magnets. The pupils have been busy honing their magic skills- including card tricks, magic coins and disappearing pennies! This was our final outcome to finish our project with the essential question being: “How real is magic?” We think we answered that question with a confident “It’s very real!”
After pupils performed their tricks they taught their audience their secrets. A fantastic afternoon was had by all- see our pictures of our brilliant outcome.
Science Week 2018 opened with an inspiring visit by engineer and youtuber Shawn Brown@kidsinventstuff.com. He could not have been a better role model for our children. He hadn’t found school easy, being dyslexic and having problems with working memory – but he followed his passion for inventing and he totally wowed our children with his videos of amazing inventions he had made. Many of them have entered his latest competition on inventing a Gravity Racer. We’re crossing our fingers that one of our pupils wins so we can see the car race. Thank you Shawn, we will definitely be inviting you in again.
Quite a challenge for both Cober Class and their parents. We were just starting a new science unit on electricity, so the children were challenged to make a light bulb light up with only a battery and two crocodile clips. (It is actually quite tricky!) We learnt so much, for instance it needed to touch metal, the battery had two ends – and that mattered, and it needed to go in a circle – hence the word circuit.
The children were very resilient and wouldn’t give up trying. They used their 4B’s getting ideas from each other and being independent.
Isaac Newton pays a visit...Today Truro Class were honoured to receive a special visitor: Sir Isaac Newton. He came to our class to teach us more about forces, magnetism, light and much much more! He told the children that he was once made to work on the family farm although he didn’t enjoy it. His stepfather was a cruel man. His mother was persuaded however to send the clever Isaac to Cambridge where he learned about science and mathematics – as he told us modestly- he was a brilliant scholar. His discoveries about forces, gravity and the universe and light were amazing and Isaac was happy to show the class how he discovered how colours are “separated” in the spectrum and how forces act upon each other.
The children had a fantastic time making colour wheels; estimating weight and measuring in Newtons (named after our famous scientist); pupils discovered how gravity works on objects using Jenga; and made magnetic race tracks. Our day was rounded off with a demonstration as to how the forces of nature act upon our earth…see the pictures below.
This week Tamar class went to Penair for a science workshop about animal adaptation. We focussed on penguins and we were researching how they keep their bodies warm in the freezing, arctic temperatures.
In small groups, we used boiling tubes, thermometers, beakers and troughs to simulate the changing temperatures of penguin blood. We were then able to compare our results as a class to work out the best way to keep the penguin blood warm.
Space – Tamar’s Authentic Outcome
To conclude our learning about space, Tamar class have been busy planning and teaching science for school children in the Truro area. We have taken all of our Space learning from this term and created experiment workshops to deliver to other children. The first experiment tested hydration levels by creating pretend urine samples and observing the colours of them. The next experiment allowed the children to create their own rocket balloons, another experiment focussed on the Craters left by asteroids. The children were able to experience how tricky it is to be in a space suit in another one of our exciting activities and the last one taught the children more about gravity and they were able to calculate what their weight would be on different planets.
Tamar class did such a fantastic job at teaching these children and it demonstrated their brilliant knowledge of Space and the progress they have made in science this term. Their love of science shone throughout this authentic outcome and we have had brilliant comments from the teachers at Kea school – “Our children very much enjoyed it and learnt lots too. Your children were so eloquent and really pitched it at the right level for our children and so lovely to see every single child engaged.”
Well done Tamar Class.
Cober Class have been having far too much fun learning about the digestive system although some of them had a rather enlightening experience when they realised the contents of their stomachs did indeed look like sick – surprisingly! Truly hands on science.
Photographs courtesy of the children:
On Monday, Truro Class travelled to the Eden Project to take part in a Chocology Workshop. We met Bran who is an expert on chocolate, Fairtrade and the Rainforest and all things Eden. He set us challenges, taught us about where chocolate came from originally and much more. The pupils were challenged to a treasure hunt to find special boxes with clues in and win prizes (see our pictures) We explored the Tropical Biome and finished off our day in the Mediterranean Biome- finding wonderful plants and vegetables growing- we even spotted purple tomatoes! We look forward to writing about our adventures in a diary when we are back at school.
Truro Class launched their project: “How could you write like Roald Dahl?”
The class dressed up as their favourite Roald Dahl characters- we had lots of Willy Wonkas, Matildas, Charlie Bucket, The Enormous Crocodile, Fantastic Mister Fox and many more!
We started the day with a fact finding mission- pulling golden tickets out of Willy Wonka’s hat to find out more about the project. Next we watched a clip from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to inspire chocolate machine designs- we designed caramel machines, everlasting gum machines and chocolate machines. Later we planned a science investigation. Children were given questions such as: “Why don’t manufacturers make purple or green chocolate?”; “Can you tell the difference between milk, plain or white chocolate?” and “Does our class prefer savoury or sweet foods?” Children organised themselves and ran their own investigation, recording results. There were some surprising results! Most children didn’t mind eating chocolate whilst smelling an onion- they still thought it was delicious!
To follow up our fantastic launch day, Truro class are visiting the Eden Project to take part in a Chocology workshop. Watch this space for more news…
Brooke tries experimenting with whole milk, food colour and washing up liquid – try it at home. You only need a drop of washing up liquid in the centre of the dish.
The girls enthusiastically brought in stuff from home to try and create slime. They certainly made a lot of mess – I was glad it rained the next day!
Investigating crazy custard – a non Newtonian liquid – absolutely fascinating!
Dressing up as astronauts and aliens to meet Neil Armstrong (Read ,Write Inc first!)
Astronauts have to keep fit as Truro Class find out with Mrs Hatch and KS2 Science Club help Camel class to learn about all sorts of things involving a lot of water – testing hot and cold water and confusing their brains, making tornadoes, making a water piano and turning water upside down!!!
Tamar Spring Term
Space – Authentic Outcome
Over the past two days, Tamar class have been busy teaching science to other school children in the Truro area. We have taken all of our Space learning from this term and created experiment workshops to deliver to other children. On Wednesday we taught 30 year 5 children from Devoran School and on Thursday we taught 30 year 3 Children from Kea School. The first experiment tested hydration levels by creating pretend urine samples and observing the colours of them. The next experiment allowed the children to create their own rocket balloons, another experiment focussed on the Craters left by asteroids. The children were able to experience how tricky it is to be in a space suit in another one of our exciting activities and the last one taught the children more about gravity and they were able to calculate what their weight would be on different planets.
Tamar class did such a fantastic job at teaching these children and it demonstrated their brilliant knowledge of Space and the progress they have made in science this term. Their love of science shone throughout this authentic outcome and we have had a number of people from these other schools comment on the children’s enthusiasm and attitudes. Well done Tamar Class!
Truro Class had great fun investigating what makes a good earthquake proof house- We watched videos of what people living in earthquake zones do to protect themselves and to protect their houses. Children experimented with different structures to see which would withstand an earthquake ( using cocktail sticks, marshmallows and jelly!)
Click the link to see Reese testing his structure!
What a wonderful time they were having in Nursery last week learning about the Three Little Pigs. They were investigating the strength of the houses and built them so well they couldn’t blow them down…even with a hairdrier!!
Cober Class have been learning about electricity. “Where are the battery holders and light bulb holders?” they exclaimed as I asked them to create circuits with just bulbs, batteries and wires with crocodile clips. They were dismayed but resilient when I wouldn’t give in. Some great teamwork and problem solving took place over the next 20 minutes.
We love science club and now KS1 have their very own club too!
Here are some pictures of our latest investigations into sound. We looked at how sounds are made by vibrations with the drum and rice (see below) but more spectacularly with tuning forks into water – but Ms Scott couldn’t catch the splash on camera! We also experimented with changing pitch with water and also on our recorders. Some children looked at how sound waves work while others just tried to hear the pitch of different chime bars and put them into an order from lowest to highest.
Project launch for Cober and Truro class saw children role play a real disaster situation- choosing their roles as doctors, scientists, relief workers, nurses and reporters on the scene as well as victims of a natural disaster- with wounds and injuries to match! Pupils had a taste of what it might be like to be caught up in a real situation like this and how they might respond and/or help people. This was to launch our projects of “Is our planet alive?” and “Speed, good or bad?” in years 3 and 4 respectively.
In the afternoon pupils took part in science experiments making volcanoes and watching them erupt (using baking soda, vinegar and food colouring!) as well as making tornadoes in a bottle! They also created “volcanic” inspired pictures- painting and using oil pastels to create some wonderful pieces of art.
As part of our topic about toys, we have been learning about materials. We have been thinking about making a coat for teddy in this cold, wet weather and which material would be best.
The children decided that we needed to test the material to see if it was waterproof so we went out into the playground to see who stayed dry the longest.
The children discovered that the tissue paper didn’t last very long in the rain.
The metal and the wood kept us drier but wouldn’t be very comfortable to wear.
The cardboard lasted a little longer but started to let the water through slowly.
Our winner was the plastic. The children stayed dry and it could be coated onto fabric so our clothes would be comfy.
Truro class have been learning about light- our first lesson helped us to understand that dark is because of the absence of light… and we discovered that we cannot see without light!
Our second lesson WALT was “be able to set up a simple investigation.” Pupils made a predication about which materials would reflect light the most. See our pictures of us testing foil, tissue paper and jumpers to test if they reflect. Our results showed different ideas about what was the best reflector.. we decided this may have been because the torch was bright (or not!) and how close you held the object to the light source. Our next lesson will be to design a book bag that uses reflective materials to help pupils be seen at night.
Today Tregolls Science Club went to Penair School and had fantastic time making …. sparklers!!!!
First Mrs Oakley and the Penair Science Leaders, showed us that different metals burn with different coloured flames. We had to wear special safety goggles so that we didn’t get anything in our eyes because we were using the Bunsen burners.
We had a go too and it was great fun. We had a wet splint and we could dip it into different powdered metals to see what colour flames we could make.
Then Mrs Oakley showed us how to pick up a strip of magnesium with some metal tongs and hold it into the flame. We had to give it a ‘dirty look’ which meant we didn’t look directly at the flame because it could hurt our eyes. It was as bright as the sun – nearly.
Thank you to the Penair staff, we had a wonderful time. Written by Caitlin and Tyla
Over the last week or so, as science leader, I have had the pleasure of observing science lessons around the school. I think you will agree there is much to celebrate. Tregolls children really enthuse about their science lessons and you can see from the following photographs how hands on it is. Well done everybody!
Children from Fal class learn about their different senses by describing what they can see, hear, smell and touch:
Camel class were totally fascinated learning about leaves. They could probably identify all of the trees around school for you. Why don’t you ask them? Kit explained that a stinging nettle couldn’t be a tree because it didn’t have any bark around it.
Helford Class were investigating food chains and researching what different animals eat. Does anyone know what a seahorse eats?
Truro Class continued their investigations into fruit and vegetables by trying to sort them into different groups. They found many different ways for example, colour, edible skins, eaten raw or cooked…
Cober class were beginning an experiment to observe over time by mummifying tomatoes. Apparently a human body takes 50-70 days to mummify. We’ll let you know how long a tomato takes.
Tamar Class were conducting their own investigations into how the human body changes as you get older. They created their own fair tests and worked in teams with the aide of some younger volunteers.
Truro class have had a fantastic couple of weeks of science and project learning. Our project name is “Could you survive on chocolate?” Children have been learning about how food feeds our bodies; food groups; functions of skeletons (and how they fit together!); muscles and what the pros and cons of different types of skeletons are! Pupils have been classifying, observing and identifying and explaining their ideas of which fruit or vegetable might be the “odd one out” with really inventive, insightful ideas.
On Tuesday, Truro had an opportunity to visit Richard at Tesco who took the pupils on a “Food Trail” where they had to identify and find different types of fruit and vegetables. They found out lots of new facts about the foods we can buy and eat. For example, did you know that bananas grow “upside down” and that you can make healthier brownies by putting fresh beetroot in to the mixture?
We also found out what foods contain cocoa- with some surprises! We rounded off our visit with a taste test to find out if children could tell the difference between Cadbury’s, Tesco Value or gluten free chocolate! (Not an easy task.) Thank you to Richard at Tesco for teaching us more.
Fowey class have excelled themselves during the last few weeks learning about the heart, that it is a muscle and through training that it can change. We also learnt about the circulatory system and the flow of blood throughout the body. The key role of the blood has in the transfer of oxygen from the lungs and then throughout the body was researched by the class and the journey through the various individual parts of the heart, arteries, lungs and veins was described in our ‘journey blog’. We finished our latest work with assessments of how hard our own heart works by measuring our pulse when resting, then devising various activities to see how our pulse changed. We then reviewed our results and considered why certain individuals pulse was higher or lower than others, whether that was because they were male or female or whether they exercised regularly or not so often. We are looking forward to Mr Middlemore guiding us as we review these results and produce a scientific report.
This week Truro class have been taking part in workshops and creating and planning exciting experiments. Their science learning this term has been light and shadows. Children found out that shadows are created when light is blocked by an opaque object- this also led to them defining the words opaque, translucent and transparent. The planned and conducted an investigation into how the length of shadows change depending on how close the light source an object is.
Seth also brought in his own Light Box (made with a shoe box, mirrors and lights inside) to show the class
Truro have also had fun making “Talking Telephones” to support their learning about inventors and inventing- following up from the workshop, children learned how sound travels via vibrations to your ear. They tested their creations outside to great success!
Truro rounded of the week by investigating bubbles- they blew, stacked and attempted to put one bubble inside another! They observed the colours of the spectrum, why bubbles fall and what is in a bubble! A very bubbly afternoon..
This week Cober class have been learning about electricity. We have made our own electrical circuits and investigated materials to see if they are electrical conductors or insulators.
The children were then set the challenge of making their own switch to put into the circuit. They used their brilliant problem solving skills and great team work, to create switches to turn on and off the light in their circuit.
Tamar Class have been learning about space and particularly about Tim Peake. Don’t forget he is heading back to Earth about 10am on Saturday morning. It will be streamed live on:
We’ve been learning about the phases of the moon, it is soooooo confusing!! But look at these two photos and see how we gradually came to understand this very difficult concept. Well done Tamar Class.
Tregolls Science week got off to a magical start with Penair School’s Science Leaders giving a whole school assembly followed by a workshop for Y3 full of fascinating experiments. Can you guess what they are doing? In the photos below you will see that the children took part in lots of fun (and very scientific!) experiments- They pierced potatoes using just a straw…(apparently it’s just a matter of the surface area of the straw compared to the larger surface area of a potato…)
They pumped air out of a jar of marshmallows and watched them grow. This makes the marshmallows expand into the vacuum! Pupils also made noise with their own straw “trumpets” and made an even bigger noise using wet string and a large bucket (making homemade speakers!) They found out different pitches of sound could be made with different lengths of straw. They found that the bucket “bounced” the sound vibrations around.
Welcome to our new Science page and the start of our journey towards trying to achieve our next award – PSQM Gold.
Today Tamar and Helford classes had an excellent time being filmed for the new Rising Stars science scheme to be released shortly. Tamar were brilliant asking all sorts of amazing questions about bubbles and making some fascinating suggestions. Did you know that bubbles don’t burst when they land on a damp surface? Jasmin suggested that we needed to add extra soap into the solution to make the skin of the bubble stronger and so last longer – she was right! Tyler realised that they burst because the water evaporated. There were so many interesting things to discuss.
Helford class were investigating healthy options for pizza toppings and definitely enjoyed eating them afterwards!
We have also been involved with the Tim Peake Rocket Science experiment. About a month ago we received some very precise instructions about how to grow some tasty rocket. However there was one amazing difference – one packet of seeds had been up on the space station for 6 months BUT we weren’t told which one! We have had to take precise measurements and other data to return to the European Space Agency.
Below, Mollie and Curtis planting the seeds, and Mary-Ann adding individual numbered labels for each seed.