Tuesday 11 February 2014

Making the Learning their Own

One of the most satisfying things about teaching science is when kids come to school and share with me what they have done at home.  To hear from or about a boy who has obviously been excited by what we've done in class, gone home and shared what we've talked about and then done his own exploring and investigation makes my day!
Yesterday, Nelson in Year 3C turned up to science with an interesting shell from home.  He explained to me that he had managed to get it to both sink and float at home.  He took over the role of teacher and showed the class what he had done.  Together we thought of ways to stop it sinking and he used some of our playdough to block up the parts where he could see the water entering from.  Just great!

Thanks Nelson for sharing your investigation!

We also had a an interesting lesson learning about density and upthrust.  We talked about making our boats and how we had to make sure they weren't dense and what else we could do to make sure they floated well. Using playdough, the boys experimented with trying to construct a playdough boat that would float.  Many of the boys found this difficult but a few found success!


The Year three's have also been designing and are beginning to make their own peg label.  This year, they've been given a piece of customwood which they've had to shape using our scroll saws.  This has been a great learning opportunity and for many of them, they had to overcome their fear of using a large, noisy saw.  Next week we'll be finishing these off so look back then.








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