Science Investigations Continue

Everyone is well into conducting their own science investigations in the lead up to our Science Night at the end of the term.

Some of the classes conducted a fair test into what types of materials absorb oil the most.  We looked at the Rena and the impact it had on the local coastline.  It was a rather messy investigation but we found some surprising results!

We finished with a couple of experiments that I knew would appeal to boys - making film cannister rockets and finding out if expensive lollies taste nicer than cheaper ones!  It was lots of fun making the rockets, all you need is a little film cannister (the white ones work the best), baking soda and vinegar.  The boys were quite surprised at how high they went.

Surprisingly, and quite often the opposite to boys hypothesis, most classes found that Homebrand Jetplanes taste just as good as Pascall Jetplanes.   When we compared Pineapple Lumps, the results varied so we learnt that it's always good to try a  few different things as without repeat testing, we may not always get a true reflection of the results.

It's also been exciting to see students beginning to use our new 3D printer.  A couple of the senior boys designed a tower which will form part of their wind turbine that they are using in their science fair investigation.  Great to see it up and running!

This week in the Science Room

Look what I found waiting for me on my desk on Monday morning!

Just fantastic!  Thanks Jude.  I love it when boys bring in and share something that they have found interesting about their world around them.

The Year Six classes have started their sessions on looking at light and colour. We found out about the visible spectrum (and the electromagnetic spectrum). We experimented with torches and making shadows, how to change the size of them and the different sources of light.  We did some experiments that looked at how light travels and then we had some fun using $2 shop laser pointers and mirrors.  Each group had to reflect their laser beam using the mirrors and then hit their target pinned to the walls.  Great fun and they certainly learnt about how light travels!

Year Five were fortunate enough to start their stream study yesterday and today before the wet weather arrived.  Both classes were given the opportunity to explore and have a good look in and around our stream.  How lucky are we that we have streams bordering both sides of our school!  The boys really enjoyed lifting the rocks and a few managed to spot a few eels, fish, spiders and flying insects.

After our play and explore, we then spent some quiet time taking a closer look at our stream and sketching the path of our stream, noting the width of the stream and how shady and sunny the different parts are.

Then this afternoon we started putting together our new 3D printer! Stay tuned for further updates on the building of it...