Cicada Song

We've been watching and listening to the cicadas in our back garden.  The other night we had four fly into our house during the night, our new kitten thought that was great fun chasing and leaping around after them at 5.15am!
We started wondering about the cicadas.  How do they make their sound?  How long do they live below and above ground?  It was great to see our five year old wondering and making some pretty good guesses about what she thought happened.
Here's a link to Te Ara Encyclopedia and its got some good, easy to understand information on cicadas just in case your kids are wondering too.  Just click on the picture.

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.

Floating and Sinking with Year 3

Our new school year has begun.
Being the summer term it's great to make the most of the sunshine, warm weather and our school pool! This week both year three classes have begun exploring and learning about floating and sinking.  We started our lesson by watching the story 'Who Sank the Boat?' by Pamela Allen and this led to some great discussion about what is floating and what is sinking?  Will the boat stay floating if it is sitting down very low in the water?  Why did the boat sink when the mouse got in? What does sinking mean?  What makes something float?  What makes something sink?


Who Sank The Boat from Jeff Keith on Vimeo.

The classes shared their ideas about things they know that float and things that sink.  We made some excellent predictions about the everyday objects I had gathered.  Then we went outside and conducted our own investigation into floating and sinking.  It was great to see some of the boys surprised at what floated and we then experimented with the way we dropped the object into the water, on its side, upside down etc.  The boys were surprised to see that this sometimes made a difference!

After our experimenting we grouped the  objects according to whether or not they floated or sank.  Then we shared our ideas about what the objects in each group had in common.  The boys began to form some good ideas about what makes an object float.
We soon ran out of time.  Next week we're going to learn about density and up thrust and begin to make our rubber band powered boats.

Science and the 2014 Winter Olympics

On the 4th February the Winter Olympics begin in Russia.
Much of the media has been focused on the possible terrorist threat and the athletes who will be competing.

I came across a really interesting website that has a selection of clips all about the science behind the sports at the Winter Olympics.  Some of these clips are really interesting and explain about the physics found in each sport.  Science and Engineering of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games.



NBC Learn is an American based website and is the educational arm of NBC news.  They have a number of other interesting free resources that you can check out here.

Catapult Catch Up!

Towards the end of last year, our senior Year 8 boys in 8B and 8P were given the challenge to design and construct either their own catapult or trebuchet.  Boys working in three's and were given some parameters and a few materials to get them started.  Their aim was to build one that would fire a golf ball the furthest across our school field.

Boys from 8B trials their catapults

Needless to say, the level of enthusiasm was high.  Once again it clearly showed just how much boys get out hands on, fun tasks.  Their ability to communicate their ideas within their group, to be able to listen, to problem solve, work together, construct and follow instructions determined the success of their outcome.
I provided a simple model and then they were given time to use the internet and plan what they were going to do.
At the end of term both classes had a competition to see which catapult fired the longest distance.  Even those boys who weren't so successful really enjoyed themselves and learnt so much.

A huge thank you has to go to our Wellesley Parents Association.  They very kindly bought for our technology room a whole new set of work benches, a whole set of new power drills and all sorts of other really tools.  Having good quality tools to work with made such a difference.  Things were much easier for the boys and they were able to do a better job than what they have done in the past.  I am very grateful for our parents association contributing to the classroom.