To tie in with this term’s learning theme of Out & About, we had a whole morning of science activities outside today! We rotated through four different activities, each designed to explore concepts and experiments which we couldn’t really have achieved inside our classrooms.

For further details, the day’s plans can be accessed through the link below.

2018-06-22 Outdoor Science Day Timetable and Plans

Gas Explosions

At Station 1, we found probably the messiest of today’s activities! We experimented with different quantities of bicarbonate of soda and vinegar to see which reaction would create enough pressure to rupture a food bag. Once we poped these, we tried the same reaction inside balloons; getting the reagents inside and the balloon tied up quickly was a challenge in itself, but being able to watch them expand rapidly with carbon dioxide was worth it!

Kite Flying

Up on the field, we put the force of air resistance to the test by flying some kites! Unfortunately, there wasn’t much of a breeze today so we had to resort to using our legs to getting our kites up and airborne! We compared two types of kites, those with or without tails. What effect did the tail have on the kite’s flying ability?

Sunlight Art

At Station 3, we harnessed the power of the sun to create silhouette artwork images! We ventured into the woodland area to find natural objects to place onto light sensitive paper. After a short exposure time, we rinsed our papers in water to ‘lock’ the image. Can you tell from the images above which items we used?!

Spud Guns

At Station 4, we worked hard to stop some wicked potatoes which were on the loose! We created spud guns using lengths of copper pipes, which were sealed using potato plugs at both ends. Using dowels, we pushed on one plug to increase the air pressure inside the copper pipe, causing the opposite potato plug to pop out. We used our spud guns to see how well we could aim at the potato targets on the wall!

Afternoon

After lunch, we all worked together in the hall to create environmental awareness posters. After discussing what turned out to be a depressingly long list in the ways human beings damage our world, we picked a problem each to promote. What can be done to remedy these problems and protect the environment? Check back soon for some examples of our posters.

Last updated: 24/07/18