Welcome to our SCIENCE page
This term our inquiry focus was on science. There are many aspects to science (the physical world, planet Earth and beyond, the material world and the living world).
We began our learning by looking at the NATURE of SCIENCE. Through this we learned what science is and how scientists work - we learned to think and behave like scientists.
we had a scientific MOTTO:
Learn, Do, Communicate, Use
Learn about science and the people who do science
Do science -investigating
Communicate our learning and understanding - talking like a scientist
Use our growing scientific knowledge and apply it to the real world - carrying out investigations
Once we were 'thinking' and 'behaving' like scientists we then looked at the PHYSICAL WORLD for inspiration.
The physical world aspect of science provides explanations for a wide range of physical phenomena including lights, sound, heat, electricity, magnetism, wave, forces and motion.
In year 4 students are expected to have knowledge of the concepts governing, and be able to construct, simple electrical circuits.
So...that's what we did. And it was FUN.
The Big Launch -
Prof. Von Mullerstein and Dr. Dooformansmirtz
The GOOD and the BAD of science.
To launch our science inquiry students were treated to a performance from the GOOD scientist Prof. Von Mullerstein on the importance of following procedure and being accurate in science. Somehow the BAD scientist, Dr. Dooformansmirtz, managed to get himself invited, and proceeded to try and convince students that it isn't important to follow procedure, and that the purpose of science is to blow things up and have fun.
Take a look at the photos below.
 |
| The famous Prof. Von Mullerstein |
 |
| The infamous Dr. Dooformansmirtz |
 |
| Of course you would trust this man... he's a scientist |
 |
| Uh oh! What is the crazy doctor up to? You are only supposed to add 10ml of this; I think Dr. Dooformansmirtz has just added 100ml. Something bad is going to happen, I can feel it. |
 |
| Oh NO! Prof. Von Mullerstein can taste it, His lips have turned blue, in fact he has a blue moustache. What a disaster. This wouldn't have happened if they had followed procedure. Demonstration V Investigation To develop our knowledge of science and the physical world we looked at a variety of scientific demonstrations. A demonstration just shows, and helps explain, simple scientific concepts and principles. The ones we looked were [1] Buoyancy [2] Thrust [3] Pressure and expansion [4] Air resistance Buoyancy means the ability or tendency to float in water or air or some other fluid. To demonstrate this principle we did the Floating Egg demonstration. We looked at the effect of salt on the buoyancy of an egg in water. We followed the instructions to carry out the demonstration and found that in 4 out of 6 demonstrations, the egg floated in the salt water. In order to make sense of this and understand why, we looked a 'real world' example - the Dead Sea. Click on the link to see how you can do the Floating Egg demonstration  [2] Thrust To understand the principle of thrust we did the Balloon Rocket demonstration. When we released the balloon the air went in one direction, applying an equal force in the opposite direction - pushing our balloon along the string, just like a jet plane... only a little slower.. and cheaper. Take a look at our videos below, not all of them are successful... but that is one of the things about being a scientist, you don't just do something once. [3] Pressure and expansion The Exploding Bag This was a pretty cool demonstration. We finally got to try and blow something up...and we did, after a number of attempts. Check out the website link here FAIR TESTING A fair test is an important part of the scientific process. In a fair test you only change ONE variable, allowing you to prove or disprove your hypothesis, giving your results greater validity. To learn about how to conduct a fair test we made parachutes. At the start we could make them any shape or size, the aim was to just make a parachute. We used supermarket shopping bags, string, and a variety of different 'pilots' We then went outside and launched them, because that is what you do with parachutes. Plus we wanted to find whose stayed in the air the longest.                |
Our Fair Test parachutes
Once we had launched our parachutes we then set about the challenge of creating a FAIR TEST.
The variables we could test were:
[1] Parachute material
[2] Parachute size
[3] Parachute shape
[4] Length of string from parachute to pilot
[5] Number of strings from parachute to pilot
[6] size (and weight) of 'pilot'
Below are some pictures of us in the 'construction' phase. Check out Ella's 'pilot'
... And now for the launch.
To ensure a fair test we kept all launch variables the same. So, we did TEN 'launches' from the same height, held the two parachutes the same, released the two parachutes at the same time and launched them from the same hand each time.
"A lot of work for a parachute launch!" you say. True - but that is how scientists conduct experiments so that they can be confident of the results we get - so that they are valid.
Plus, it was a great excuse to get outside on a sunny day.
No comments:
Post a Comment