What can rocks tell us about the way the Earth was formed?

25th November 2020Miss K. Wilkinson

This week in Science Year 3 have been investigating how rocks change over time as part of their Learning Challenge Question: What can rocks tell us about the way the Earth was formed?

They agreed that rocks don’t change massively to the naked eye, however we know that they must change over time somehow!

We worked in small groups to conduct an experiment. We chose a rock, and placed it inside a jar with 100ml of water. We shook the jar to the count of 100, then filtered out the water through filter paper to see what was left behind.

Once all of the water filtered through we noticed there was some debris left in the filter paper. Some of us said that this looked like sand! It was clear that the rocks knocking together had made small fragments break off.

Super work, Year 3!

 

World Science Day 2020

10th November 2020Miss K. Wilkinson

On Tuesday 10th November we celebrated World Science Day at West Boldon! Every class looked at a famous scientist linked to their topic.

Year 1 looked at the scientist James Dewar (inventor of the flask) as well as insulation.

Their experiment was to put Vaseline on one of their fingers and dip one finger with Vaseline and one finger without into cold water and describe the different feelings. We found that the finger without Vaseline felt cold in the water whereas the one with felt warmer and a bit different. We talked about the meaning of insulation, looked at James’ invention, described these feelings in our books and draw pictures of what the experiment looked like. They really enjoyed it.
Year 2 celebrated World Science Day with a tribute to a very famous, Victorian scientist.
Florence, as a child, followed her determination to become a nurse. She trained other nurses to go to the Crimean war and make the hospital clean, and care for wounded soldiers.
Florence worked long hours and would tend to the injured soldiers at night holding her lamp. She became known as The Lady with the Lamp. Florence wrote books on Nursing and  is also credited for helping to popularise the pie chart.
Her revolutionary nursing earned her an award from Queen Victoria and her legacy serves to show much of what we now know about clean, organised hospital conditions today and is thanks to her hard work and research.
Florence Nightingale changed nursing forever. She is the real hero of Victorian science!

Year 3 looked at palaeontologist Mary Anning and her work on fossils.

They created a fossil jar whereby jelly represented the soil and sweets represented the animal remains. Each day this week they will add a new layer of jelly to the jar representing how soil layers occur over time. They talked about how these fossils form and also made a zigzag book!

Year 4 looked at Micheal Faraday today for their Science Day project.

They quizzed and found out about some famous scientists and inventors. Then they completed a treasure hunt fact finding mission to answer questions about Faraday’s life and inventions. The children worked in pairs to move around the 2 classrooms looking for the answers and then presented it beautifully.

Year 6 looked at Charles Darwin to link to their topic on Evolution. They all created a factfile about him explaining why he is so important in his field.

What wonderful scientists we have at West Boldon!

Muscles and joints

23rd October 2020Miss K. Wilkinson

This week in Science we began learning about what makes Usain Bolt so quick as part of our Animals Including Humans topic.

We learned that to run fast we need really strong muscles and to be very physically fit. We discovered that muscles work in pairs to contract and relax, to enable our bodies to move. We also learned about two specific type of joint found in the human body; the ball and socket joint, and the hinge joint.

We then went outside with the iPads and struck a pose, then in small groups we labelled each of the muscles and joints we had used using the Seesaw app.

Take a look at our awesome work below.

How does Usain Bolt move so quickly?

9th October 2020Miss K. Wilkinson

In Science in Year 3 we are learning about the human body. Our Learning Challenge question is ‘How does Usain Bolt move so quickly?’

As part of this, we all measured and ran 100m across the school field. The fastest 4 times were recorded and compared against Usain Bolt’s world record winning time of 9 seconds.

Over the coming weeks we will discuss what makes him such a fast runner, learning about bones, muscles, food and nutrition. Take a look at some of our fabulous work!

Science – which magnets are the strongest?

13th March 2020R Smith

This week in science, Year 3 have been investigating which magnets are the strongest. We know it’s not just about the size of the magnet, but the strength of a magnet’s magnetic field. We tested out 5 different magnets to see how many paper clips would be attracted to each. Here is a pictogram of our results:

How far will a car travel?

5th February 2020R Smith

In Year 3 we are looking at forces and magnets. As part of this topic we investigated how far a car will travel on different surfaces, and why this happens. We each made a prediction, which surface will cause the car to travel the furthest; grass, tarmac, wood or carpet. We had to make sure our investigation was a fair test by only changing the surface each time, and keeping every other variable the same. We then made large a graph of our results.

At the Discovery Museum

3rd November 2019R Smith

Year 3 enjoyed a fabulous day at the Discovery Museum in Newcastle today, learning all about the science behind superheroes. We travelled on the metro which meant we had to be really sensible to keep ourselves safe. We then had some time to explore the rest of the museum ourselves and found lots of interesting artefacts and exhibits. On the way back we even had time to stop off at the park for a quick play time