STEM Week
What a week we have had here in St. Charles! The school has been filled with laughter, wonder and excitement as STEM week was kicked off with a staff mannequin challenge at the front entrance. It was super hard trying to keep still whilst all of the children were so curious about what was happening!
We then had an assembly full of wacky science challenges to test our initial understanding of what STEM is all about!
On Monday, we sorted the creatures in Alice in wonderland in to scientific classification webs.
We also used alka-seltzer to make rockets; the water molecules spread out when it is mixed with water to create a gas. We had to design a rocket to fly Alice up and out of the rabbit hole in a flash!
On Tuesday, we tried out hand at design technology. We had to design a healthy snack to take along to the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. We started with product testing, designed the packaging, made our product and got some consumer feedback from our friends in school. How did your snack taste?
On Wednesday, we had an amazing workshop with some scientists from Newcastle University.
Our next challenge was to make the Queen of Hearts a new playing surface for her croquet match. She wanted it to be a solid AND a liquid! Can you remember the science behind how we managed to make this mixture? Think about the particles…
The next challenge was to make a car that would travel Alice across Wonderland and to the mushroom where she needed to be. To do this, we used our engineering skills to design a car which met the product specification.
Our families were invited into school to see what we had been up to all week. The children demonstrated fantastically to give them a real taste of what STEM is all about. Thanks for coming!
Finally, we all went out on to the yard to crown the winners of the STEM week competition. Well done to Reception class who conducted some fantastic scientific experiments this week which earned them the most cards! Mrs Bickle (a.k.a. The Chesire Cat) was able to choose who she would like to be dunked; Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee were the unlucky ones this year!
Thanks for a great week year 5! I hope you enjoy your break and I will see you in a week for our final half term!
-Mrs Kelly