Year 5 – 15/03/24 | Science Week

This week, we’ve been fully immersed in British Science Week, exploring the theme of Time with great enthusiasm!

We started off on Monday by pondering the question, ‘What if there were no clocks?’ This sparked an intriguing discussion. Following that, we delved into the mechanics of pendulums, investigating how factors like string length and pendulum mass influence their swing.

Tuesday saw us investigating reaction times. We compared our own reaction times and explored whether there was a difference between dominant and weak hand reactions. Surprisingly, the results were not unanimously conclusive!

Midweek, we were fortunate to have a workshop with Mr. Kelly, a science teacher from Nicholas Breakspear School. He enlightened us about fossils and how they offer glimpses into the past. The session concluded with a fun task, turning us into palaeontologists as we uncovered and pieced together fossils.

On Thursday, we were treated to a demonstration by scientist Dr. Alan Greig from University College London. He shared insights into his work using microscopes, particularly utilising light and fluorescence to study biology. Witnessing UV light transform tonic water and turmeric extract was fascinating. Dr. Alan also showcased how his microscopes refract white light to create rainbows. The children’s brilliant questions left him impressed.

Wrapping up the week on Thursday and Friday, we tackled the Big Question set by Mrs. Carey: Does taller mean faster? Making predictions and ensuring a fair test, we ventured outside to investigate the correlation between leg length and sprinting speed. Our findings, presented in a scatter graph, led us to conclude that leg length does not determine running speed.

Well done, Year 5, for your enthusiastic engagement with this week’s science activities!

Home learning for this week: