Science Competition

Published on by larnold94Leave a comment

https://scienceoxford.com/big-science-event-at-home/

Hi all,
Above is a link to a science competition you can enter. Similar to our school led one, you need to think of a question and complete an investigation. You then submit you work online, it could be a short video (maximum 2 minutes); a poster; a photo diary; or a written report. You can upload a Word document, PDF, image or video link via the website.
Prizes include:£500 of Playforce playground equipment that you could win for your school, 25 subscriptions to The Curiosity Box as well as family tickets to the Science Oxford Centre when they reopen.

Science Activities

Published on by larnold94Leave a comment

Practical Ideas: this week two lovely activities from fellow PSTT Regional Mentor, Claire Seeley.

Make a bird banquet (Check out my Twitter feed for a picture of this.)

Equipment: string, suitable bird foods (seeds, cooked rice, cereals, grated cheese, fruit, baked potatoes), scissors, egg box.

How to: egg boxes have chambers in them which make ideal bird feeders. Remove the top of the egg box and attach string to the bottom through the cone-shaped dividers to give something to hang it with; in each chamber place the same or different types foods; hang the feeder where visiting birds will feel safe from predators but make sure it is somewhere that it can be seen.

What to do with the birdfeeder:

  • Identify the birds that come to the feeder. Which birds are the most common? Where are the birds feeding – on the feeder or on the ground below? Which birds are seen around but don’t come to the feeder? Which time of the day do they feed the most?
  • Do birds arrive at the feeder in the same way? Do they swoop straight in or do they approach via a specific tree or bush?
  • Try putting two different foods to see which one is the favourite.

Make egg box boats

Equipment: egg box, scissors, large container of water/bath/local stream, pebbles/marbles/coins.

How to: cut off the top of the egg box; using the bottom half, cut out boats made from 1, 2, 3 and/or 4 chambers; test out the boats to see which number of chambers creates the most effective boat.

What to do with the boats:

  • Try them out both with and without different contents to see how they perform.
  • Investigate if there’s a pattern between the number of chambers and how well it floats.
  • Carry out boat races – this could be with a push or a blow.

Online Links

CLEAPPS guidance

Check out the recent guidance for partially opened Primary schools here.

Explorify blogs

The Explorify team have written several new blogs to support the current teaching environment. Click here for a blog on how to teach science outdoors through physically-distanced learning. 

Take part in the Big Science Event at Home!

Science Oxford have recently launched the Big Science Event at Home. The aim is to celebrate curiosity and creativity and to encourage and support child-led investigation.  Open to all ages, children need to come up with a question that they really want to find the answer to and design and carry out an investigation that might help them to answer it. They can work on their own or with their family, with a friend via Zoom or as part of a group at school.  Those sharing what they discover with Science Oxford by 13th July will be eligible for a range of prizes – from 3-month subscriptions to The Curiosity Box at-home science kits, to free family tickets to the Science Oxford Centre when it reopens and even £500 of Playforce play equipment for their school.

Activity Prompts

Science for One Socially distanced practical science ideas for each phase that are curriculum linked and generally possible to run outside.  Today sees two activity sheets released: one using foil (thanks go to Linda Atherton for the inspiration) and the other playdough.  Last week’s activity was around paper straws – click here if you haven’t checked it out.

I bet you didn’t know… Evolution of life in cities

Another BRAND NEW article and accompanying teacher guide. Four activities are described in the teacher guide with suggestions on how to maintain social distancing.

PSTT Science at Home Resource: this week’s new activity is all about rockets!

2m Poster Idea

Support children’s understanding of what 2m looks like. Can they create their own 2m poster? They could like to different animal groups or base it on the length of their own handspan. What other ideas could they use?