We joined in with National Science Week and held our celebration from Monday 11^th to Friday 15^th March 2024. The theme this year was Time. The passing of time prompted the invention of ways to mark it, from the sundial, to the pendulum clock to digital clocks – where would we be without them? We decided to conduct a whole-school experiment about pendulums.

We started the week with a whole-school assembly that introduced pendulums in everyday life and how air resistance affects how things move through the air.

Whole School experiment: Investigating what affects a pendulum swing.

Every class made pendulums and all children in every Year Group investigated one variable that might affect how the pendulum swings. The variables for each year:

 

EYFS & Yr 1 = The length of the string

Yr 2 = Adding weight to the pendulum.

Yr 3-4 = Air resistance (adding card, getting bigger each time)

Yr 5 and 6 = The children choose the variable

We discussed the work of Galileo, an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, known as the "father of experimental science".

Galileo watched some chandeliers in church with different-length chains. As they moved, some of the lamps were making great big swings, and others were only making little swings back and forth.

Eventually, he came up with the idea of using a pendulum as a way to keep track of time.

 

#ScienceSelfie Competition

We wanted to celebrate and increase our children's Science Capital, so we ran a competition where children could take pictures of activities they did at home that linked to science. The competition standard was very high and everyone who took part received a certificate. Winners in EYFS, KS1, Lower KS2 and Upper KS2 were chosen and each received a book prize.

In EYFS, as well as taking part in the experiment, our focus was Lifecycles, as this looks at how organisms grow and change during their time on our planet. We looked at the lifecyles of chickens, butterflies and frogs. This transformation process is called Metamorphosis. We also looked at human lifecycles and compared baby pictures of our teaching team to what they look like now. Some had barely changed at all!

In addition to the whole-school experiment, classes also took part in their own investigations across the week. See the photo gallery for a snapshot of our exciting week.