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STEM Week 2020

Posted: 23rd November 2020

STEM Week 2020

STEM Week took over the whole school this week, and such a lot of fun was had by all. The week was launched in assembly with a gruesome crime to be solved by Year 6, helped by the rest of the school. Many other activities were to follow, so read below for a taster of the week.

(Please note you can scroll through the photos by swiping left or right)

Categories: News

Pre-Reception

We have had lots of fun participating in our STEM week which has focused on the Olympics. We have designed our own medals, been engineers and ran our own mini Olympics. We watched a few videos of athletes participating in the Olympics, we especially loved watching the swimming.

Reception

As part of STEM week, Year R worked in small groups during outdoor learning to build bridges. They also had to learn how to safely carry longer branches and pieces of wood. As well as resilience the children demonstrated reasoning skills as, for example, when deciding how to stabilise their bridge or to make it wider by tying two pieces of wood together so that it was easier to walk along.

We have also had the opportunity to use a STEM activity to make a skateboard park. Again the class worked in small groups and needed to both cooperate and listen to each other’s ideas. There were some prompt cards to help but overall the children quickly used their own ideas. All the 5Rs were demonstrated in equal measure and there was a lot of excitement in the room as each group made a different skateboard park.

As part of our work on shape the children could choose to use a selection of wooden blocks. They displayed their developing skills when, following up on the work done in outdoor learning, the children decided to build bridges. 3D shapes were also used to build and balance tall towers – it was soon decided that the spheres were of no use or help! A good week’s work!

Year 1

In Maths we have been measuring how far the children can jump and throw using meter rulers and timing how fast they can run, skip and hop from one side of the playground to the other. They also really enjoyed working in small groups to design and create a skate park.

Year 2

Year 2 have been following the story of “La Oruga Muy Hambrienta” this term and have really enjoyed the Spanish version of this very popular book. We have used it to learn colours, numbers, days of the week, fruits and this week in particular, we have looked at all the aspects of STEM within the story.

For Science we talked about the life cycle of the little “oruga” who becomes “una bellísima mariposa”.

For Technology and Engineering we talked about how clever the little “oruga” must be to create and construct her very own “capullo”

For Maths, we counted in Spanish, the number of fruits she ate in one whole week!
Muy bien Year 2!

Year 3

In STEM week the children in Phases 1 and 2 have taken part in a skateboarding STEM challenge. As our theme is the Olympics and skateboarding is a new event in the (hopeful) 2021 Olympics, we thought this activity would be a great match.

The children had to engineer designs to solve problems within a skatepark. We observed some fantastic teamwork, reflection and reasoning about why they had created their designs and the problems they encountered and overcame.

Year 4

Year 4 have thoroughly enjoyed their STEM week with a huge variety of challenges, new skills and co-operative group work to get them thinking and learning. In maths they took part in the archery Olympics, created their own targets using compass skills, designed and created their own symmetrical flags and worked together to solve a mathematical Olympic mystery. In Science they designed and created their own device to protect a falling egg which they then tested by dropping from a height.  In their STEM session they researched and then designed their own medals for the STEM Olympics. What a fun and busy week!

Year 5

Year 5 Marble run challenge – Pupils had 30 minutes to design a marble run that takes the longest time for the marble to travel down the chosen route. We saw tunnels, drop offs and berms! Excellent designing and engineering skills from all! They also took part in the Egg drop Challenge, making a protective device that can protect their egg when launched from the top of the Main House!

Year 6 – La Semaine de ‘STIM’

This week, the Year 6 pupils have been learning about their school day and school subjects in French this half term. It was amazing to learn that so many subjects are easy to remember because they are cognates like “le sport” or near cognates like “la musique” .  This week, the year 6 pupils decided to put their new found knowledge to the test and created some very colourful “STIM” posters in French…can you work out what the letters stand for? Bonne chance!

Elsewhere, Year 6 have spent a busy week investigating the case of ‘Tim Team’.

Year 8

As part of STEM Week, Year 8 have been designing balloon-powered vehicles to investigate Newton’s 3rd Law. In DT this week, Ottilie designed a logo for the GB Equestrian team. Year 8 also used their learning from Physics to design, construct and race rocket cars!


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