There have been so many new discoveries in our classroom already this year.

2007/2008

We have been looking at 'Ourselves' this first half term during science. Here we are labelling and drawing the names of the internal and external organs and muscles of the body:

2006/2007

We have used our investigative skills to learn new things about 'Sound and Light' and 'Materials and Changes'.

Sound:

We started the year by discovering sound properties of different materials. We predicted, investigated and evaluated our experiment. We used plastic containers, cardboard, tin and glass. We wanted to find out if these materials made dull or ringing sounds. We altered the experiment by tapping these items when they were empty, filled with sand and filled with water to see if it made a difference to the pitch. We recorded our results throughout each experiment. We learned that most of the items which were filled with the water or sand made a duller sound than when they were empty.

We then went a step further to investigate the pitch of materials when being tapped. We filled 8 milk bottles with different levels of water. This created an octave of different notes when being tapped or played. It had a similar effect to a xylophone. We learned that the pitch got higher when there was less water in the bottles.

Our investigations have even taken us outside of the classroom this term. We wanted to find out to what degree sound could travel. To do this, we made our own instruments. We made a hand made phone by joining plastic cups together with a piece of string. We also made a loudspeaker by rolling pieces of paper into a cone shape. We discovered that sound could pass through the string when the string was pulled tightly. This is because vibrations can pass through tight objects easier than if they are loose.

Light:

Here is our light experiment. We learned how to get a bulb to light up by joining it to a battery through crocodile clips. We wanted to find out if light could pass through different types of paper and card. It was more difficult for the light to penetrate the black card than it was the clear paper. We learned that light can only travel in straight lines by placing holes in 3 pieces of card and aligning them in a zigzag way. The light could not get through all holes.

We have made a display of our scientific investigations which can be seen on the displays page.