Pre-Prep children enjoyed questioning, predicting, testing and evaluating during an action-packed Science Week. This year’s theme was May the Force Be With You!
Their experiments created forces of great and little strength, from using the power of water and wind to move objects to moving objects with elastic bands and lolly pop sticks.
Children and parents worked alongside each other to experiment with different surfaces to see which Chewbacca’s car would drive the fastest on. They created marshmallow shooters, catapults, and mini motors as well as setting off rockets and making space spinners. Fun was had by both young and the little bit older and lessons learnt by both!
Lab Rascals, who stage hands-on Science workshops and events, visited to teach everyone about light and volcanoes. They handed out special glasses that separated light waves into the colour spectrum; it was so exciting to see rainbows from different light sources and then use coloured filters to see how the colours changed.
Children learned about Sir Isaac Newton and how colours transformed on Newton’s wheel; it was like magic when the colours disappeared. They then learned about UV light and made special bracelets that changed colour in UV light from the sun. The darker the colour the stronger the UV rays were, which made it time to wear sun screen.
The safety goggles then came on as the children made volcanoes. They used tweezers to drop dry ice into them and then stood back amazed as the volcanoes erupted, sending steam everywhere, followed by lots of bubbles and foam.
Skye enjoyed the marshmallow shooters because she could then eat them. Claudia enjoyed making the space spinners. Anika liked making the rockets with Mrs Kay and Mrs Afford. Oliver learned how to do experiments and invent new things – and Audrey learnt that you can’t touch volcanoes! Joseph said he saw rainbows though the glasses when he looked at the light. Jack worked out that in an experiment it is important to keep everything the same except one thing. Nathan observed that the more water you added to the rockets in his experiment the less likely they were to pop! Elene noticed that cars move slower on different surfaces.
Pre-Prep’s annual Science Week focuses on STEM activities (science, technology, engineering and maths), which are embedded into the themed cross curricular, creative curriculum. All Pre-Prep activities are planned to encourage children to have enquiring minds - to predict, test, and evaluate, as well as use their natural curiosity to explore the world around them, communicating and asking questions as they go.