Last month saw British Science Week mark its 30th anniversary with a ten-day celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths. Here at Milestone Academy, throughout Term 4, our students celebrated British Science Week too. The theme for activities this year was ‘Time’.
In Phase 3, some classes used Horticulture lessons to start planting seeds. Students sowed seeds in the polytunnels in preparation for warmer weather and prepared the seed beds for those plants which could be planted early. Plants are a great representation of time, as different plant types take varying amounts of time to grow and reach full size, therefore giving the students the perfect opportunity to watch the plants go through the various stages of: seed, seedling, vegetative growth and flowering/fruiting.
Elsewhere in Phase 3, some classes explored the theme of ‘Time’ by examining speed. Students used a tube, down which they rolled a ball (and various other objects), while exploring how to change the height, and therefore the gradient, of the tube to make the objects roll down faster. Speed itself is a concept that relies on time, as it allows us to quantify how quickly things move or change over time.
In Phase 4, students explored the passing of time over the day/night or over the course of the whole year through seasons. Students were adept at sorting objects, identifying whether we see them in the day sky or night sky. Other students were able to extend their observations to objects we associate with different seasons as the year progresses.
All the students were engaged and active throughout this focussed theme work and were excellent scientists!
