Science

INTENT

The purpose of the Futura Learning Partnership cross-phase Science curriculum is to help students understand and question the world around them. This links well with our current, progressive Scheme 'Plan B' which follows the same overviews and intent as Futura. It gives them the scientific knowledge and skills that they need in order to be successful in their future lives and make a contribution to the wider community. Students are empowered with a strong knowledge base that they can then use to evaluate important issues, analyse evidence and problem solve. They develop the confidence to form their own opinions and articulate themselves effectively. Our engaging and challenging curriculum means that students who have studied Science at a Futura school will continue to enjoy learning about Science and how the world works throughout their lives.

Inclusion: Our curriculum is ambitious for all and strives to address inclusion and disadvantage in its intent and implementation

Science Curriculum Overview

Science_Progression_Grid.pdf

Science Photos

Year 3

Year 3 learnt that fossils can take millions of years to form, however, they made theirs in an afternoon! In English they have been learning how to write instructions so following instructions of how to make a fossil helped with our learning.

Year 5 have used the forest school area to support their learning in Science. They used the fire to begin their unit on materials. They looked at how heating and cooling some materials changed their properties.

Holly Class (Y3) have been learning about Rocks and Soils. The children learnt about how soil is formed over hundreds of years. They made there own soil profiles in an afternoon using cereal, cakes, biscuits and worms!

Holly Class then spent the afternoon making soil profiles in forest school and even included some real worms!

Cedar class (Y4) planted sunflower seeds and have been looking after them, watering them each week and keeping an eye on their growth progress. We have been looking at statistics in maths so during our outdoor learning time, we worked in groups to measure our sunflowers to see which was the tallest. We drew bar charts to show our results.

Morrisons supermarket kindly donated sunflower seeds to every class in the school. The children have thoroughly enjoyed planting their seeds in the Forest School area, whose sunflower will grow the tallest?

Year 4

In Plum and Mulberry the children have watched eggs hatch chicks and then looked after the chicks and watched them grow.

Year 2 made frames in forest school and searched for living things.

Year 3 made soil profiles using chocolate chip cookies, chocolate cake, green dessicated coconut and gummy worms! They were delicious!

Year 6 used their natural environment to develop their understanding of classification.

Year 6 investigated light and shadow. Photos show them trying to eliminate the shadow of a bottle, and conduct an experiment to investigate the relationship between the distance of a light source and the height of the shadow.

Strawberry DNA Extraction

Year 6 have been studying key Innovators to Technology and Science; most recently, Rosalind Franklin and her contribution to the discovery of the Double Helix in DNA. As part of their Learning Expedition, the children took on the challenge of extracting DNA from a strawberry! This involved them creating an extraction solution, measuring, filtration, separation and observation.

2020 South West STEM Science Challenge

Challenge Brief: To design and build a rainforest tree that will withstand challenges.

Once again, children from Year 1 to Year 6 recently took part in a fantastic science challenge. The children worked in groups of four, across the key stages to research, design and make a rainforest tree.

The challenge brief was very specific, the tree was to be no taller or wider than 1 metre. It needed to be free standing but should have a root system. The children also needed to make a 300g monkey that could hang on the branches and make a ground dwelling creature that would be protected by the tree canopy.

The children could only use paper, card and masking tape. No plastic, glue guns, wood or wire were permitted (except for the monkeys which could be made from a plastic bottle and wire).

The children worked extremely hard all day to produce their finished trees. The teams scored points for how well their ground dwelling creature was protected by the canopy; how many monkeys the tree could hold and how strong the tree was (it was pulled over using string around the trunk. A Newton meter was used to measure how much force was needed to fell the tree). Luckily Mr Eveleigh was on hand to judge the design of the trees, once all the other scoring had taken place.

Unfortunately the final, due to take place in Bristol at the end of the month has been cancelled due to coronavirus.

Year 3 visit from Museum of Somerset - Bones and Teeth.

The children were able to match skeletons with the correct animal. They studied real animals bones and teeth. They used the ipads and a 'special' t shirt to look inside their bodies!

Year 5 Solar System Homework project

As part of a homework project, the children were asked to create their own representation of our Solar System. It has supported their learning for our current Science topic. As you can see from the photos, the children and their parents and carers did an amazing job! The children were thrilled when Mr. Eveleigh visited our class to look at their fantastic creations.