This week Reception are taking part in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) week. Today, we have been using Lego to complete ‘6 Brick Challenges’ and build objects to show our hobbies and interests. We then designed and built our own music concert. We have had so much fun!!!!
Year 3 were so excited to start our STEAM week! Today we learned all about our theme for this year, ‘MASTERPIECE’. We explored how people share their hobbies and interests in creative and capturing ways. We then started to build our first stage where different types of performances can take place!
STEM week has started in Year 2 and we are enjoying taking part in the Lego League Master Piece Challenge. Today we thought about our hobbies and interests and ways in which we can showcase our talents to others. We learned about different roles and elements backstage that can enhance a performance. There are lots of careers that work within The Arts such as a graphic designer, stage manager, florist and games designer. Our challenge today was to work as a team to build a a stage using our Lego. It was very important to follow the instructions carefully and support our team mates.
Year 5 are continuing to enjoy their STEAM week. Today, we have been finalising our robot codes and timing our missions. We have been putting all our innovation information together, as a group, into our presentations and creating our speeches for the judges. We are looking forward to our final day tomorrow.
Year 6 have loved taking part in STEAM week so far, developing a wide range of skills including teamwork and communication.
The children have been working in 4 different groups. Some groups have been coding, the coding instructs the robot to move around the Lego and complete certain missions, each of which can earn points. While some groups have done this, other groups and have been preparing their presentations. The presentations must outline a design for how an art is showcased. We have some excellent examples in Y6 so far including, a fidget table to support children with additional needs, a stopmotion app which helps younger children to construct Lego and an inflatasuit to help with jetty jumping and prevent injuries.
Today, we continued with our STEM week activities.
We have been split into groups and in our groups we have started programming our Lego robot to complete various missions using the Lego models we built on Friday. As well as coding the robots, we have been producing a presentation to share with the judges, about sharing a hobby/interest with new people. We have looked at the careers of visual effects, stage management, sound engineering and museum co-ordinators to identify ways in which we could share our hobbies with others in an interesting and immersive way.
We are incredibly proud of our year 3, 4, 5 and 6 pupils who participated in the national Leaders Award competition, where children are posed the question ‘If you were an engineer, what would you do?’ The children are tasked with identifying a problem and designing an invention to solve that problem. They created labelled diagrams of their invention and wrote letters to a panel of judges explaining what their invention did and the inspiration behind it. Out of thousands of children who took part, over 70 of our children were shortlisted to the final round of judging and had their work displayed at Sunderland University.
We are also delighted to announce that Carter, in year 6, was announced as the winner for the north east of England for his invention of the Emergency Stop System! Carter’s invention would help people cross the road safely and it would be especially beneficial for people with visual impairments.
Check out the amazing entries!
The children in year 2 had their first lessons using the Bee-Bots (robots that can be programmed using simple directional instructions). They were tasked with writing algorithms using the instructions: forwards, forwards, left and right.
They kept a record of the end position of the Bee-Bot and noticed that even though they gave it different instructions, it did end on the same few spots of the map.
Our first science topic in year 4 was all about electricity. We found out that electricity is a naturally occurring phenomenon but it can also be generated. It is the flow of tiny particles called electrons. Electricity can only flow when given a push from a power supply like a cell or a battery. We also know how to keep ourselves safe around electricity.On Wednesday afternoon, Y6D had the opportunity to go to Harton Academy to take part in some STEM activities. In Design & Technology, we used a CAD (computer aided design) program to create Christmas tree ornaments made from acrylic. In science, we looked at electricity and then made Christmas card with a light (LED) and a circuit. The children had a fun afternoon. Many thanks to Ms Parkin and the Harton staff for having us.
