Following on from the successful science day held at Strand Infants School last year another event was held in July 2003.
(See http://tlfe.org.uk/ict/videoconferencing/videoconferencing2/Page_2x.html for details of last years event.)
The whole day was devoted to the exploration of various different scientific activities. Many of the activities incorporated an ICT element such as interactive whiteboards, sensors, graphing programs, computer controlled microscopes, time lapse movies and internet-based activities as this enabled the children to experience different learning opportunities. The children were split into small groups and visited each activity throughout the day. Parents, grandparents and friends were encouraged to ‘lend a hand’ to ensure that plenty of support was available for the children doing their experiments. This gave the day a wonderful atmosphere and everyone, children, parents, grandparents, friends, teaching assistants and teachers alike learned something new!

The activities were as follows:

Fabulous Forces – to find out about how bubbles move under different conditions
Key questions:

• In which direction do your bubbles travel (in a calm atmosphere)
• Can you make them change direction?
• Can you make them go faster?
• Can you make them travel upwards?
• Do bigger bubbles fall faster than small ones?

Superb sound – to explore different kinds of sound and sources of sound
Key questions:

• Which objects make a loud sound?
• Which objects make a soft sound?
• Can you make high and low sounds?
• What happens to the sound when you change the beater?

Fabulous Forces – to investigate how things fall
Key questions:

• Do all objects fall in the same way?
• Which falls the slowest/quickest?
• Do you know why they fall?

	Testing how long diffeent materials take to fall.
Recording how long different materials take to fall by putting marbles into a jar. The results were also recorded on a computer using the graphing program 2graph and the children were given the opportunity to compare methods of recording.

Fabulous Forces – to explore magnetism and to understand how two magnets react to each other
Key questions:

• What happens when you push the same ends of a magnet together?
• What happens when you push different ends of a magnet together?
• Why do you think this happens?

Light and Dark – to explore the idea of light and dark using an Ecolog sensor to test the effectiveness of sunglasses.
Key questions:

• Which sunglasses let the most light through?
• Are different sunglasses better for different activities?
• Which colour lets the most light through?
• Which colour blocks the most light out?

The results from these experiments were a surprise to most adults who had predicted that expensive sunglasses would be more effective at blocking light out. Not so! The children found that cheap sunglasses were as effective if not more so during their experiments!

Changing materials – to explore some of the ways that materials can be changed.

In this activity the children were shown pictures of stalactites and were asked how they thought they were formed. They visited a pretend cave and were shown a stalactite made from a solution of concentrated washing soda. They were then shown a time lapse video of how the stalactite was made.

They were also shown a time lapse video of washing soda crystallizing out of solution.

Key questions: What type of material was the stalactite made from? What type of material did it end up as? Why do you think it changed? Where did the water go?

Living it up – to understand some of the life processes of animals and plants
After looking at pictures of animals and plants and discussing their ideas, the children were asked to use the flip charts below to sort out what plants and animals need to live.

Key questions

• Do all animals need the same things to live?
• Do all plants need the same things to live?
• Do all animals and plants need the same things to live?

Super Structures – to find out that structures can be built higher if their base covers a bigger area
The introduction to this activity consisted of the children watching a short video clip of a bridge collapsing and a discussion about what happens if a structure has not been built properly.

The children were then given some time to build a free standing tower using spaghetti and marshmallows.

Key questions

• How can you make the links between the marshmallows stronger?
• How could you make the base of your tower more stable?
  

Changing by cooling – to explore how materials can be changed
In this activity ice cubes were added to hot water and the temperature was logged using the Ecolog sensor to produce an on-screen cooling curve.
Key questions:

Is the water hot or cold? How much will the temperature fall by if we add 1 ice cube? How much will the temperature fall by if we add 2 ice cubes? What will happen to the temperature of the water if we leave it in the room for 2 hours without adding any ice cubes to it?

Mr Zippy’s trainers – an interactive program which enables the children to explore the suitability of various materials for Mr Zippy’s trainers.
Key questions:

• Should the soles of Mr Zippy’s trainers be smooth and shiny or have a rubbery pattern?
• Should his trainers be made of plastic material or cotton material?

Web address: http://sycd.co.uk/primary/mr_zippy/index.htm#

Magic Oily hubbub – children explore the concepts of solubility
Key questions:

• Is the oil on top or underneath the water?
• What do you think will happen if we add salt?
• What will happen if we add more salt?

Web address: http://www.planet.science.com/sciteach/load_frameset.html?page=/e

Minibeasts – children learn to make observations about the characteristics of different minibeasts
This activity involved the children making observations about minibeasts using a computer microscope and an interactive white board.

Living or non-living? Children learn about yeast and how the gas it produces makes bread rise.
The children were asked to look at some fresh yeast and to classify it as living or non-living. Sugar was then added to the yeast and the children were asked to describe what happened and why they thought it was happening. The children were then shown a video from Granada Learning’s All about Materials CD which shows bread being made and how the yeast produces a gas which makes the dough rise. The children were then given the opportunity to taste different types of bread.

Fruit and vegetable quiz – an activity designed to encourage children to make observations about living things
The children were shown pictures of fruit and vegetables taken from unusual angles with a Digital Blue camera and put into Clicker 4 software. They were asked to make observations about the pictures and were given clues if required to help them guess the identity of the fruit or vegetable. The then children looked at and tasted some fruit and vegetables.

Key questions: What colour is it? Does it have pips? Does it have a skin you can peel?

Fantastic flowers – children learn how flowers take up water and to learn the names of different parts of plants

For this activity the children looked at white carnations that had been stood in water that had different food colourings added to it. They were asked to compare with the ‘control’ i.e. a white carnation that had been stood in ordinary water and to say why they thought the flower had taken up the colouring from the water they had been stood in. They were then given the opportunity to examine different flowering plants and draw their observations.

For more information about science day activities go to the following website:
http://www.sycd.co.uk/primary/enhancing-science/science-fairs.htm