In the first half of our STEM week, Year 4 were given the task of designing ear defenders for the children of popstars, so that they could enjoy concerts without damaging their ears. We started by considering materials we thought would have sound muffling properties, and worked in teams to plan and carry out a fair test of these materials. Then we produced plans of our ear defenders, taking into account what we had found out and considering other factors such as comfort and style. Finally, we each produced a prototype, showing good resilience when things (frequently) did not go to plan. Thank you for all the materials you sent in with your children.
The second half of Year 4’s week was spent acting as a STEM company tasked with creating a development of dwellings for 50 families in a 30x30m area with green space in a country prone to Earthquakes. The children were provided with a variety of materials such as straws and marshmallows (most didn’t get eaten!) to design and try out their building designs, which they then tested on a wobbling marble base to see how the building resisted collapse. The children then had to develop and improve their designs to meet the full range of criteria and present to the rest of the class and Years 3 and 5 as a business bidding to create the buildings.
On Friday morning Year 3 and 4 had a workshop with the visiting Cambridge Science Centre. This involved two very exciting elements – one was using knowledge of forces to create a land yacht with an individual sail design and race them against each other in the wind from a fan, then make changes to the sail design until they were super fast. The second was to explore that actions have equal and opposite reactions, by sitting on a hoverboard and zooming across the floor! The children had a wonderful time exploring and using science!
