Friday 18 March 2011 Junior School’s first ever science week has scooped a national prize for the impressive cross curricular nature of the event and the high level of understanding shown by participating students. GSAL Juniors was awarded runner-up prize in the National Science Engineering Week (NSEW) 2011 Primary event awards category for the programme which it staged to mark the week (March 11-18). The school impressed visiting judges from the British Science Association with its hands-on experiments, practical work and investigations which captured the imagination of pupils. For a week the youngsters discovered that science is great fun as they developed their scientific skills and understanding on the theme of communications. Science coordinator at the school, Gwen Lindsey, said: “We are delighted to have won a prize. The science week at GSAL junior school has been lively and a huge success. The children have been fascinated by the experiments they have carried out and the discoveries they have made.” Among the investigations undertaken, Year 3 pupils learned to talk to animals by first of all learning how animals communicate and then making different instruments to recreate their sounds. Pupils in Year 5 discovered that big ears are better for hearing after they used a data logger and a series of experiments to see if size improved audible range. Each lunch time throughout the week Year 6 students entertained the rest of the school with their ‘science busking’ when they carried out a series of small experiments, ranging from exploding water through to making balloon kebabs and investigating scientific slime. There were links to literacy and art through a science, art and writing project and all pupils were set the challenge of becoming inventors to solve the world’s most mind boggling problems by using their imaginations to design devices and create posters to explain how their inventions work. Their posters have been entered into the NSEW schools’ competition for a chance to win a Nintendo DS and a hands-on science show for the winner’s class. Experimenting with a red cabbage indicator to check PH levels are Y3 pupils (L-R) Rehani Bhullar, Isabella Thurston Hydes, Ben Wheatcroft and Amy Bickler. Primary News
