Year 6 blog

What another busy week Year 6 have had at Into University!

Our second group of children have had a fun-full packed STEM focus week, exploring air resistance, friction and electrical circuits. The children created a variety of experiments to explore different elements of physics. We looked at creating differing paper planes and we considered the shape and length of the nose of the plane for the aerodynamics. Later, we made links to last half term’s Science topic, electricity, and created circuits using different components. We considered why some circuits produced lights that were brighter or buzzers that were louder than others and considered why sometimes the circuits were faulty. Then, we tested a variety of resistant materials, to test which were the best for our wheeled devices and which caused more friction.

During the week, the children researched some key scientists in history and developed their knowledge as the week went on. Our pupils were put into teams, based around famous scientists: Team Mae Jemison, Team Alan Turing and Team Stephen Hawking. Depending on the team name, the children investigated information on that scientist about their life and their successes. The children wrote some fantastic fact files about their scientist and created a presentation poster to showcase their hard work, which they then created a drama infused script to demonstrate their new knowledge to the parents and carers at their University Graduation. We were all extremely inspired by the path that these scientists had taken in life to become great successes.

Each team were in a competition against one another with a goal of reaching 60 points daily, a whopping 300 points by the end of the week, in order to win a class prize. The children successfully soared at the challenge and had a combined total of 920 points, meaning that each team successfully reached their team target.

On the Wednesday, we went to the Science Centre in Winchester and we were lucky enough to experience this with our whole cohort. The children were so excited to explore the museum and were in awe in the planetarium. There was so much to see and do! The children completed a workshop, where they looked at rockets and aerodynamics. They were able to design and create their own rocket ship and see how successful they were when launching them. It is safe to say, we have some future scientists in our presence, because some of the groups rockets flew! After a quiet bus ride back to school, it was apparent that the children had a very exciting day!

We are all very proud of the children for completing the STEM focus week. They tackled everything that was thrown at them, stepped out of their comfort zones and have thought about their journey in the future. We hope that this week has inspired them to consider a plethora of options for their future careers.

We look forward to working with the Into University staff again in the close future, ready for our transition into secondary school.