P4 Science Club

The Primary 4 Science Club have been busy working towards their SuperStar CREST Award.

To achieve their SuperStar CREST Award, pupils must complete eight SuperStar activities, each of which takes an hour and involves solving real-world problems, and then record these activities in their CREST SuperStar passports.

The CREST Awards, organised by The British Science Association, provides science enrichment activities to inspire and engage STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) activities. The SuperStar Awards are:

“a great introduction to problem-solving in STEM. They offer children the opportunity to learn through hands-on challenges by exploring the world around them.”

The first investigation pupils completed was called Super Spinners. By creating paper helicopters, they investigated whether long/short/fat/thin blades dropped more slowly. Pupils also investigated the optimum weight that needed to be applied to the spinner. Discussing how they would make their tests fair, pupils used slow motion film to observe what was happening more clearly.

Pupils have also investigated Fantastic Fingerprints, where they discovered that everyone’s fingerprints are a unique combination of arches, loops, and whorls. Not all investigations are conducted in the classroom though, one investigation had pupils outside in the Bee Wild garden and another day building and testing rafts – a great way to start the day!

One morning Miss Struthers, Head of Science in the Primary School, showed pupils how to make a “DaVinci bridge”. Working in classes on a Bridge Blunders challenge across Science Week, it was great to extend their learning across the day. Pupils also conducted research into why dinosaurs became extinct which prepared them for a mini-debate and part of their research for their investigation into the shape of different dinosaurs the following week.

This week’s challenge was Hole in My Bucket, where pupils had to design and conduct an experiment to test a range of materials to find out which would be suitable for fixing a hole in a bucket.

Science Club is a great way for pupils to develop their investigative and teamwork skills. Keep up the good work!