Page 95 - The Bellfort - Summer 2015
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Science Department a teaspoon of baking soda. The outdoor classroom : We launched our schools green- house planting in February this Baking soda breaks down year, as a way to encourage pu- when it is heat- pils to get involved in growing ed to produce organic vegetables and plants. carbon diox- Learning through doing.... ide. At frst we had requests for our The carbon dioxide makes the plants from staf and pupils. And make food through the process sugar bubble up. We then placed in response, we created a selec- of photosynthesis. tion specifcally designed with the mixture in a container and plunged it into cold water. The Science Club was held this bubbles remained in the mixture year and was well attended. With as it hardened the help of Mrs Sloan, Miss creating honey- Campbell and Mr Gillen, pupils comb. The smell had the chance to more about of honeycomb Science by carrying out fun ex- moved through periments. the whole Sci- ence corridor. This year, pupils Thankfully no made their own one burnt their sugar! slime using PVA glue and borax. Ellen McBurney (Year 8) has at- buyers in mind. The greenhouse Everyone enjoyed tended Science Club this year is full of a wide variety of colour- using their hands and she says: ful vegetables and plants, spe- to try to mould the slime. Like cially chosen with diferent varie- true scientists, pupils learnt that ‘I love coming to Science Club ties and tastes. Care has been sometimes experiments don’t because we get to do lots of ex- taken to choose plants that will always go to plan! periments but the best part was harvest during term time, so that making friends and learning a bit the pupils enthusiasm doesn’t Miss Campbell more about Science. It really have time to wane. demonstrated helped me in Science class. My how some sub- favourite activity was making The greenhouse introduces pu- stances can honeycomb. Tasty!’ pils to the idea of plants as living exhibit proper- things which grow and change. ties of both a Science Club meets after school solid and a liq- and is for all pupils in Years 8-10. uid and we in- If you would be interested in vestigated this using cornfour coming along, please speak to and water. When the mixture Mrs Sloan. was constantly rolled, the corn- four and water displayed prop- erties of a solid as it did not fow; however, when we stopped roll- Students will build a concept of ing, the mixture became like a what a plant is and learn some of liquid. the general terms that describe plants including some of their Our cooking skills were also test- parts. They will understand the ed when we made honeycomb. importance of plants in providing Using hot plates and saucepans, a source of food for humans and pupils heated a mixture of gold- other animals and how they en syrup and sugar until the sug- ar had dissolved. We then added THE BELLFORT SUMMER 2015 95