Beech Class visit QMC
This half term our Science has been focussed on local wildlife and habitats. As part of this topic, Beech Class had the opportunity to visit the Science Centre at QMC to find out more.
Worm Cafe, Mrs Lavender
The children were fascinated by the worm cafe. Before opening the lid the children were asked if they could guess what was inside. They guessed: worms, food and soil and they were most disgusted when they realised that the so called soil was in fact 'worm poo'. They worked out that the food had to be rotten before being put in the worm cafe otherwise the worms wouldn't be able to eat it as they have no teeth and that more worms were at the top of the 'cafe', near to the food source.
The children also quickly spotted that as soon as we lifted the lid the worms were quick to hid away from the light in fear of predators and they can become dehydrated if exposed to sunlight for to long.
The Science Centre then use the worm mature in their garden.
Seasonal Changes, Mrs Taylor
In our group we looked at seasonal changes. We used various pieces of equipment to note the air temperature, the lowest overnight temperature, the rain fall from the previous 24 hours and the speed and direction of the wind.
In the Science Centre garden we looked for evidence of plants which could survive cold weather and learnt that evergreens such as lavenders and many herbs keep their leaves during the winter and deciduous trees and bushes lose leaves in winter but they will grow buds and leaves next spring.
This was a great opportunity to use some scientific equipment to observe and investigate the many changes in the environment each season.
Habitats, Danielle
Each group had 20 minutes to identify an animal's habitat and describe what each habitat would look like. Firstly the group went outside and identified each habitat e.g.: a spider's web, a vegetable/plant patch, under a log, in a pond and in a compost heap. The children then went back inside the classroom where on the table were circle shaped cards with pictures of different animals for example: a ladybird, a slug, a spider, a woodlouse and a worm. With the cards the children then had to describe what each animal's habitat would be like. Was the habitat warm or cold? Was the habitat wet, damp or dry? What type of food did the animals eat? Was the particular animal prey to other animals? The children discussed each question within their group and together worked out the answers. All the children were very excited about the activity and worked really well together.
Pond Dipping, Emma (Mum to Alex)
The children had great fun looking for creatures in the six small ponds. Mrs Jordan warned us to be very gentle with our nets so not to disturb the pond life too much as they are a lot slower and more sleepy in the cold weather.
The water was very cold and we weren't sure if we would find anything. But the children were very lucky and found lots of different things to look at through their microscopes and identify on their fact sheets including water boatmen, leeches and even a little newt.
Click here for Beech Class or here to find out more about our Wildlife and Habitats topic.
