Magnificent Mirrors

Can you read this mirror writing?

Did you know that you can have lots of fun with mirrors and learn about science at the same time?

Mirrors work by reflecting light really well. They can do this because they are shiny.

This week the students in Year 3 got to explore with mirrors and found out lots of interesting features of mirrors.

This is what the Year 3 classes had to say about mirrors:

E4

• It is hard to write in mirror writing because your hand goes the opposite way.
• Words look back to front in a mirror.
• Mirrors flip over mirror writing so we can read it.

E1

• When I looked up into a mirror the classroom looked upside down.
• It looked like the ceiling was the floor and the floor was the ceiling.
• Mirror writing is tricky because your hands moves the opposite way in the mirror.

E2

• Mirrors show things upside down if you look up into them.
• Writing looks back to front in a mirror.

E3

• If you write your name upside down and back to front it will look OK in the mirror This is called mirror writing.
• Things look flipped over in a mirror.
• It is hard to do mirror writing because your hand goes the opposite way to what you think.
• You can use a mirror to read mirror writing.

Parts of the eye

Do you know which parts of your body help you to see?

Well the clever Year 3 students now do. The answer is:

• The Eye
• The Brain
  

This week they have been learning the names of the parts of the eye. The words are pretty tricky but they did really well.

Here is a labelled diagram of the main mains of our eye.

If you want to find out more about the eye you can look at this website:

How do we see?

Even 5 Year Olds are Scientists

Today I worked with a group of New Entrant children. Some of them have been at school for 7 weeks and some only for 1 day.

The students had to think about which things make light. They were great scientists and talked about things they had seen to help them decide.



Some said that the moon makes light because you see it glowing at night. But others thought that the moon's light comes from the sun - and they were right.

Some thought that a mirror makes light because sometimes it goes bright. But others knew that a mirror doesn't really make light.

They knew that fire makes light so a match and candle must make light too.

Next week we hope it is sunny so we can get outside and investigate the sun's light.

Reflect, Absorb or Transmit

This week the Year 3 students have been finding out that light can do 3 things when it hits an object.

• Reflect - the light bounces back off the object.
• Absorb - the light is blocked by the object and there is a shadow behind it.
• Transmit - the light can shine through the object.

We held lots of different objects up in front of the strong projector light to see what the light would do.

We loved seeing the CD and mirror reflect the light to the back of the room.

These are our results:

We found out that if an object is shiny it will reflect light. If you can see through an object then light will be transmitted through. And if an object is thick and dull it will absorb the light and block it.

When then had a go at investigating with mirrors and torches to see if we could reflect the light. This was so much fun.

Solar Kids meet with Maggie

On Friday our Solar Kids had a special visit from Maggie. Maggie works for Genesis and she came to help them learn about our Solar Panels.

We also had visitors from St Theresa's school in Plimmerton. The kids from St Theresa's wanted to find out about how cool solar power is too.

Did you know that EHS has 12 solar panels on the roof of B Block? These solar panels make electricity from the sun's energy.

You can look on the Schoolgen website to see how much electricity our solar panels are making.
On Friday when we looked at the website we found out that EHS was the school who was making the most electricity at that time because it was the sunniest school.

Maggie showed us a mini solar panel so we could see how it worked. We put the panel in the sun and connected it up to the inverter and then the light bulb. When the sun shone on the solar panel the light bulb lit up. Wow.

Showing that light travels in a straight line

Miss Harrison asked us to think about whether light travels in a straight line or if it can travel around things.

We did an experiment to see. This is what we found out:



Light travels in a straight line and when something gets in the way the light is blocked and a shadow is made behind the object.

Miss Harrison and the Beanstalk

Sadly last week was the last Year 4 Science Club session. Before all the bean plants were taken home we took 1 last photo to see how much they have grown. Some are doing much better than others. I wonder if any will grow bean pods?

Flowers

Flowers are a very important part of a plant because they make the seeds that plants need to grow new ones. (Reproduce)

We looked at some flowers (roses) and found out what each different part does.

Here is a diagram of the different parts.

The diagram comes from www.sparklebox.co.uk

The white petals are starting to unfold. The green protective sepal has opened up. The petals are often brightly coloured and help to attract bees to them. The sepal protects the developing flower inside.

The rose flower. You can see the petals and the Stamen.

We carefully pulled the petals off. Now you can see the Stamen which are made up of the anther (brown fluffy bit) and the filament (white stringy bit). The stamen is the male part of the flower. The pollen is on the anther.

Then we pulled off the stamen to show the Pistil (the yellow part in the middle). This is the female part of the flower. The pistil is made up of the stigma the style and the ovary.
Pollen from the male part of the flower gets onto the stigma and travels down the style to the ovary. The pollen joins with an egg and this makes the seed start to grow.

Finally we cut open the ovary at the bottom of the flower to see the seeds growing inside.

When you eat fruit (such as apples, bananas, oranges) you are actually eating the ovary of the flower.

Can a shadow move?

Harry drew around his shadow to find out. When Harry drew around his shadow in the morning it was behind him. Now it is the afternoon and his shadow has moved. The shadow is also much smaller.

Harry told me that this is because the earth turns around which makes the sun move across the sky. When the sun moves so does our shadow.


Look at how we investigated shadows moving inside the classroom on a rainy day.


We shone a torch at the doll and the stick. When we moved the torch around the shadow moved too.