Category: Junior STEAM

How do the farmers in Nepal transport their precious tomato crop from the top of the mountain where the soil is so fertile, to the bottom of the mountain where the market is? This was the challenge that year 4 worked on during the Practical Action Squashed Tomato Challenge. They had to use their teamwork and problem solving skills to ensure that not a single tomato was squashed. After the challenge we were able to find out how the Nepalese farmers tackle the problem, in not so very a different way to year 4! Well done girls – your designs were terrific!

Gustave Eiffel, the structural engineer most famous for his design of the Eiffel Tower, was our historical inspiration for year 3’s STEAM lesson this week. We also gained a great deal of inspiration (and advice) from the year 3 structural engineers in the room! Year 3 were challenged to build a tall but stable structure from limited resources. They needed to plan carefully and work very well as a team. There were many questions:

Which is the tallest tower?

How large should the base be?

Which shapes are strongest?

How could the tower be changed to make it taller?

Which is the most stable tower?

As you can see there were many successes, and also many learning points about forces, resilience and collaboration!

 

 

CSI Jerusalem has arrived in the STEAM space! A range of scene of the crime evidence has been provided for year 7 to study including fibres and fingerprints. Using scientific skills and religious studies knowledge, they have been delving into the clues and reaching some conclusions. It’s not as straight forward as perhaps they initially thought…

As part of their Romans topic, Year 4 visited the STEAM space this week to discover more about Roman Engineering. They looked at many Roman bridges and found that curves and layers were used to make the bridges strong. They carried out their own investigation to find out if layers were the strongest or if curves were the strongest. Most groups found that curves were stronger, in fact four times as strong as layers! Not all groups agreed though, and we all decided that we would like to test out many more types of bridges in the future.

Year 7 have been learning about the story of Joseph’s Technicolour Dreamcoat in Religious Studies. As part of this topic they have been donning lab coats in STEAM to see how the multi-coloured pigments might have been made. The results are very colourful!

Teachers from Wimbledon High Junior School, alongside teachers from five local schools are currently involved in a project funded by the Primary Science Teaching Trust to test out some new primary science teaching materials. The materials use photographic images to inspire and engage pupils and can also be used in school communities to raise the profile of science and build science capital. The teachers met for their second feedback session this week and it is proving to be a fascinating project so far. Alex Farrer, our STEAM Co-ordinator has created the materials alongside a primary science colleague from Glasgow, who is also trialling the materials with six schools. Thanks to Bromley High School, Coombe Hill Juniors, Sheen Mount Primary, Alexandra School and Holy Trinity Primary for all being involved. We are looking forward to seeing the resource when it is published!

Year 2 had great fun in the STEAM space this week as they found out more about fire! They found out about the science behind fireworks and burning and saw some extinguishing in action… They had the opportunity to develop their skills in drawing scientific diagrams and impressed us all with their scientific vocabulary. Well done year 2!