Science Fair: The first few steps...

This week we will talk about the Science Fair next term. We will talk much more about this next term. Below, I have included some things to get you thinking about what is involved in the Science Fair and how we will go about completing it.

Research: Start off by finding out as much as you can about your topic. Visit the library, browse the web, discuss your ideas with your parents, your teachers, your friends, arrange to talk with an expert . . .

You can access a wide range of encyclopedias and other reference material online through the Wellington City Libraries.

Your Question: Now that you know something about your subject, you need to decide on a problem you can investigate: a question that you can test by doing experiments e.g. how does ______ affect ________, or a device or gadget that you can design, build and test to fulfill a task. Use your imagination, be different, but also be practical: make sure you have the resources and the time to complete your project.

Plan your experiments: or your design. Try to be methodical, logical and organised! You have identified one variable you want to investigate, but are there others?

For example, I am investigating how much baking powder I should put in my cake mixture to make the cake rise the most. But what other variables might affect the way cakes rise? Other ingredients in the recipe? Cooking time? Cooking temperature? Brand of baking powder? . . . All these other variables must be kept the same throughout my experiments if it's the amount of baking powder I want to check.

Think carefully about how you are going to make your measurements 'How do you measure how much a cake has risen? '

How are we shaped by the past?

How has Gallipoli shaped New Zealand today? Write your thoughts and opinions backed up with a fact on our ANZAC accumulation page. You can find the link on the right hand tool bar.

We meet Sam!

Thank you Will for bringing Sam in to meet us today. We all enjoyed your talk on caring for a puppy. The visit has certainly made me want one!
Room 24 tell us about your dog, or a dog you would like to own one day. What mischeif do they get up to...

Science Fair

Yahoo, Science Fair next term! Here are a few of the goodies from last year to inspire you. We will have a chat about what is involved in Science fair towards the end of next week.

Freshman Shield Challenge

Well we didn't walk away with the shield... but we did walk away knowing that we all tried our best. It was great to see some excellent small ball skills being put into play. We also came away with some good strategies to use in future challenges.

Week 8 - Whoa, already!!!

Well Room 24, we have an action packed week ahead. On Friday we will pack up our classroom in preparation for the move into our new classroom. How exciting! We will spend next week in the Learning Centre. Lucky us, we will have books and computers galore!

Last week we ticked off the 'A' in our ASPIRE inquiry. You have all accumulated good open ended questions and have found background information from at least two sources of information ready for Tuesday. First up this week we will learn how to sort (the 'S' in ASPIRE) though that information, sussing out what is relevant and what is not. At the same time we will highlight keywords and take a few notes of the important information.

Later in the week we will hit the 'P' in ASPIRE and PLAN our interview.

We will start our Nigel Brown paintings in Week 9, however we have some planning and practise to do first. This week we will be collecting ideas and practising drawing them.

Week 7 - Into ASPIRE

Make sure you browse though the trip photos below and leave a comment on at least one of the posts.

Today we started our ASPIRE inquiries, where our aim is to answer our big question 'HOW ARE WE SHAPED BY OUR PAST? We discussed what an ASPIRE inquiry is. Basically a process to guide you through your own learning/inquiry. It will continue to become clearer to you as we go through the process. Each term we will revisit the process. Next term the ASPIRE inquiry will be your science fair project.

A key part of any ASPIRE inquiry is to manage your time carefully. Your large ASPIRE timeline will help you to do this. We will compete the timeline in class after each ASPIRE session and tick off each task as it is completed.

This week we are working on the 'A' of ASPIRE - the ACCUMULATING stage. First brainstorming open ended interesting questions, then later this week gathering together a range of information to give us some background knowledge of our topic.

You came up with some great ideas today in class. I'm looking forward to seeing how you have built on them after discussing your ideas with your parents and caregivers at home.