Year 2
Time is key to so many discoveries in science, technology, engineering and maths. Evolution looks at how plants and animals changed over a long period of time, the Earth’s movements show us why we have seasons and different time zones.
Lifecycles are all about how organisms grow and die during their time on our planet. The average human lifespan is almost 73 years. Scientific innovations are also intertwined with time.
The passing of time prompted the invention of ways to mark it, from the sundial, to the pendulum clock to digital clocks – where would be without them? Time is also vital in engineering; complicated machines have moving parts that all need work in time with each other for the machine to work smoothly.
Check below the amazing work Year 2's have got up to in STEM week!
Seasonal Change
What causes the seasons to change?
The seasons are caused by the way the Earth is tilted.
The parts of the Earth that are tilted towards the Sun get more of the Sun's heat and light.
The parts of the world which are tilted away get less of the Sun's heat and light.
The Earth takes a full year (365 days) to orbit around the Sun.
As the Earth travels around the Sun, places that are tilted towards the Sun change. These changes are known as seasons.
The four seasons are: spring, summer, autumn and winter.
WAGTAIL
Winter is a time when robins come out. Trees are empty and it snows.
Hashim
WAGTAIL
In Autumn you will see leaves falling down and it is a new school year.
Sumayyah
Woodpecker
As the weather is different during each season, plants change, too and animals change their behaviour to suit the weather - Harvis
Summer is the hottest season and has long, usually sunny, days. In autumn, the weather becomes mild and leaves start falling from many types of trees - Kerenza
Waxwing
"The days get longer in March, April and May," Dennis.
"The best season is winter because you can have snowball games," Adam M.
"Leaves start to fall from trees in Autumn" Fatima.
Water Clock
Today we made a simple water clock. Water clocks are one of the oldest timekeeping devices and use the flow of water into, or out of, a vessel to measure the amount of time that has passed.
The skills learnt in this activity included problem solving and understanding the world around us.
This can help develop what we need for lots of different careers, including: scientist, teacher, historian, astronomer and astronaut.
Wren
Wagtail
I enjoyed making the water clocks. I liked watching the green water flow.
Aleezah
WAGTAIL
The water was dripping slowly.
Srisayan
WAGTAIL
It was tricky to mark the bottle.
Mouhammed Omrani
Woodpecker
We created a water clock using recyled materials. This is because in the past, they did not have electronics to tell the time.
We timed the water at every one minute interval until it got to 30 minutes.
We found that the speed of the water dripping down was dependent on the size of the bottle lid's hole.
Waxwing
"If we made the hole in the lid bigger, I predict that the water would flow faster and more water would pass through in a minute," Abdullah.
"I predict that a bigger bottle of water would take longer to pass through the clock," Helen
"I predict that a smaller cup of water would take less time," Ayman.
Day in the life of a farmer
We joined Farmer Fiona to learn how she cares for her sheep, cows and pigs at each stage of their lives. We met the babies and compared them to their parents before feeding everybody and making sure they all have somewhere comfortable to sleep. Then we’ll be heading out to the field to find out how Farmer Fiona grows all her animals’ food, exploring some of the exciting machinery she uses to help her and using our problem-solving skills to help the agricultural engineer fix her tractor!
Finally, we’ll be learning how Farmer Fiona’s job changes throughout the seasons and helping her plant a very exciting crop that she needs to start growing now so that it’s ready for October!
Woodpecker
We saw how farmers planted pumpkins.
When the truck broke down, the engineer changed the battery. The truck is used to plant the seeds and crops.
A farmer:
Feeds milk to the baby goats, put milk powder in the machine, planting food, taking care of the animals etc
Waxwing
"I enjoyed watching Farmer Fiona feeding the animals" Ameerah.
"I liked watching the calves drink milk for the first time" Soufyan.
"I like the small baby sheep, they were cute." Julius.
Wagtail
I would not like to be a farmer because it is a lot of hard work.
Adriana
WAGTAIL
The best part about being a farmer is looking after the sheep.
Maryan
Soda rockets
WHY DOES A BAKING SODA ROCKET WORK?
Baking soda and vinegar react to neutralise each other, which releases carbon dioxide gas.
The carbon dioxide gas builds up inside the plastic bottle. When the pressure of the gas in the bottle is high enough, the cork is forced out of the bottle.
The downward force of the cork being forced out of the bottle creates an upward thrust force which makes the bottle shoot up into the air. This is an example of Newton’s Third Law.
WaxWING
Today we planned and built our rockets, then had great fun launching them with acids (vinegar/lemon juice) and alkali (bicarbinate of soda).
"I predict that the rocket with vinegar will shoot up higher," Aymira.
We found that vinegar was the most effective rocket fuel.
Wren
Wagtail
Woodpecker
We used recyclable materials to make our incredible Soda Rocket.
For our 3 Soda rockets, we had different variables. Rocket 1: Baking Soda only
Rocket 2: Baking Soda and Lemon
Rocket 3: Baking Soda and Vinegar
We found that Rocket 3 flew the highest!
Balloon powered cars
Do you think you could build a car powered by nothing but air? A balloon-powered car is pushed forward by air escaping from a balloon, and it is fun and easy to build with materials you already have around your classroom. Can you imagine how you would want your own balloon-powered car to look? Can you design a car that will travel as far as possible? Get ready to grab some simple recyclable supplies to bring your idea to life!
Wren
Woodpecker
We used wheels and axles to join our car together
Waxwing
Waxwing
