Senses - Is our hearing as good as a dog's? What's in the bag?

We tested our hearing to see if we could hear as well as a dog.  We wore a blindfold and used only our hearing to find the person making the noise. We enjoyed finding where the noise came from and found out that dogs can hear sounds before we can and that's why we have them as guard dogs.

 We tested our senses next by using touch. We used lots of adjectives to describe what we could feel. It was a bit scary at times because we didn't know what we might find in the bag!

Floating and Sinking

We collected an item from around the class and each of us made a guess as to whether it would float or sink. We were surprised with some of the items! Then we had a go at making our own floating vessel, it was musch trickier than we thought.

We made predictions about what would happen when we put vinegar on top of bicarbonate of soda. Some of us got it right.  We decided to make our own volcano out of plasticine. We chose plasticine because it is waterproof.  The volcano was put into a bowl to make sure it didn't make a mess and the bicarbonate was put in first followed by the vinegar.  We were amazed at how much the volcano erupted.  The smell was terrible but we had a lot of fun.

Float or sink?

We made guesses as to which items we thought would float or sink.  We wrote down our answers and tested them out.  We were very surprised at some of the items.  Afterwards we had plasticine to make our own floating vessel. It was very tricky but we had fun.

Can we hear as well as a dog?

We tested our hearing to see if we could hear as well as a dog.  We wore a blindfold and used only our hearing to find the person making the noise. We enjoyed finding where the noise came from and found out that dogs can hear sounds before we can and that's why we have them as guard dogs.

(photos to follow)

Our Metal Detectors

Following on from our electricity experiments, we used the knowledge that we learned about circuits to build our own metal detectors.  We created a circuit with a button cell battery,  3 wires and a LED bulb.  Once we buillt our circuit we put it inside a plasticine alien we made.  We added foil for hands and tested it.  If we touched anything metal the aliens nose lit up.  We had a few problems along the way with the connections staying together but we got there in the end.

Autumn Term September 2014

Electricity

We have been investigating electricity.  We talked about things in our homes that use electricity and how we can make a bulb light up.  We used a battery as the power and connected it to a bulb using wires. On the end of the wires are crocodile clips (they look like a crocodiles teeth!)  We tried all sorts of ways to make the bulb light up but we soon realised we needed to make a circuit.  Hey Presto we have a lit bulb! We then tried to power a buzzer, it sounded very funny and tickled our finger tips when we touched it.  We had lots of fun!

Floating Vessels

We looked at different types of vessels to float on water and made our own out of plasticine.  It was much harder than we thought.

Static Electricity

We were experimenting with static electricity, first we rubbed balloons on our heads to see if it made our hair stand up, then we rubbed the balloons on our heads again and put it close to a tin can.  We were amazed when we saw the can move!

Year 3 Science Club

We investigated which colours woodlice and worms would prefer and why? As a group we chose 4 different colour pieces of card, they were green, yellow, black and blue. The card was placed into each corner of a large black tray so the woodlice and worms couldn't escape. We collected a number of woodlice and worms and placed them gently into the tray. One or two of them rolled into a ball but the rest walked quickly to the edges of the tray. They walked around the very edge which is black until they came to the black piece of card. They mostly stayed underneath the card.  We think they prefer dark colours because in their natural habitat they live under wood where it is dark and they feel safe.

Volcanoes

We made predictions about what would happen when we put vinegar on top of bicarbonate of soda. Some of us got it right.  We put it in a cup first and saw it bubble, then we tried it in a bottle because it has a smaller top to see if it would flow better. It did! We decided to make our own volcano out of plasticine. We chose plasticine because it is waterproof.  The volcano was put into a bowl to make sure it didn't make a mess and the bicarbonate was put in first followed by the vinegar.  We were amazed at how much the volcano erupted.  The smell was terrible but we had a lot of fun.

Which colours do woodlice prefer?

We investigated which colours woodlice would prefer and why? As a group we chose 4 different colour pieces of card, they were green, yellow, black and blue. The card was placed into each corner of a large black tray so the woodlice couldn't escape and white paper was placed in the middle. We collected a number of woodlice and placed them gently into the tray. One or two of them rolled into a ball but the rest walked quickly to the edges of the tray. They walked around the very edge which is black until they came to the black piece of card. They mostly stayed underneath the card.  We think they prefer dark colours because in their natural habitat they live under wood where it is dark and they feel safe.

Forces

We looked at how far a car would travel on different surfaces.  We used 2 different cars - a black truck and a green car and the surfaces tested were wooden floor, carpet and lino. We used metre sticks to measure the distance travelled. Our conclusion was the green car travelled the furthest each time and the wooden floor was the best surface for the cars to travel on.

We went bug hunting

We went into our garden area armed with containers, scoops and magnifying glasses ooking for bugs.  We collected quite a few different ones and found out their different characteristics.  Lots of fun was had amongst the squirms of delight and the urgh noises.

Electricity

We had a lot of fun experimenting with lighting light bulbs and making a buzzer sound.  We used wires, crocodile clips, batteries, battery holders, light bulbs, light bulb holders and buzzers.  We lit 1 bulb and then tried too light as many bulbs as possible with the batteries.  We could manage 3 bulbs on 1 set of batteries but found that the light was much dimmer.  We added pieces of decorated pieces to the buzzers and watched as they spun around.

Volcanoes

We made predictions about what would happen when we put vinegar on top of bicarbonate of soda. Some of us got it right.  We put it in a cup first and saw it bubble, then we tried it in a bottle because it has a smaller top to see if it would flow better. It did! We decided to make our own volcano out of plasticine. We chose plasticine because it is waterproof.  The volcano was put into a bowl to make sure it didn't make a mess and the bicarbonate was put in first followed by the vinegar.  We were amazed at how much the volcano erupted.  The smell was terrible but we had a lot of fun.

Invisible messages

We dipped a cotton bud into lemon juice and used it to write a message on a piece of paper.  We left it to dry and Mrs Davies used a hot iron to make the message appear.  We found out that the heat from the iron changed the lemon juice into another chemical that is brown in colour and revealed our messages.

How can we make an egg float?

We investigated which liquid would make a fresh egg float.  We had 4 glasses of water and put the following in them and stirred:-

Glass 1 - sugar
Glass 2 - flour
Glass 3 - salt
Glass 4 - nothing added

We all made predictions as to which glass the egg would float in, what do you think?

Mrs Davies helped us to add the eggs slowly into each glass and we were very surprised at the result. Did you guess correctly?

The glass with the salt water made the egg float.

We also found out that we can test the freshness of eggs by putting them into a glass of water.

Floating - stale egg

Sinking - fresh egg

 

Electricity

We had a lot of fun experimenting with lighting light bulbs and making a buzzer sound.  We used wires, crocodile clips, batteries, battery holders, light bulbs, light bulb holders and buzzers.  We lit 1 bulb and then tried to light as many bulbs as possible with the batteries.  We could manage 3 bulbs on 1 set of batteries but found that the light was much dimmer.  We added pieces of decorated pieces to the buzzers and watched as they spun around.

Float or sink?
We made guesses as to which items we thought would float or sink.  We wrote down our answers and tested them out.  We were very surprised at some of the items, the wooden block floated but the wooden dice sunk. We were very surprised that the rubber sunk we all thought it would float! Afterwards we had plasticine to make our own floating vessel. It was very tricky but we had fun.

Telephones
We experimented with polystyrene cups and string to make a device that acts like a phone. A hole was made in the bottom of the cups and string was knotted at the bottom to stop it coming out.  We held the string tight and spoke into one end whilst the other person listened.  It was very funny with some of the things we heard but had not said!

Can you hear as well as a dog?
We tested our hearing to see if we could hear as well as a dog.  We wore a blindfold and used only our hearing to find the person making the noise. We enjoyed finding where the noise came from and found out that dogs can hear sounds before we can and that's why we have them as guard dogs.

Volcanoes

We made predictions about what would happen when we put vinegar on top of bicarbonate of soda. Some of us got it right.  We put it in a cup first and saw it bubble, then we tried it in a bottle because it has a smaller top to see if it would flow better. It did! We decided to use the volcano out of plasticine from the previous science club group. They chose plasticine because it is waterproof.  The volcano was put into a bowl to make sure it didn't make a mess and the bicarbonate was put in first followed by the vinegar.  We were amazed at how much the volcano erupted.  We decided that if we added to the funnel by making it narrower it might have a better eruption.  Mrs Davies added all the bicarbonate of soda and the vinegar to the volcano quickly and the result was amazing.  The smell was terrible but we had a lot of fun.

We investigated which liquid would make a fresh egg float.  We had 4 glasses of water and put the following in them and stirred:-

Glass 1 - sugar
Glass 2 - flour
Glass 3 - salt
Glass 4 - nothing added

We all made predictions as to which glass the egg would float in, what do you think?

 We added the eggs slowly into each glass and we were very surprised at the result. Did you guess correctly?

The glass with the salt water made the egg float.

We also found out that we can test the freshness of eggs by putting them into a glass of water.

Floating - stale egg

Sinking - fresh egg

Electricity

We had a lot of fun experimenting with lighting light bulbs and making a buzzer sound.  We used wires, crocodile clips, batteries, battery holders, light bulbs, light bulb holders and buzzers.  We lit 1 bulb and then tried too light as many bulbs as possible with the batteries.  We could manage 3 bulbs on 1 set of batteries but found that the light was much dimmer.  We added pieces of decorated pieces to the buzzers and watched as they spun around.

Guessing the material

We had a selection of materials in a bag and we had to describe what it felt like for the others to guess.  We were all very good at guessing because the clues that we gave were so precise.

Mrs Dyas put a blindfold on us and we had to see if we could hear as well as a dog. We found this quite hard, another child made a noise in the hall and we had to walk towards the noise.  Dogs can hear noises much quicker than we can.

Then we had a go at a telephone made from cups and string.  It was a lot of fun listening to our friends talking through a cup and being able to hear it.

Take a look at our photos below.