Prac Ideas for the Primary Classroom

STEM/Science in Action: Solar Ovens

S'mores anyone?

Who doesn't love Science when food takes centre stage?

Last term, our Year/Grade 3 and 4 students have been exploring energy in Science and Technology, with a focus on heat and light energy - their characterisitics and effects on the world around us. Think conduction, convection and radiation, penguins and popcorn!

A scenario was created for our students (a beach excursion, a rogue wave damaging supplies) and they were posed with a challenge:

You will need to be an engineer and come up with a way to build a solar oven with a variety of materials (such as cardboard, newspaper and aluminum foil).

To be successful as a system, solar ovens need to demonstrate 4 criteria elements:

• The concentration of sunlight – a reflective surface that directs sunlight into the centre of the solar oven
• The absorption of sunlight – a colour material to absorb light to make heat inside the oven
• The conduction of heat – a material that can transfer heat to the food
• The retention of heat – a way to trap the heat energy inside the solar oven. (Can you trap the sun's heat to cook something delicious?)

Remember, with a bit of teamwork, your knowledge of science, and the power of the Byron Bay sun, you can whip up a delicious (and maybe even educational!) snack while waiting for your rescue. Maybe you'll even invent the ultimate surfer's solar snack!

To begin with, students practised their skill in taking notes and adding photos using Freeform. Some of our students were new to the platform so it was a great opportunity to review ALL the features! Thanks to @JacobW (Woolcock) for his comprehensive overview.

Here they included our scientific investigations, data and their observations:

• determining what colours absorbs heat and light energy effectively
• a little chemistry about changing states in melting ice,
• uncovering what materials work as suitable insulators and conductors,
• food colouring in hot, warm and cold water to demonstrate molecules in action...

The Engineering/Building Process

Using the photos from their construction process, students created Keynote pop art of their solar oven, then a gif to add some humour to the process!

I hope you try this at your school too!

STEM/Science in Action: Water Filters

Supporting our students in developing empathy is such a valuable skill, fostering their capacity for compassion and understanding.

This was a key focus this term, for our Year/Grade 1 and 2 students, where they learned about the Earth's resources, with a particular focus on water: where it comes from, its journey to their homes, and how they may look after this precious resource. The STEM challenge tasked students with creating water filters, raising awareness about the lack of clean water access for many people worldwide and inspiring them to find possible solutions.

This unit could be easily adapted for any year group - primary or secondary.

Water Cycle

To begin with, students were introduced to the water cycle and created an AR scene (using ARMakr) to explain each step of the process.

Scientific Investigations

Our students engaged in scientific investigations: to explore how waterways are connected and how plants uptake water. They used oil, pepper, and food colouring in an egg carton to simulate how contaminants in water can affect plant, animal, and human life. Additionally, they observed capillary action by adding food coloring to celery stalks.

Sources of Water Scavenger Hunt

The students also explored sources of water around our school whilst practising their photography skill and adding them to a Scavenger hunt journal.

Designing and Creating Water Filters

The STEM challenge enabled students to explore and tested how different materials (cotton wool, fabric, cloth, sponges, charcoal, sand etc) can filter water in different ways using three types of contaminated water (discoloured water from tea, water mixed with cornflower (small particles) and water with soil added (large particles).

Then, they designed their water filter prototype and chose four different materials (drawing a labelled scientific diagram) to improve the water quality of the 'soil water'. Students added their findings, observations and reflections to their Keynote Science Journal.

Special thanks to Questacon for providing engaging professional development to guide us in leading our students to create water filters. This video, Water filters: Engineering is Elementary, helped to set the scene.

Have you tried something like this in your class? I hope this has provided some inspiration!