WGPS SCIENCE SUPERSTARS!

In an endeavour to lift the profile of Science across the school and get the students enthused about all things ‘sciency’, we have a fun competition in mind.  Participation and enthusiasm is our key objective here.

 

OVERVIEW: This competition has three stages.

Stage 1: Each student will research and present either a short science experiment or report on a science related concept, to their class. The class will assess the presentations and select their top two ‘super scientists’.

Stage 2: The selected two students will then have to present (again) to ALL the students and teachers in that particular year level, along with an admin representative, who will then choose their year group’s #1 scientist!

Stage 3: Finally. We celebrate our top 6 scientists by getting them to present their report or experiment to the entire school, at a giant Science assembly.  We will also award prizes to all students who made it through each stage of the process.

 

WHAT CAN THEY CHOOSE TO PRESENT? The students can choose their experiment or report from any of the four conceptual strands: Biological Science, Chemical Science, Physical Science or Earth and Space Science. 

Each presentation, whether it be a report or experiment, can be a maximum of 5 minutes in length.               Students can use ICT resources such as PowerPoint presentations (or similar) to support their               presentation, in addition to posters, charts, etc.

Experiments should be simple to set up, demonstrate an outcome within the time limit, and be SAFE.

 

The internet is, of course, a great resource.

www.sciencekids.co.nz/

www.kidspot.com.au/things-to-do/collection/science-experiments

www.csiro.au/en/Education/DIY-science

easyscienceforkids.com/

www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/

https://sciencebob.com/category/experiments/

www.fizzicseducation.com.au/Free+experiments.html

 

Due date: All science experiments and presentations will be presented during Week 6 (Week beginning 30 May).

 

On Friday, 13 May we spent time researching experiments in class. The majority of the students chose an experiment to present and they have printed a copy of it and have taken it home. If there are any queries please come and see Miss Dagostino.

 

NAPLAN

In Week 3 we completed our first NAPLAN tests. On Tuesday, 10 May we did the Language Conventions assessment which tested our spelling, grammar and punctuation. Also on Tuesday, we had a writing task to complete. We had to write a narrative. Lots of us were happy about this because we love writing fictional texts because we get to use our creative imaginations.

 

On Wednesday, 11 May we had the Reading assessment. We were given a reading magazine with lots of different texts in it and then we had to answer questions about them. We all tried very hard to read carefully and to double check that we had picked the best possible answer.

 

On Thursday, 12 May we had the Numeracy assessment which tested all of our maths skills. We were allowed to use working out paper because some of the questions were multi-step which required us to really think and then apply lots of our maths understanding.

Once NAPLAN was over we were so proud of ourselves because we all tried our best. We are looking forward to having another go when we are in Year 5.

 

These are photos of us practising writing narrative and persuasive texts.

 

 

WHAT MAKES ME SPECIAL ORAL PRESENTATION

At the end of Term 1, we all had to prepare and then present a speech about what makes us special. We were allowed to create a PowerPoint Presentation to go along with our speech. Miss Dagostino showed us how to add photos of ourselves from a thumb drive. She also taught us how to add transitions, animations and sounds to enhance our presentations.

We were given 5 minutes to present our speeches but not many of us spoke for that long. Whilst we were speaking Miss Dagostino was using a rubric to assess how well we did. We were being marked on our volume, speed, voice, eye contact, content and body language. Lots of us forgot to make eye contact with the audience. I think it’s because we got a bit nervous! We all spoke really clearly with good volume and speed.

We are doing another speech soon on our favourite things. Our goal is to speak for a bit longer this time and for everyone to make eye contact with the audience.

KAGAN COOPERATIVE LEARNING

In our class we are always using cooperative learning strategies to ensure that all students are participating in every activity. We have used strategies such as; Stand Up-Hand Up- Pair Up, Timed Pair Share, Round Robin, Inside Outside Circle, Rally Robin and Showdown. It’s so much fun using these strategies because we get to work with others and we get to share our ideas and our opinions.

We sit in Learning Teams for 5 weeks. Each week we are given a new team role. The Chairperson keeps the team on task, they run the team meetings, and they check if the team members have done their homework or if they’re wearing their uniform. The Recorder records the team’s goals, they are responsible for writing down team ideas during group work and they report absent team members. The Time Keeper keeps track of time and they also make sure that the team’s work is handed in on time. The GoFor collects and returns the team’s books to the group tub or to the teacher and they collect and return any tools used. We earn team points for doing our jobs and for how we work together. The winning team at the end of the week gets to pick a prize from the box.