Science at Springfield
Hello Everyone!
Welcome to Springfield Primary School’s Science page. Through this page, you will be able to see a glimpse of the wonderful science that happens at our school.
Please find below, Springfield's Science Principles. These principles have been created by our staff and children!
Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize - watching the live stream of the results. The book we chose won!
British Science Week March 2024
Our theme was ‘The Great Sports Share’
EYFS used the theme of ‘Time’
Year 1 - Does the type of surface we run on affect how fast we run?
British Science Week Year 3 - "Does the size of our feet affect how far we jump?"
Extending our learning in school to completing tasks at home!
Royal Society Book Award - final judging by the Science Ambassadors
Our video reviews on the shortlisted books
CREST Award challenges January 2024
Twenty children are taking part in the STEM after school club with Mrs Betts and Mrs Slonecki, completing eight science challenges to achieve the CREST Award. So far they have made and tested three different types of glue and made skittles for bowling games using different bottles and weights, made and tested bird nests in different weather conditions and prepared a debate on how the dinosaurs became extinct!
STEM Club CREST AWARDS - Dino Debate, fingerprinting, Cheesy Challenge and Crafty Rafts!
CREST Awards - Brilliant Birds - can a person make a nest as good as a bird?
After a lot of hard work from the whole school community, we are proud to achieve the Primary Science Quality Mark - Gilt!
Our Science Ambassadors have become a judging panel for the Royal Society science book award prize! We are very excited to read and review the books!
Presenting...our new Science Ambassadors for 2023-2024
Our Year 5 Science Ambassadors represented school at The Great Science Share for schools at Manchester University
Preparing for the Great Science Share with the Science Ambassadors
Science Ambassadors meeting 12th January 2023
Science Ambassadors from years 2-6 met with Mrs Betts and Mrs Slonecki for a meeting. We looked through our class floor books and talked about how to use the scientific enquiry posters and stickers. We also talked about British Science week coming up and our plans to look at how science is linked to different jobs.
Meet our new Key Stage Two Science Ambassadors!
Our new Science Ambassadors had their first meeting on Friday 14th October. They discussed:
Their role, to champion science amongst their classmates
Help to fill in and keep the science floor books updated
Look after the class investigation station
British Science Week 14th - 18th March 2022
Year’s 1-6 have taken part in the Great Phizzi Science Share this year, a pilot project supported by SEERIH at the University of Manchester. Our theme has been ‘Climate Action’ with a focus on physics, and maths.Through the guided investigations, the children have recorded data, used measuring equipment and displayed and interpreted the results. Reception and Nursery have taken the British Science Week focus of ‘Growth’, with Nursery tying in links with stories, such as ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’. Reception have looked at non-organic growth, including making foam, ‘growing’ towers, models and patterns, soaking gummy bears and observing changes that happen.
Have a look at what we got up to!
Reception British Science Week - Growth & Expanding
Year 3 - Climate Action
Year 4 - Climate Action
Year 5 - Climate Action
Year 6 Climate Action
A super piece of scientific writing from one of our Year 5 children, showing his subject knowledge of forces in detailed explanations!
Year 1 visitors - animals take over!
Our Science Ambassadors 2021/2022
British Science Week 2021!
After returning from lockdown, our Springfield children could not wait to explore, experiment and learn during British Science Week. Just look at what they got up to...
Reception
Reception have learned all about magnets and magnetism. We played with magnetic games and explored the environment (indoors and outdoors) to see what materials are attracted to magnets. We had great fun exploring and finding out what magnets can do - sometimes it even looked like magnets, especially if the magnet was very strong! Through our play, we also learned that magnets have a north and south pole and that opposite poles attract and the same poles repel. We tried moving objects with magnets through a layer, like a sheet of card or the table and then made our own magnetic games using a paper plate to move a duck on a duck pond or using a fishing rod with a magnet attached to catch fish!
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Year 1
Science week fell perfectly for year one as it was during our Science Topic on Plants and Flowers. We made ice gardens using plants and flowers, grew vegetables and a water purifying activity.
Year 2
We looked at reduce, re-use and recycle, creating inventions that would make the world a better place. The children designed a water saving device for when they brush their teeth or use the shower (reduce). The children took part in an experiment to find out how much water is wasted if the tap was left on during the time it took for them to brush their teeth. They also looked at the affect of plastic on the world and made their own recycle bin (recycle), we did another little to test to show how plastic is harmful to living things using mustard seeds. For the third activity we had lots of fun upcycling objects (re use).
Year 3
Year 3 covered the 'Mars Rover' project, testing different soil samples and discussing future inventions. They then designed, made and presented their own Mars Rovers!
Year 4
Year 4's focus for British Science Week was to think how we can all play a part in the big worldwide problem of plastic pollution and the impact it is having on our environment . We started with watching a David Attenborough video which focused on the impact so much plastic and the way we dispose of it is having . This was followed by class debates with opposing views about the benefits and drawbacks which also made us really think about our dependence on plastic. All the children then designed posters for display around the school with tips on how we can avoid so much use and everyone also made a pledge about how they could personally make a difference to the problem and their future !
Year 6
Year 6 worked on a light investigation - take a look at the wonderful learning!
Our Wonderful Science Learning!
Look at some examples of the fantastic Science learning across school, in our books and in our classrooms...
'Fixperts' British Science Week March 2019
For National Science Week this year, we chose the whole school theme of ‘Fixperts’, which entailed the children being presented with a real life issue or problem often from an elderly person or someone who has a disability with a specific problem to solve, for example, being unable to reach down to put their socks on. During the week each year group chose their own focus – Nursery looked at how they could communicate with people who might need help, Reception built bridges to help the Billy Goats Gruff get across the river, Year 1 designed items to help elderly or disabled people in their family, Year 2 made solutions for superheroes in trouble, Year 3 were given scenarios where they had to simulate a disability and find a solution. Year 4 and Upper Key Stage Two all had the exciting chance to work with ‘Intergen’ who are retired volunteers and are part of Trafford’s intergenerational scheme. A different volunteer visited each class and presented them with their real life difficulty – the children then spent a busy week planning, designing and making a product to help the person with their problem. The exciting week was packed full of enquiry based learning, with children using a growth mindset and following our Springfield Values, particularly using empathy as a motivating factor to ensure the product they made would really help the person it was intended for. The engagement in learning from all was fantastic to see and the feedback from children has been very positive: “I really enjoyed Fixperts because it meant trying lots of different strategies and it was very creative, which I loved”, “I liked the freedom we had to decide and working with people you wouldn't normally work with”, “Experimenting with the things that we made was my favourite part”.
Look at our 'Fixpert' Problem Solving!
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How we introduced the idea...
Mrs Betts and Mrs Slonecki attended the SEERIH Annual Science Conference and participated in the 'Fixperts' workshop. They were so inspired by the idea of children learning though enquiry with empathy for a purpose that they decided to use it as the focus for British Science Week.
We really value professional development at Springfield and introduced the 'Fixperts' idea at our staff meeting - the staff were inspired and motivated to lead the project. Take a look at our pictures:
British Science Week ran from the 9th – 18th of March 2018 and it is the ‘Year of the Engineer’. To celebrate this occasion, during this week in school, each year group planned for a whole day of Science. The children in each class were required to build their own Marble Runs. Regardless of whether the children were in the lower or upper part of the school, each and every child worked as part of a team to build their runs. The ability that our children demonstrated to think creatively whilst persevering when they encountered problems with their model was excellent to see. Thank you to all parents/carers for supporting your children with the gathering of their materials. As ever, your support is very much appreciated! Please enjoy looking at some pictures from the week.
Sophia Brearley in Year 3 Madrid has combined her history knowledge with scientific enquiry! She has been learning all about the Egyptians in her topic lessons and created her very own moveable lizard that includes a working circuit inside. According to Sophia, it took her a whole day to create this project and she had a little help from adults at home – thank you very much for all of your support. Mr Pryle sent Sophia to show Mr Parums and his class; they were all amazed by her super creation and Sophia left with 23 merits and a head teacher’s award!! Hard work paying off – Well Done Sophia!
Year 3 - Friction!
Year 4's Muffling Sound Enquiry!
Fantastic Science in Year 5
In Year 5, we have been learning about the solar system. Our teachers assigned us the task of completing a project all about space. We chose to complete two tasks and we brought these into school to show off to our peers on Friday 9th February. We learned so much when completing this project and our enquiry skills were put to full use. We hope that that everyone enjoys looking at our projects and understands how much effort we have put in. We are all extremely happy with our final designs.
Written by Joshua Moses and Beth Nutter, Science Leaders.
For their homework task, our wonderful Year 2 children made 3D habitats.
