Saturday, 28 September 2013

Science

On Wednesday, Jasmin and I went on a home ed trip to Whirlow Farm. The children looked into soil and its particles.

The children were split into two groups, one group went off to the woodland and Jasmin's group went off to the badger set. The children looked at soil. They found out how the soil smelt, felt, and looked at the colour.  They also collected a soil sample from the different areas.

Back in the classroom, the children answered questions regarding what they had found in the soil.  Both soil samples were very different.

First, they tested to see if there was air in soil.  This was done by placing soil into milk bottle tops and holding it down into water and counting any air bubbles in the water. The woodland soil had air bubbles but the soil from around the badger set didn't have any.

An experiment was then set up to see how absorbent each soil sample was.  The groups did an identical experiment putting soil into a can and then pouring water (300mls) on top of the soil.  The woodland sample absorbed 150mls of the water but the badger soil didn't absorb any water at all.

They answered questions on why this was the case and concluded that the soil from the badger set was more sandy than the woodland soil.

The children then made their own soil, by rubbing together two rocks, this made a very fine chalk, putting in some very small pebbles and rubbing in clay, leaves and compost.  Then they made a paper plant pot and planted a bean to take home.

Outside, Wil had set up a similar experiment to recap on what the children had learnt about, this time they got to feel the soil at all the different stages of the experiment.

The session was really hands on and very well  put together.









After lunch, we went around the farm and looked at all the different animals and plants and heard about the different stages of the animals life before they go to market or another farm.  Jasmin found this part a bit distressing as she doesn't eat meat or fish.




No comments:

Post a Comment