12 November 2015

Year 6 spent a whole day doing science with Natalie and Sophie from Science Oxford. Studying forces was the theme of the day and it started with a fun talk about Sir Isaac Newton and gravity, friction, air resistance and magnetism – with many demonstrations involving willing volunteers including being pulled along on a skateboard; trying to break an egg and sitting on a bed of nails!

After break it was the egg drop challenge. After a short introduction, the boys were given a limited amount of resources to design a parachute and contraption to protect a real egg from breaking when the parachute was dropped from the fire escape. Around four teams succeeded in bringing their eggs to the ground without cracking. The best design also happened to be the simplest.

In the afternoon it was all K'NEX. Each team got a box full of rods, connectors and wheels to build cars to which they fitted different propulsion systems – electric and clockwork motors and rubber bands – and then complete various challenges: running down the middle of a marked track, stopping precisely in a square, and seeing how far their car went on just one rubber band.

The boys thoroughly enjoyed the day, and were able to put their scientific knowledge to great use while having fun at the same time.

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