British Science Week in Maple

Maple has celebrated British Science week with a range of activities. The theme this year is ;'Change and Adapt' and we started by thinking about what 'change' and 'adapt' mean. We explored examples of changing and adapting in science, when working scientifically, in STEM and in our everyday lives.

Linking to our current Science topic ‘Plants’, we set up an investigation to find out ‘Can plants grow in space?’. We wanted to find out if different coloured light filters affect plant growth to investigate the possibility of adapting to life beyond Earth. This investigation over time will run over this week and into next.

We then looked at amazing animal adaptations. We found out how many animals had adapted to their habitat, including a recently discovered (2022) lizard species from Laos in South East Asia, the Khammouane karst dragon, which is exceptionally well camouflaged. We worked with a partner to create a poster to these animals and their amazing adaptations.

Children learnt about the life and work of David Attenborough and about Kiara Nirghin, a South African woman who, at the age of 16, invented a new water conservation material for soils. She used local waste products (orange peel and avocado skins) and developed special techniques to make a super absorbent polymer (SAP). This is a powder which absorbs lots of water when it is wet (up to 300 times its own weight) and then releases the water when the plants need it.

We also had the opportunity to joined a Live Webinar ‘Hello Sun! The Amazing Story of the Sun’ presented by STEM ambassadors and we rounded off our work with a 2-round Science Quiz. Round 1 questions were about general science and round 2 questions were specifically about changing and adapting in science. It was lots of fun and the scores were very close!