Warning! Scientists at work
30th April 24
This term, the Lower School acknowledged STEM week with several workshops, provided by external visitors and from our own KAS staff. It was a brilliant week of discovery and excitement as students learnt new skills and made the links between STEM subjects and the potential careers they could lead them into.
Throughout the week, from Reception to Year 6, students had set workshops linked to different STEM careers. Reception and Year both enjoyed a Rocket Challenge workshop, tying in with jobs like Astronaut or Pilot; Year 2 learnt more about Aerospace Engineers with their Fit for Flight experience.
Year 3 got to make cheetah footprints in their Biological Diversity lesson, understanding more about what Naturalists do; Year 4 were in awe of their firework science workshop, linking with jobs in Pyrotechnics or as Chemists.
Year 5 got messy with (fake) CSI blood splatters as they saw what was involved in Forensic Science and Year 6 got to see the workings of the heart and circulation, even seeing different types of hearts, for their link to careers in Medicine or as Biologists.
On Monday, students had the opportunity to drop in to a Science activity after lunch, this was the Propeller Challenge. Students were tasked with making simple propellers to drop over a fan to see which design worked the best. Later, on Wednesday, Reception and Year 1, as well as Year 6, had a talk from Daniel Herman, who works with NASA. There was also a Doubling Maths Challenge, where children are given a random number and they had to see how many times they could double it.
Then, the next day, students across the Lower School brought in homemade arcade games to create their very own Cain’s Arcade.
Cain’s Arcade comes from Caine Monroy, a nine year old boy, who built an elaborate cardboard arcade inside his dad’s East LA auto parts shop. Here at KAS, students made different arcade games from recycled materials at home, including cardboard, bottles and even magnets. They shared their games across the Year groups, with Year 5 also taking their games over to Ivy Wood to share with Reception and Year 1.
Overall, the week was a fantastic success and it was wonderful to see the whole Lower School community come together to enjoy an exciting, engaging set of STEM-related activities.
