We’ve been having a bit of fun with our local high school science teacher this week! He’s carried out an experiment on behalf of our class and video’d himself…. His two little Roman soldiers on Hadrian’s wall have datalogger probes in cotton-wool bodies, rain is added to one (water via a pipette), then a bit of wind chill (via a fan) and the temperatures of both soldiers can be viewed easily on the interactive whiteboard.
We’re showing the film clip to my class next week and will then be asking them to add their ideas about what has happened and why to a voicethread!
PS By the time we managed to look at the film clip properly and complete the voicethread, it was the first few days of the spring term - you know how it is with Christmas plays and activities! The most challenging thing for the children to understand was why water was added to one of the Roman soldiers and not to the other! Most understood that the cotton wool around the temperature probe represented the soldiers' clothes, but a couple thought it was his body and a few just didn't understand! We didn't focus on spelling and punctuation on the voicethread comments - we focused on the science parts... When we talked about the experiment as a whole class, the one thing that the children were quite certain about was that the fan was too close to one soldier and not the other - and the fan needed moving to the same position as the board so that each soldier had the same amount of wind. However, one child was convinced that the fan was in the right place as it was nearer the soldier who was dry so it was only fair that he woudl get cold too!!! The whole concept of a control experiment is one for us to re-visit in the future! The children enjoyed the film clip so much they made me rewind certain parts so they could shout out their answers in reply to Mr Rendall and they all clapped at the end! Even on the second viewing.
PS By the time we managed to look at the film clip properly and complete the voicethread, it was the first few days of the spring term - you know how it is with Christmas plays and activities! The most challenging thing for the children to understand was why water was added to one of the Roman soldiers and not to the other! Most understood that the cotton wool around the temperature probe represented the soldiers' clothes, but a couple thought it was his body and a few just didn't understand! We didn't focus on spelling and punctuation on the voicethread comments - we focused on the science parts... When we talked about the experiment as a whole class, the one thing that the children were quite certain about was that the fan was too close to one soldier and not the other - and the fan needed moving to the same position as the board so that each soldier had the same amount of wind. However, one child was convinced that the fan was in the right place as it was nearer the soldier who was dry so it was only fair that he woudl get cold too!!! The whole concept of a control experiment is one for us to re-visit in the future! The children enjoyed the film clip so much they made me rewind certain parts so they could shout out their answers in reply to Mr Rendall and they all clapped at the end! Even on the second viewing.
