Beyond a Blackboard

I love presenting new information to my learners, particularly when it leads them to finding new interests. At the end of last term we investigated different times in history which lead to discussions about etymology and language. This was a great hook for my learners and I had a group of boys who began to read texts about medieval times and King Arthur, while other students became fascinated with geography and foreign languages. This term our school is focusing on architecture, which has presented a wonderful opportunity for us to investigate 'STEAM' subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths). I am hoping that this topic will be just as rich and engaging as our previous inquiry and it will allow me to cover different areas of the curriculum. Student create activity about insulation We kicked the week off with a Science Intensive, where we spent four days investigating different scientific and technological concepts. Each teacher was responsible for c...

This week Room 7 have taken part in a couple of Science experiments with twists: the scientific concept that we were told that we were experiencing was not what was really happening. I conducted these as I wanted to encourage the students to think critically about the validity of references. On Tuesday we conducted an experiment called "Light vs Sound" where we blew up balloons filled with icing sugar and popped them to see if we would see the balloon explode before we heard it, as light travels faster than sound. However, when we are so close to an event like this, our brains cannot perceive the difference . Some of the students were sure that they heard the balloon first, while others were unsure. They were all interested to learn that the experiment was flawed and couldn't believe it was published in a book.  On Wednesday the students tried to see sound.  We created mini drums out of glass jars with balloons stretched over the top of them. We then placed sugar...