Techniquest: Our Bodies Inside Out!

We have been visited by Techniquest! 

Gruff did a few demonstrations that showed us how our body works.
After that, we got to explore a few of the Techniquest exhibits.

Gruff showed us a model of a brain.

Here's Navreet with a Pulse Oxmeter on her finger. 

We saw, like we saw last week, that heart rate increases when we exercise.

Here's Jack measuring lung volume using a homemade spirometer.

This is a more accurate way to measure lung volume than the bags we blew into in class 2 weeks ago.

Looking at some optical illusions which confused our brains!

Trying to work out the different smells in each bottle.

Feely boxes - what's inside???

Here's Mia fitting a femur into a pelvis. This is a ball and socket joint.

The femur is the biggest bone in the body.

Do you know the names of the smallest bones?

Lewis is exploring the skeleton.

The inside of the heart.

Here's Joseph looking closely at the skull.

Electronic microscopes. 

We used these to look closely at our skin, hair, ears and nostrils!

Here's Rhianna taking a close look at the brain, 

and Thiago looking at different bones.

Ellie is finding out her pulse (heart rate).

Her pulse is 145 bpm (beats per minute).

Alex is pondering which way is up...

The Eclipse

What an exciting morning we had! Two astronomy students from the University of South Wales led an assembly to explain the eclipse before we went outside to view it through the special glasses. It was amazing. The students then visited our class and the children asked lots of interesting questions. I was very impressed with the children's knowledge about space.

The image projected through a pin hole onto a screen.

Rates of reaction.

We watched Mr. Cathro from Hawthorn High School demonstrate an Alka-seltzer rocket!

He put half an Alka-seltzer tablet into 20ml of water in a plastic film capsule. He put the lid on, inverted it, and placed on the floor. The children noticed bubbles appearing, when, suddenly, the capsule exploded into the air! Very exciting!

The children then had to investigate whether the temperature of the water affected the speed of the reaction.

Alex said "I found out that the warmer the water is the faster it dissolves."

Mad Science!

We had a visit from Mad Scientist Rhys today.

Logan tried to catch a falling ruler and a rolling pingpong ball. We learnt that reaction times can be improved with practise.

We used different sized balls and an air blower to find out about aerodynamics. 

Naiya had to run on the spot for 1 minute. She was exhausted!  But this showed that our heart rate increases when we exercise. This is because oxygen is carried in the blood to the muscles, and when we use our muscles more they need more oxygen.

Finally we saw a pretend Olympic torch. An air pump was attached to a hose with a funnel on the end. Some special fuel, in the form of a powder, was put into the funnel. Rhys lit a blowtorch. He pointed it in the direction of the funnel. When the air pump was squeezed the powder flew up into the air and caught alight. It looked like loads of little sparkles!

K'nex and iPads Workshop

We had a great morning taking part in a Technology workshop at the Historical Centre. Using Bookcreator on the iPads and K'nex, the children designed and made creatures and created a book which included text, photos, videos and the compulsory selfie! We had great fun and learnt lots. Next week we will be using these skills to create stories about our mythical creatures.

Draig coch has had his operation!

He's feeling much better now. Mash is looking after him.

Draig coch

Well, Draig coch is being looked after by Abby and Jamie's teddies achos mae braich tost 'da fe. Ms Green will "operate" on him tomorrow,  and he will be well enough to return to school on Monday.

Abby is giving Draig coch a well needed cwtch because his arm hurts a bit, poor little thing.