A team of six Provo Middle School scientists have worked for the past 8 weeks to prepare for the 2020 Fortis TCI Science Fair. Linked to our recent exploration of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, we wanted to pick an investigation that could positively impact our world.
Undertaking research in Microbiology, our Science Fair team set out to answer the question “Is boiling an effective means of making water safe to drink?”
Did you know that over two billion people do not have access to clean water? We felt this was a huge issue that deserved attention!

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Our Year 7 students have been doing some exciting experimenting with elements in their Science lessons. In addition to testing how metals react when heated, the students have acquired some important new Middle School Science skills. 

In order to carry out their experiments with safety and accuracy, the students first needed to learn how to use a Bunsen burner and demonstrate their ability to use one safely. After receiving their Bunsen burner licences, the students then worked on how to identify different elemental metals according to their properties. Although many metals look the same, their properties are very different.  It was, therefore, essential that the students were able to identify the correct element they needed for their experiments. Finally the students needed to ensure they observed the reactions accurately, and recorded their observations correctly.  

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So, as it turns out, it’s hard to imagine what elastic potential energy is. It’s hard to know when gravitational potential energy has given way to kinetic energy. And it’s even harder to conceptualise how these energies are transferred between objects all around us, all the time, everywhere we look! As one student put it, “physics is confusing!”

However, by conducting hands-on demonstrations of difficult concepts it is much easier to build understanding. No amount of diagrams or book-based explanations could replace the understanding that emerges from experience, experimentation and practical examples.

And so, with this in mind, Year 8 have set about conducting a range of experiments that demonstrate energy transfers. We wanted to share our experiment from this week with you.

Inspired by the wonder of a Newton’s Cradle in class, Year 8 set about observing the transfers of energy that occur in falling and colliding objects. Take a look at our video to see our amazing results and see how this helps us to observe transfers of energy in action.

Suddenly, by looking at a slow motion video of a basketball bouncing, it is quite easy to see, describe and explain the transfer of elastic potential energy into kinetic energy.

This week, Year 7 conducted an experiment in physics that thoroughly challenged their previous understanding of forces.

Children were asked to predict which item would fall fastest; a very heavy shot put or a lighter foam ball? Both balls were a similar size but very different in their weight. Many children predicted that the shot put would fall much faster as it so much heavier.

To their surprise, both balls hit the floor at almost exactly the same time from a 2m height. So what was going on here?! Why was there so little difference given the great difference in the weight of the objects?

In order to explore this further, we conducted tests with a range of balls; light and heavy, small and large. The results were dramatic in many cases.

The class learned to consider the frictional force of air resistance in order to explain their results. Here were some of their thoughts: [Read more…]

Year 7s from Provo Middle School have enjoyed a fantastic start to their residential field trip to Camp Echo Lake in the Adirondack Mountains.
A chilly first day was spent orienteering and kayaking/canoeing on Echo Lake. Children needed to apply a range of cooperation skills while they learned to read maps of camp or paddle their canoe together.
The evening was spent out in the woods playing games around a camp fire. Of course, children finished the day roasting marshmallows for S’mores.

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Years 6 & 7 have been studying and practising Athletics this term, thinking about how track & field athletes are able to develop their technique in order to improve performance.

Students have spent time learning the specific techniques needed for each discipline: the shot put, javelin, long jump, high jump, triple jump, sprint and hurdles. All children then made an excellent effort to practise these skills.

In recent weeks, we then started to look at how video analysis can help sports people to identify strengths and weaknesses in their performance and technique. Children watched videos of record breaking athletes in order to identify “best examples” for each event. We then recorded each other at our PE sessions to see how we compared and where we could improve.

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