St. Thomas Aquinas

Science Ambassadors 

Science events

Science Ambassadors were introduced in 2016 and play an important role in the promotion and development of Science across our school by: 

• Attending meetings to discuss ways we can improve Science,
• Keeping a journal to record the Science that takes place in their class,
• Planning exciting whole school Science events,
• Engaging families in Science events and challenges. 

Spring 2 2022

On Monday 16th May, we held our British Science week focusing on 'Change for the future'. Each class had a topic to discover linked to helping to make our world a better place. These were our topics: EYFS - 'Understanding our Oceans' Y1- 'Climate and the weather' Y2- 'Plastic Pollution' Y3- 'Deforestation' Y4 'Carbon footprint' Y5- 'Renewable energy' Y6- 'Air Pollution' 

Spring 2 2021

On Wednesday 17th March 2021, we held our British Science Day linking to the theme 'Innovating for the Future'. We linked our Science theme to the NHS careers and created a innovation to say a big thank you to the NHS. We even held our own fundraiser in memory of Sir Captain Tom Moore and raised money for NHS charities. 

Click here to view a video that shows our fabulous Science Day. 

Spring 1 2021

On Thursday 11th February, it was International Women and Girls Day in Science. Every teacher acknowledged and celebrated this day by sharing stories, videos or weblinks on their webpage/class dojo. This provided all children with the opportunity to learn about the aspirational women Scientists who have helped to shape the world of Science.

UKS2 were given the challenge to research a Scientist and present their findings in what ever way they wanted. See  below some of the work that was created. Well done to all of our super researchers! 

Autumn 2020

Congratulations to the new Science Ambassadors in Year 6.

By the end of the half term, each class will have two new Science

Ambassadors. 

This half term, all children in KS1 and KS2 are helping their teachers to complete the lesson record after each Science lesson, which then goes into the class log. The record instantly shows what enquiry has taken place, what the class have learnt and what they enjoyed. Over the years, the Science Ambassadors have really enjoyed sharing with one another their class logs.  

This year’s BNF Healthy Eating Week ran from 28 September to 4 October 2020. The aim of the week was to bring the UK together for a dedicated week, focusing on key health messages and promoting healthy habits. Each class promoted one of the below health challenges and it is displayed on our whole school Science display. 

Autumn 2019 

Congratulations to our new Science Ambassadors for this academic year. They were once again, voted by their class after sharing why they should take on the ambassador role! (Photo coming soon). 

To celebrate Space Week, the Ambassadors were challenged to promote the 'Rocket Mice' investigation within their class and to meet to discuss their enquiry questions and conclusions.

They were amazed at how well each class did! 

After a discussion about the five types of enquiry, the Ambassadors have decided to promote them again in Science lessons. 

Spring 2020

We have updated our whole school Science display. We felt it was important to share with our school community what our favourite lesson was last half term and why. We know our thoughts are always valued at our school. 

Miss Coxon has shared with us the theme for British Science Week 'Our diverse planet'. We think it might be a great opportunity to ask the Eco Warriors for help on this exciting event - watch this space! 

The 2020 British Science Week theme got us thinking.....our world is amazing and Science is everywhere and we want to get our school community talking about Science! 

Look at our Science detective work. Are you impressed? We can't wait to see yours...

Team game

For our initial meeting together we our investigative skills to work together in pairs or threes to resuce a jelly worm from top of a raft and get him to safety putting him back inside the raft with a rubber (jelly) ring on. This may sound easy, however we couldn't use our fingers and only had a paper clip to touch the equipment with....team work was the only answer!

Observing over time

As part of CPD for the children they are focusing on the different types of scientific enquiry. The first type we looked at was observing over time. The children were presented with some items and had to decide what we were going to investigate. The Science Ambassadors decided to investigate different types of solutions to see if they changed the mass of a gummy minion. The Ambassadors came back each day to check the minion and to measure it. We were all surprised to see the how much the mass changed with all the solutions except for salt water.

Identifying and Classifying

The Science Ambassadors were given the task of creating a classification key to sort and identify 6 liquorice allsorts. The Ambassadors found this really tricky to think of the different criteria for sorting where the answer could only be yes or no. They finally produced a poster within their small groups and then the other groups tested the key to see if it worked. Some groups realised that their keys didn't work and had to edit to ensure it worked.

For our first meeting the Ambassadors completed a team building STEM challenge to build a tower of cups without touching them with their hands. They were split into 2 teams and given 2 straws each, a small piece of string, an elastic band and 2 cotton wool balls. The teams worked well together and in the end it was a draw. We then discussed the science learning and how this linked with working scientifically.

Preparing for Science Week

In the next few meetings we focused on British Science Week and the theme of 'Change'. We discussed what change was and the areas in science the theme covered.  We completed a mini experiment on the theme and filmed it to show during our assembly.

Before the assembly, each class chose an area to focus upon and made a slideshow ready for our introduction to British Science Week. The Ambassadors delivered the assembly on March 10th (the start of British Science Week).

Judging the poster competition

On Thursday 16th March we looked at the posters created by children at home for the British Science Week national competition. We could only chose 10 to be sent off as part of the national competition. It was a difficult decision but well done to those that entered. 

End of British Science Week assembly 

At the end of Science Week our Science Ambassadors awarded the poster winners with a gift bag of science experiments for the winners to complete at home. Well done to the winners and for all who took part.

Taking Science outside

During the Summer term the 'Science Ambassadors' are now taking science learning outdoors during Wednesday dinnertimes. To begin with we had a meeting to discuss the types of science learning we wanted to take outside. The Ambassadors suggested ideas and we came up with a rota where each class had a slot to access the science equipment with a group of Ambassadors to lead the activity.