Well, Mars at least!
Junction Farm often contacts Spark at the beginning of September to book us in for various activities in school throughout the year. Yes, they have access to our on demand resources that connect curriculum learning with real jobs but they also really value our highly engaging range of events. We’ve had ‘VR space’ in the diary for months when a stressed email asked us on Friday ‘I don’t suppose you are able to come and plug a gap on Wednesday could you?’ Unfortunately another provider had had to pull out at short notice and I had that afternoon available. I hate saying ‘no’ even with all the Animex resources currently in production so yesterday afternoon I found myself in the Hall with around 50 excited Y5s.
We have lots of resources that we have developed over the years and our ‘mission to mars’ is one of them. We collected information from fact files and designed our new ‘Mars base’ over the next few hours. The pictures below illustrate what an amazingly engaged and knowledgeable bunch they were. Oh and let’ not forget ‘scientifically creative’. Their ideas were fantastic and not just fanciful, but thought through and backed up with scientific reasoning.
An out of this world experience…
Well, we brought the planets into our world—or at least a closer, into the classrooms and outdoor areas at Junction Farm Primary, returning the next day for another learning adventure! We had an absolute blast with the same Year 5 children, who had spent the night before sleeping over in school as part of their residential experience! We began our next mission around the rolled-up sleeping bags and pillows. Even with a little less sleep than usual, this didn’t stop the eager Year 5 children from diving straight into building their very own augmented reality solar system using computer-aided design (CAD) which brought it to life right there, in the classroom, in front of their eyes. Talk about taking learning to a whole new level! As we discussed our knowledge of the sun, we even had time to talk about our experiences spotting the northern lights in the UK from the recent solar storm in May. We listened to Katie, a Northern Lights Space Physicist from Middlesbrough who lives near the North Pole and unpicked the skills you may need in the future if you want to work in the space research field. These Year 5 pupils are certainly set for ‘lift off’ into whatever careers they wish to pursue in the future with the talents and creativity they have displayed over the last two sessions!
