Science Week

Science Week

4 – 8 May

To celebrate Science Week each class will be learning to think like a scientist.  We will be carrying out investigations in class and encouraging children to talk about this learning with you.

Are you a mad Scientist?  Do you conduct experiments that you could share with the children?  Please contact the class teacher and join us for Science Week!

Science Selfies

No, we don’t want a picture of you but a picture of any wonderful science learning you do at home!

Take a photo or record yourself, and send it to Miss Green, our resident science lover.  Email it to: jgreen@owairaka.school.nz  by Monday 11 May.  We will be sharing all of your great home Science learning during our assembly on Friday 15 May.  There will be spot prizes for a lucky few home scientists!

Rainbow Spinner

2015 is the year of light, so make a rainbow spinner!

What You Need:

• Paper plate
• Pencil
• Ruler
• Felts, crayons, or paint (purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, red)
• String 

What You Do:

1. Divide the plate into six equal sections using the pencil and ruler. 
2. Colour each section of the plate a different colour of the rainbow. Make sure there is no white showing!
3. Punch two small holes in the centre of the plate, about 1 cm apart. Thread the string through the holes.
4. Hold one end of the string in each hand so that the colour disk is in the middle. Wind up your disk by turning while you hold the string. When the string is wound up tight pull both hands away from each other so that your coloured disk spins quickly.
5. When observing the plate, the colour will begin to blur together and eventually appear to disappear or turn white!
6. You can try this activity a second time, dividing the plate in half, and using only two primary colours on your disk. Will the colours disappear again? Find out!

What's Going On?

When you've got the plate spinning, your eye can't separate each colour and identify it. In the whirl, all your eyes can tell you is that they see white! If your child is interested in learning more about "optics", or the study of how we perceive light and colour, encourage your child to do some library investigation to find out about colour and light!

Adapted from: http://www.education.com