Over several months the Science department have been developing their skills in using “Hellosmart.com”, a programme that allows greater interaction and provides instant feedback on students’ progress.  Having an increasing number of computers within the department, it has been pleasing to see students enjoying accessing the materials that we have been producing to aid their learning. Students can access Hellosmart.com as soon as they enter the room….

Then complete a word search to develop a familiarity with the vocabulary relating to the lesson as students wait for other classmates to log on.

Confident and less confident students have contributed to class discussions using the ‘shout it out’ activities.

All students have enjoyed working collaboratively with others.

“Hellosmart.com” has been beneficial for monitoring progress as students’ work on interactive tasks that can be viewed by the teacher. Good examples of work can be shared with the rest of the group.

As a department, we look forward to using “Hellosmart.com” further, with our students both in class and remotely.

 

Mr D Knee and Mrs R Honeyman

As part of the 10 Big Ideas Unit Forces 2, Year 8 have spent several lessons getting to know how to calculate speed using an equation. They have also described and completed distance-time graphs using Super Mario characters and a variety of journeys. They have completed a composite task to demonstrate that they know and remember how to do this. To provide an element of challenge, students were asked to describe their own journey. They plotted this in a distance-time graph and some of them even calculated the speed at each part of the journey. Here are a few from 8SC3:

Mrs R Cahill

On the 11th March 2022, the 18 segments of the mirror were aligned and there are now high expectations from NASA that the telescope is going to be able to perform better than projected.

An image was taken to test the mirror alignment, and the focus of the image was the bright star in the centre. Because the telescope is so sensitive, distant galaxies and stars can be seen in the background.

On the 7th April 2022, one of the instruments on the telescope, the Mid-infrared instrument (MIRI), had to reach its final operating temperature of -266 °C. This low temperature is needed because all of the instruments on the Webb telescope detect infrared light which is emitted by warm objects including the telescope. So the MIRI and the other instruments on the telescope have to be cooled so they do not emit infrared radiation.

Mrs Goodwill