nature

Another Science Week has come to a close at Rode Heath – and what a fantastic week it has been. Last year we reached for the stars, celebrating the 10-year anniversary of our Out of This World space project, inspired by Tim Peake. This year, however, we plunged into the depths of the ocean, helped by a team from the National Oceanography Centre.

The Inspiration Behind Ocean Week

Our Ocean-themed week was inspired by a two-day workshop I attended at the STEM Learning Centre in York in November of last year. This was a gathering of teachers, university lecturers and scientists from a range of marine conservation organisations, all working together to design ways to inspire primary school pupils to consider future careers connected to the ocean.

Having previously introduced engineering into the primary curriculum, I was interested to learn more about existing teaching materials related to the ocean and to be involved in discussions about how marine topics could be integrated into classroom learning. The ocean is a fascinating and hugely appealing subject for children – and, in many ways, it remains less explored than space. For teachers, it offers a wealth of opportunities to spark curiosity and introduce real-world science. There seemed to be many opportunities within both science and other curriculum areas where a marine example might be used to inspire and engage.

Building an Ocean Curriculum

Armed with new knowledge and ideas from the workshop, I began thinking about how these could be incorporated into our next Science Week once I returned to school. During the workshop, we discussed the 7 Ocean Literacy Principles, originally developed in the United States to encourage teaching about the ocean in schools, and I decided to use these as a framework around which our Ocean Week could be structured.

Once I began researching online, I quickly discovered just how many resources were available. One of the most useful websites I discovered was Encounter Edu (https://encounteredu.com), which provides a wide range of engaging activities, lesson plans and PowerPoints. It even hosted a live online Science Week lesson, which several of our classes were able to join.

A Week of Ocean Exploration

With the framework in place, each class explored a different aspect of ocean science during the week. From investigating ocean currents and wave energy to exploring biomimicry and the effects of ocean acidification, pupils were able to experience the ocean through hands-on investigations and practical STEM challenges.

Year 4 used a maths lesson to measure the size of giant sea creatures

The work generated during the week was of a very high standard and reflected a broad range of curriculum areas. From art and music to science, mathematics, geography and English, pupils approached the ocean theme in a variety of creative and investigative ways. It was a clear confirmation that marine themes can sit comfortably within our existing subjects and provide a powerful context for learning.

Investigating plankton
Designing our own sea creatures
Designing our own sea creatures
Ocean Poetry
Ocean Poetry
FInding out about fish

Learning from Experts

The week culminated in a celebration assembly, to which marine scientists from the National Oceanography Centre in both Southampton and Liverpool had been invited. This provided an opportunity for the children to share their work and for our NOC visitors to act as an expert panel, answering questions posed by the eager pupils. The depth and variety of these questions were a clear indication of how motivated the children had become through the week’s activities:

Why does seaweed grow in the ocean?
Why is there coral in the ocean?
How did the salt get into the ocean?
What is plankton and how much of it is there?

An Ocean Comes to Life

Everyone had dressed for the occasion in costumes inspired by the ocean, and the school hall briefly resembled the ocean floor itself. Sea creatures, divers and even the occasional submersible filled the room in a dazzling array of colour. It was a wonderful sight. The children spoke confidently and eloquently about their experiences and learning throughout the week.

Investigating the Power of the Sea

The Year 3 pupils, for example, had looked at different types of flood defences, exploring both natural solutions such as seagrass meadows and man-made structures including jetties and stepped seawalls. During the assembly they demonstrated their investigations by pouring jugs of water over their models to see which design offered the best protection. It was a wonderful example of practical science brought to life.

Sharing Our Experiences

Eventually, we had to bring the assembly to a close. As a token of our appreciation, we presented our visitors with a “Big Book of Ocean Week”, which contained examples of work from every year group across the school. They were genuinely impressed by the quality of the pupils’ work and, in particular, by the depth of understanding the children had developed about the science behind their investigations.

I would like to extend a sincere thank you to Dr Suzanne Maclachlan, who collaborated with me in planning and shaping the week and whose enthusiasm and expertise helped make the project such a success. Our thanks also go to the members of our Ocean expert panel — Sarah Sidders, Marta Payo Payo, Ruth Kennedy and Kai Simpson — for giving up their time to visit Rode Heath, sharing their knowledge with the pupils and answering the many thoughtful questions posed by our young scientists.

For many of the pupils, this week was their first opportunity to think seriously about the ocean — not just as a place of mysterious creatures and crashing waves, but as a vital and fascinating part of our planet that scientists and engineers are working hard to understand and protect. If Ocean Week has helped to spark curiosity in even a few future marine scientists, ocean engineers or conservationists, then it will have been a week very well spent.

There’s nothing I love more than to integrate engineering into my science lessons, and I had the opportunity this week when I brought in my giant lotus leaves.

We have been studying the Amazon rainforest in both geography and English this term, as well as looking at Living Things and their Habitats, so it was a great opportunity to investigate how the lotus plant has adapted to live in water.

In addition to having specialized roots which take in oxygen from water and flat leaves to help with floating, the plant is ultra-hydrophobic, which means that it repels water.

The ‘lotus effect’ as it is known, is indeed quite magical – even on dried leaves. When drops of water are squeezed from a pipette, they literally bounce off the leaves like small crystal balls – a real ‘awe and wonder’ moment for the children.

This remarkable reaction to water, has major benefits. Not only does it free the surface from excess water, but it allows the plant to self-clean, as the tiny water droplets pick up any dirt particles when they roll off the leaf.

Biomimicry

Having demonstrated the ‘lotus effect’, I introduced the concept of biomimicry to my class. Biomimicry, as the name suggests, means ‘imitating nature’ and is an approach used by engineers to solve all kinds of problems.

I explained that perhaps one of the most well-known inventions inspired by nature is Velcro® invented in 1948 by Swiss engineer, George de Mestral. He noticed seeds stuck to his dog after a walk and wondered why they were so sticky. When he looked at one under a microscope, he saw that it was made up of a series of hooks that had grasped the fur. He decided to copy this idea and made his own version. This was something that all the children could relate to, as many had Velcro® fastenings on their shoes.

The Lotus Effect

This then led to a discussion as to what products might have been inspired by the ‘lotus effect’. If they were engineers, how would they use it? Where might self-cleaning materials be useful? We talked about windows in sky-scrapers. If these could be cleaned just by rain, then that would be save a considerable amount of time and expense.

We then watched an video from Interesting Engineering, which looks at how the lotus effect was discovered and some of the products that it has inspired: https://youtu.be/Xp0SAdDUQ-o?si=qYKhj31b6ISxIpRa

One of the dramatic events in the video is when black paint is thrown at two men wearing white shirts. One of the shirts has been treated with a superhydrophobic coating and the paint just bounces off.

By this time the children were very motivated to investigate the effect for themselves. They were provided with two petri dishes – one with a square of dried lotus leaf tea in (from Ebay) and the other with a square of material which had been treated with a synthetic hydrophobic coating. (NB: Examples of such cloth can be found on the internet – search for Nano-Tex^TMfabric).

In order to gain maximum benefit from the investigation it was important that the children followed a series of steps, one sample at a time.

These were as follows:

Exploring the Lotus Effect

Place a few drops of water on your lotus leaf and observe the effects
Submerge into glass of water
What can you see?
Sprinkle pepper on the surface. Then place a few drops of water and tilt.
What happens?
Do the same with the Nano-Tex^TMcloth.

They had to use tweezers to handle the samples, as I explained that they were very delicate and oil from their fingers could affect the hydrophobicity of the dried leaves.

Their observations were recorded in a prepared table.

I was delighted both at how methodical the children were and the careful observations that were taking place.

When you submerge the lotus leaf in the water, one of the sides develops a silver sheen. This is caused by a thin layer of air being trapped on its surface. When the leaf is then removed from the water, it emerges completely dry – a phenomenon that delighted the children. The same happened with the Nano-Tex^TMcloth

Taking it further

This investigation could be taken further by finding out whether other leaves demonstrate the same levels of hydrophobicity – cabbage, broccoli, sprouts, kale and elephant’s ear are all possible choices.

And, how many synthetic materials such as tin-foil, cling-film, cellophane and foam exhibit this property?

Is there a difference between being water proof and truly water repellent?

This lesson was adapted from the https://www.teachengineering.org/ website.

Think Like An Engineer

Inspiring Learning

From Space to Sea: Science Week at Rode Heath