Year 5 went to Ullswater Community Collage this half term to explore the Science department and take part in two workshops led by secondary Science teachers.

One workshop was a challenge to develop a parachute to support an astronaut. We had to make a prototype, using some basic materials, string, a box to support the astronaut, sellotape, polystyrene pieces and bubble wrap. In our model the astronaut was an egg! 

We had to work in small groups to develop our parachute, working on our relationships and being resilient if our plans didn't work!

After 20 minutes we went outside onto the balcony to test our designs! Dropping our eggs and parachutes off the balcony was really exciting, we had to wait to find out whether our eggs were still intact! 

Luckily, many of our designs were successful. We worked well together, being resourceful and applying all of our skills to the task.

The next workshop was another challenge - to extract the DNA from a strawberry! Again working in groups, we had to read and follow some detailed instructions in order to be successful. 

We had to mush the strawberry, add some acid, mush it again then place it in a water bath! After 10 minutes the DNA had begun to separate—it just needed one more step, to add Ethanol. After that, we could carefully extract the DNA! 

We would like to thank the staff at UCC for organising this activity day which gave us all a taste of secondary Science lessons – it was fun!