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Posted on: June 11th 2024
Year 5 Science Day
On Tuesday 11th June the Whitmore Science department hosted an exciting experiments day for a large group of Year 5 students from St. George’s, St. Anslem’s, Roxeth, Grange, Longfield and Vaughan primary schools.
Students took part in 3 sessions that allowed them to gain hands on experience with using scientific equipment and developing new key practical skills, such as using a Bunsen burner safely and using specialised equipment to make accurate measurements or take readings.
Session 1 
In the first session, the students were introduced to working in a lab and brilliantly came up with all of the ways in which the science labs and their ordinary classrooms were different. They then watched a demonstration on ‘elephant toothpaste’ which showed a wonderful ‘volcano of foam’. This was one of the many highlights of their day!
We then discussed the importance of oxygen and how it is important for breathing, but how oxygen isn’t the most abundant gas in the Earth’s atmosphere. After many guesses, one of the students correctly informed the class that nitrogen actually was! We then produced a flame using a Bunsen burner, and then started the test for oxygen. To make oxygen, we reacted hydrogen peroxide and manganese oxide inside a conical flask. The students then got a wooden splint and lit it from the Bunsen burner, then blew out the flame and placed it inside the reaction and saw that the wooden splint re-lit! They were amazed and competed with each other. The highest number of relights one group got was 10!
In the final part before the break, we learnt about how we can test for carbon dioxide. The Year 5 students had to blow into the limewater and if carbon dioxide was present, the limewater would have turned cloudy.
The Year 5s were excellent with the safety features in the lab and being cautious with glassware, spillages and flames!
Session 2
The Year 5 students watched an exciting demonstration which showed ‘dry ice’ mixing with pH indicator and alkali. They used their new understanding of the pH scale to predict and match the colour changes they observed.
Students then used Phenolphthalein pH indicator which becomes a beautiful fuchsia pink when mixed with an alkaline solution of Sodium Hydroxide. Their objective was to add strong acid (Hydrochloric acid) drop wise and work out the volume of acid needed for the solution to become colourless and therefore neutral! Patience and precision was required and the Year 5 did a fantastic job!
One of the highlights of this session was to make slime! The Year 5s made bespoke slime with colour and glitter too!
Students had the opportunity to look at the properties of slime and compare states of matter. They were delighted to hear that they could take it home!
Session 3
In the third session, students were introduced to the Bunsen burner where they learnt about its different parts and how to follow a method correctly, to set up equipment safely.
Students were then put to the test to see if they were experts on using these Bunsen burners by carrying out a GCSE triple science experiment. In this experiment students tested a range of ionic compounds and used the flame colours produced by metal ions to identify the metals present within the compounds. A-level students then demonstrated how fireworks and sparklers are produced using iron filings in the flame, that fired out lots of bright gold sparkles.
After this, students finished the day with a number of memorable demonstrations.
