If you don’t know your pancreas from your appendix or your gall bladder from your small intestine, then be sure to drop into Miss Townsend’s 7/8 class and the students will be able to set you straight!
This term in Science we have focussed on Cells, Organs and Body Systems, culminating in a major home project in which students constructed a model of the human digestive system.
The results were outstanding and the materials used ranged from vacuum hoses and wire to fabric, recycled bottles and even knitting.
The digestive system project is a popular component of the 7/8 Science course.
Earlier in the year when Miss Townsend popped in to one of Mrs Gaisford’s senior Nutrition lessons about digestion, she was impressed at how many students were able to recall the parts and functions of the system as a result of their memories of their own project back in Year 7/8! CONT→
The focus earlier in the term was on Cells and their components. To help learn some pretty tricky terminology, like Mitochondria, Endoplasmic Reticulum and Ribosomes, groups of students researched, designed and constructed a pizza which represented the parts of a cell. Of course the highlight of the activity was eating the pizza at the end!!
Our final topic this term is Reproduction and students are currently researching a range of fascinating methods that animals and plants reproduce. Did you know that the Gastric Brooding Frog gestates its young in its stomach then ‘spits out’ live babies? How about the Star fish – if it loses a limb it can just grow a new one! The Giant Panda’s babies (despite the name) weigh only 100 grams and the gender of crocodile babies is determined by the temperature of the nest. As you can imagine, this topic has certainly generated a lot of discussion in the classroom!
Sarah Townsend | Science Teacher
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