University Education
Lesson: Science
Class: Year 5 Year: 2023 - 2024
Year 5 visited Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) as part of the Absolute Chemistry Clean Water Project. Earlier in the year, LJMU had visited the school and worked with the children to make filters from plastic bottles, stones and sand. The children learned about the importance of clean water and what dangers live in unsafe water.
The day at LJMU was a wonderful opportunity for the children to visit a real university and work with specialists in their laboratories. The finale of the day was the opportunity to present their own presentation outlining the learning they had undertaken in school and showcasing their water filters that had filtered the dirty water from the River Mersey, using only basic equipment including a 2 litre bottle, stones, sand and cotton wool.
The children also worked on dividing the colour spectrum of felt tip pens, they experimented to see how glow sticks were affected by the temperature and most exciting of all, what happens when you mix bicarbonate of soda with vinegar... there was a roar of excitement when it inflated the rubber glove!
After this, the children worked on what they thought a scientist looked like and what skills they need to become a scientist, and - WOW - we discovered there are so many jobs that are actually scientists, not just people in white coats in labs!
Finally, our water samples from our class-made filters were tested. The children found out that, although the sample was clear, it wasn't clean, in fact, when we tested the PH levels the water turned red and was quite acidic.
All in all, a wonderful day in which the children learnt so much and had fun! Thank you to all at LJMU for affording us such an amazing opportunity.
