The Martian

Last term’s Topic on Earth and Space themed ‘The Martians’, allowed pupils to experience and learn about the solar system and its cross-curricular Geographical links to day and night and different time zones.

Topic began with a spectacular entry point with a 360 degrees state-of-the-art multi-purpose planetarium which provided a totally immersive experience. 

The 360 degrees immersive theatre measuring a diameter of 8m was spectacular. We learned about the planets in our solar system and looked out for constellations.

Phases of the Moon was creatively explored with Jaffa Cakes.

For our D & T unit, pupils designed, created and evaluated a fully functioning lunar buggy.

We explored and made gears, pulleys and levers in order to understand and determine the best-fit mechanisms for the lunar buggies.

Pupils used a range of skills including measuring, sawing and making a circuit when creating their lunar buggies.

The finale to our fun-filled unit, involved coding our very own computer programmes for a space game using Scratch. In designing their arcade game, pupils considered variables and the key questions:

What will happen in your game?

What will the controls be?

How will the game score?

How will the game end?

Here is an innovative design from one of our budding programmers: