Outreach Report: Wheldrake Ward (3/3)
During the period of July to November 2019 we delivered a total of 9 educational workshops across three primary schools in the Wheldrake Ward.
Elvington Church of England Primary School
Discussion with staff at Elvington concluded that the most benefit would be gained from providing workshops for Year 6 pupils. With that in mind, we ran our two workshops from the Year 6 programme of study. The Evolution and Inheritance workshop provided only to pupils with their own chance to have a go at the evolution role-playing game, while the Biological Classification workshop took an advanced look at taxonomy – the naming and classifying of living organisms.
Field sketches
After a brief history of taxonomy, and an introduction to Latin binomial names, pupils realised they already knew many scientific terms for popular creatures e.g. Tyrannosaurus rex, Boa constrictor etc. The class then headed out onto the Elvington school grounds to locate and classify invertebrates.
Millipede found during our minibeast safari
As with Naburn, the time of year meant a field trip was impractical, and so class teacher Miss Marjoram opted for an expanded version of our Life Cycles workshop. Meeting multiple syllabus requirements, pupils learnt about the similarities and differences between life cycles of humans, birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles and insects. The session included a special appearance by “Mr Tortoise” and dissection of a model butterfly chrysalis to reveal the secrets of metamorphosis!
Mr Tortoise meets the class…
“The children thoroughly enjoyed Phil’s workshop whilst learning an awful lot too. Whenever he has come the children are always desperate to know when he can come again. The workshops are well paced and crammed with activities and learning.”
Hazel Marjoram, PPA Teacher, Elvington Church of England Primary School.