OUR SCIENCE SUPERHEROES!

Across the Federation, we have held a competition for the children to design science superheroes for our different lines of enquiry.

Over the course of an academic year, children will carry out several investigations which involve different types of enquiry approaches:

• observation over time
• identifying and classifying
• pattern seeking
• research
• comparative and fair testing

Not all scientific questions can be answered using the same scientific methods. For example, children can explore how the population of a particular species changes through the seasons by ‘observing over time’. Alternatively, to find out whether ladybirds are the most common insect in the school grounds, the children would be surveying all insects and ‘identifying and classifying’. Of course, children may wish to find out whether ladybirds are the most common insect all year round and need to carry out their survey several times. In this situation, the children are 'pattern seeking'.

The competition required the children to design a superhero for each line of enquiry: What will your superhero look like? What will their name be? What job do they do? e.g. Captain Observation – looking closely and spotting changes, Lily the Sorter – organising and sorting, Professor Pattern – loves a good pattern (used to be a fashion designer in a previous life), Grace Google – researcher and fact finder, Robbie the Ref – ensuring it is always a fair test.

The winning designs have been made into mini stickers. Every time the children do a science experiment, we stick a superhero into their books. This will help Subject Leaders from the STEM team, quickly spot which lines of enquiry have been taught and what gaps are evident; ensuring the children are exposed to a wide variety of exciting science learning.