Trip to Westminster School

On Tuesday, we visited Westminster School to participate in some secondary science activities. We were split into groups and completed a chemistry and then a biology workshop.

We learnt lots of interesting information and even got to watch a frog dissection! Special thanks to the team at Westminster School.

 

14 thoughts on “Trip to Westminster School

  • 08/06/2017 at 3:24 pm
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    I enjoyed the trip to Westminster school a lot. But my favourite part was the chemistry because of all the explosions and the luminous lights. Even though I did not enjoy the biology (dissecting a frog) I still found it fascinating to see how the body of a frog works and what its organs look like. I learnt how stars died and how they had an impact on the big bang. But I think I learnt the most about the chemicals they used to create some fun explosions that we saw. This helped me prepare for secondary school by making sure I know what science will be like in Secondary school and let me experience what it is like to work in a proper science lab.

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  • 08/06/2017 at 3:54 pm
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    What did you learn?
    I learnt all the different parts of a frogs body and that they only have three chambers in their heart, whereas, us humans have four. I also learnt about different chemicals, how we were made and got talked through about the parts of a frog as we disected it. We answered questions about why a particular chemical would change a different colour or not do anything etc.
    What did you enjoy?
    My favourite part about the trip was learning about the different parts of a frog because i thought it was very detailed and specific and showed a lot about this creature. We also got to hold parts of its body which felt quite strange at the time but was really fun. It made me feel very intrigued because people get to do this in a lesson and i had never even touched a frog.
    How did it help you prepare for secondary school?
    Because nearly all secondary schools have similar lessons and science is one of the main lessons. Also, these are new subjects to me and you do this quite a lot in secondary school. We worked as a team.

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  • 08/06/2017 at 4:09 pm
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    I enjoyed the trip very much. Thank you for organising it, Mr. Morrell. I especially found the biology session particularly interesting and enjoyable because you were able to see and hold what is inside a living creature-a frog. I learnt that a frog had three chambers in its heart while fish have two and humans have four. I thought that this definitely preparing us for secondary school science lessons since it gave us an insight into how advanced and technical the lessons would be however it was at the right level for us to understand. There was a lot of vocabulary to remember but it will give us a headstart going to our new schools. Thank you.

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  • 08/06/2017 at 4:44 pm
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    I thoroughly enjoyed this science trip, it was really exciting because we learnt about lots of chemicals that had very unusual reactions to the liquids that were used in the experiments that were demonstrated.

    In groups we dissected a frog. We learnt that frogs have 3 chambers in their heart.

    I think going to any secondary school can help you prepare for your own secondary transition. It gives you a good idea of what to expect. I found it helpful to go to different classes too.

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  • 08/06/2017 at 5:35 pm
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    I found our science lesson both interesting and very enjoyable. As I want to become a zoologist when I’m older, I was extremely interested and excited at the opportunity to dissect a frog. I learnt a lot about the anatomy and the differences between each different species’ body, for example; a fish has two ventricles, when a frog has three and a human, four. It was interesting to experience a physical biology lesson as it taught me and my classmates a lot more than just looking at it all through a diagram. I now know the individual purposes of some of the important organs in the body, usually looked over during an ordinary science lessons, such as the gallbladder and liver, which have only been briefly touched upon in past sessions but played an important role in this week’s trip. I think that trips like these really help prepare primary school children to prepare for the level of learning expected of a secondary school education and I hope we have more like it in the future.

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  • 08/06/2017 at 5:58 pm
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    Yr 6 trip to Westminister Independent School

    What did I learn?
    I learnt quite a lot of things when I went on the trip. But, for this one I am going to talk about what I learnt about when we dissected a frog. This was biology and it was quite interesting. I learnt a lot which I am about to tell you. One of the things I learnt was that humans have a similar structure to frogs. We, as humans have four chambers in our heart whereas frogs or amphibians have three chambers in their hearts. Another thing I learnt was that frogs breathe through their skin because most of the time they are underneath water.

    What did I enjoy?
    I honestly enjoyed every last second of the trip. We did so much. I really enjoyed biology but I also was amazed by chemistry. It was so exciting and I couldn’t keep still. But what I enjoyed was when we saw the “magic” happen. It was truly like magic and that is what I enjoyed about chemistry. It was so mind blowing which is why I loved it so much. We got to partake in several chemistry experiments involving acids and alkalies.

    How did it prepare you for Secondary School?
    This prepared me because before we did this I thought secondary science would be similar but with more experiments. But now that we have had this trip, I know now that we will be doing much more detailed and interesting experiments that will actually help us later in the future. This has also prepared me by helping me to understand the importance of science and understanding what it is and how it helps.

    This was been an amazing trip and I am now fully prepared for science in Secondary School.

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  • 08/06/2017 at 5:59 pm
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    At Westminster School, I learnt that, our hearts have four chambers and a frogs heart has only three chambers. We were also was shown different chemicals and there reaction to each other and about the force of gravity and that we were created from So realistically, if someone asked you what you were made of you could say stardust.
    I enjoyed the frog dissection, however i was a bit squeamish at first, as we got to see the different parts of the frog and we got to hold them. the frogs skin was a rubber like texture. I also enjoyed he chemistry and the physics lesson. The chemistry was a more interactive lesson and we saw some colour changes, due to different chemicals an a big explosion! in the physics lesson, we learnt about stars and the big bang, how the world was created in a scientific view.
    It helped me prepare for secondary science as we got an insight into how much more interactive the lessons were and how we were going to advance in science through many different ways as the lesson difficulty increased, but became more fun.

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  • 08/06/2017 at 6:32 pm
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    My Science Trip to Westminster School

    -What Did I Learn?
    On the trip I learn about two sections of science: biology and chemistry. I found both very interesting and I realised how many different chemicals and gases there are in existence. As well as this we explored the different organs and body parts in different animals.

    -What Did You Enjoy?
    I enjoyed everything about the day but my favourite part must have been when we dissected the frog and explored all its different organs and body parts up close and in real life. I also really enjoyed watching the science teacher put two substances together and completely change the colour of the original substance.

    -How Did it Help You Prepare for Secondary School?
    The way that this helped me prepare for secondary school most was showing me how many different parts of science there are and how many more resources there are available when you get to secondary school.

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  • 08/06/2017 at 7:22 pm
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    At the Westminster School I learnt a lot about biology and chemistry. In chemistry I learnt about all different sorts of acid for example citric acid also we did several of experiments which include explosions. I also learnt that to do these experiments you would have to have a whole team and you would all need to cooperate with each other.

    At the trip I enjoyed many things such as the experiments we did in chemistry also in biology we looked at the frogs organs and their bodies; I really enjoyed learning about the frog.

    This has helped me to prepare for secondary school because I would be able to understand how they do their subjects in secondary school.

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  • 08/06/2017 at 7:26 pm
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    What did you learn?
    I learned about how similar yet different we are to frogs on the evolutionary chart and how their heart has only three chambers compared to our four. I also learnt about how some different chemicals can be combined to create a luminous liquid and that Mercury , which is a metal , is actually a liquid.

    What did you enjoy?
    My favourite part of the trip was the chemistry section where there was a number of demonstrations that showed us the chemicals can mix to create a mixture of beautiful colours and it was especially intriguing when we did an experiment that made a liquid that glowed in the dark!

    How did it help you prepare for secondary school?
    This trip gave us a really good idea of what science will be like in secondary school as it is a really big step up from science in primary school . It taught us that there will be lots of chemicals involved in it. It also helped us to experience the three types of science being chemistry – where we learnt about mixing chemicals to create colour – physics – where we learnt all about the big bang and its impact and biology – where students talked us through the dissection of a common frog .

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  • 08/06/2017 at 7:28 pm
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    My favourite part on the Westminister trip was when we got see the organs of a frog, when it was dissected; this was my favourite part because it was quite funny to actually see what size they were compared to our own, also it was extremely interesting. I learnt that frogs heart only has three sections -two atrias and one ventricle- and also that they have strong and muscular thighs because that’s were they get all the energy from to jump far and high, they also have eardrums at the side of their head behind their eyes. When I go to secondary school in September I now know what science will be like; because science in primary is much different, firstly the facilities, secondary schools have proper science labs that are filled with very exciting equipment and lots of dangerous and interesting chemicals and acids.

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  • 08/06/2017 at 8:46 pm
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    I really enjoyed my trip to Westminster school. It was good fun. We dissected frogs, my frog was a female, it was surprising how many eggs she had. It was very interesting how similar frogs bodies are to ours (anatomy) with the organs in the same places.
    We also watched an experiment with hydrogen in a test tube which went POP when lighted.
    Secondary school is much bigger than Cathedral and they have cool things like science labs which we have not had before. I am with the oldest children at Cathedral but I will be with the youngest at secondary school.

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  • 08/06/2017 at 10:15 pm
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    What did I learn?
    I learnt that frogs don’t have ribs their brains are extremely small and that a frog’s heart only has three chambers. I also found out in the biology lesson that a frogs skin looks very rubbery and I found out that out because I saw one on the trip.

    What did I enjoy?
    I really enjoyed the whole trip but I think I enjoyed the chemistry the best. In chemistry I really enjoyed watching the experiments and then the teacher tell us how and why it happened. Some of the experiments were about colours and some were on energy; the first few experiments were on colours and we mixed iodine and starch to make a black liquid. I found it remarkable how quickly and suddenly the clear liquid turned black (in only 13 seconds) then we changed the amount of iodine from 100ml – 50ml meaning the time it took to become black could double and the almost did but it only got to 25 seconds. Then we did some energy experiments and managed to make some water or clear liquid glow a beautiful blue colour.

    This trip informed about the type of science we do in secondary school and I am now looking forward a lot to science in secondary school. I was not really sure what biology would be like so this trip has really helped me to find out what science is like.

    I really enjoyed this trip. It has informed a lot about secondary science and was so much fun.

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  • 09/06/2017 at 6:55 am
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    I learnt that the frog has similarities a differences to us,an example is that a frog has storage in his stomach for keeping food stored in.

    I enjoyed how we got learn about iodine and got to witness how it was made with substance B and a mixing together with substance A, the more of substance B = a quicker transformation into iodine.

    It prepared me for secondary school because of how they showed use the setup, what me might be doing and how doing it is dangerous so they showed us how we would need to protect ourselves.

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