Friday saw the first Prep House STEM Event take place. The Y6 House Captains had to choose their best STEM team from KS2, which brought two children per house from each year group to take part in different challenges.
The Y3 children took part in racing a toy car without touching it. After some failed attempts using air from a balloon to move the car forward, we decided to use straws and blow the cars across the finish line.
Y4 children created towers using marshmallows and spaghetti. The goal was to create the tallest freestanding structure. This was a close contest, right until the last minute when some final tinkering caused one group's tower to topple over!
For Y5, the children competed in a caterpillar race. They had to make a paper caterpillar, follow a set of instructions, and use a straw to make the caterpillar move in a bouncing motion. If they blew through the straw too hard, then the bounce motion would not happen, and they'd have to start from the beginning again.
Finally, the Y6 children created paper rockets, again following a set of instructions and seeing whose rocket would fly the furthest. The Y6 children innovated with their designs to provide better aerodynamics for these rockets, which had a big impact on the final results.
All of the children demonstrated excellent STEM knowledge within their tasks and represented their houses excellently. Most importantly, they had a fun morning and learnt some new skills in the process.
However, it wasn't just the children in the House Event that got to take part in the activities. All of the year groups took part in creating marshmallow and spaghetti towers. There were some fantastic and creative designs that the children put together.
It was brilliant to see all the children engaging in the task and improving their STEM knowledge and skills.
The winners of the House STEM Event will be announced in Monday's assembly.