This challenge was inspired by the MIT Professor: Felice Frankel https://felicefrankel.com/ and was centred around scientific images. Here is a summary of how the challenge was attempted in each year group:
EYFS have enjoyed learning about what STEAM is and accepted their first challenge with much excitement! The children have been shown how to use the camera app on the iPads and some of the functions, such as the zoom, and were then hunting around the classroom and outdoor areas to take scientific photos. The children in EYFS loved being photographers for the week and took some amazing photos! The children loved sharing their photos with the class.
Year 1 had a whale of a time with our STEAM work this week. We learnt about the meaning behind STEAM, why it is so important in today’s world and what we would like to invent if we had the chance. I think a robot to make and do as we command, was definitely top of the Year 1 list! We learnt about the photographer Felice Frankel and then made our own pin hole cameras. A top time was had by all!
In Year 2, the children loved this first STEAM Challenge. During their first lesson, the children worked on developing their learning powers of CCP (Curiosity, Creativity and Problem Solving). They were then thrilled to use macro lenses attached to iPads to capture unusual images around our school grounds. The children then learnt how to edit them using some basic tools on the iPads. Finally, the children learnt about the incredible image – The Pillars of Creation (https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/the-pillars-of-creation). They used this to inspire them to make their own cameras – of the Pin Hole variety! They then tested them in the playground to see if they worked.
In Year 3, the children particularly enjoyed the problem solving challenge. They were excited to explore the school grounds as nature detectives, as they were given the task of finding evidence of food chains, which they found in the form of half-eaten leaves and ants’ nests.
All the Year 4 classes really enjoyed revisiting CCP and we are going to try and have this mindset more as we do our Project Work, English and Maths. We have used the work of Felice Frankel to inspire our photography skills whilst on a trip to the Science Centre. We used the macro lenses to take close up photos of various scientific objects which really showed the textures in great detail. Finally, we made pinhole cameras (however we have not really had the opportunity to test these yet and are waiting for a nice sunny, haze free day to try them out!)
Year 5 have explored ‘persistance of vision’ for their STEAM activities this week. This is the phenomenon where a series of photos sequenced and shown to us at a speed quicker than a tenth of a second fools our eyes and brain into seeing a moving image. We discovered how this works by creating flipbooks, zoetropes and thaumatropes.
In Year 6, children were challenged to take some science inspired photographs. The children also enjoyed making their own camera obscura. A device, which was used to create images, shortly before cameras were first invented.
Mr Baines
Year 2 Teacher and Primary STEAM Leader