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Directorate for Learning and Assessment Programmes - Science Centre Pembroke, Malta

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An Ant

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and its parts

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and its parts

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and its parts

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and its parts

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and its parts

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Easter Special

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Toothpick structures are a fantastic, low cost and easy STEM challenge that can keep kids busy for hours. We actually used cocktail sticks, but you could also use straws or spaghetti.

I set the children a challenge to build a structure that would hold a chocolate egg off the ground.

Toothpick structure materials

Toothpicks or cocktail sticks

Plasticine

Paper

Chocolate eggs

How to build a toothpick structure

There's no instructions for this one, apart from the building a structure that:

Stands up with no extra support.

Only uses the materials above.

Can hold the a chocolate egg without falling over.

These are the structures my children built, what do you think?

After the eggs we tested to see if our structures could also hold chicks and rabbits, these were lighter so it wasn't much of a problem.

Things to think about - building a strong toothpick structure

Shapes are a good thing to think about when building toothpick structures like this. We found a square shape with extra support in the form of triangles made a stronger structure.

Triangles, arches and domes are all strong shapes and are used by engineers to make structures strong. Next time you see a bridge count how many different shapes you can see.

Imagine a square made from straws, if you push down it with fold down on itself, but a triangle won't collapse unless one of its sides break. Any force applied to a triangle is evenly distributed from the vertex to the base, this means triangles are much stronger than squares.

Extension ideas

Can you build a tower that is at least 10cm high? Or 20 cm high?

How about a tower that can hold 3 chocolate eggs?

Can you build the chicks a new house? We used blueberries for this one.

More Science for Kids

Learn about strong shapes with paper columns.

Build a zip line to transport an Easter egg to a friend.

Or try one of our easy spring science experiments for kids.

What else could you use to stick the toothpicks to each other? How about mini marshmallows?

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Easter Toothpick Structures - EASTER STEM Challenge

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Toothpick structures are a fantastic, low cost and easy STEM challenge that can keep kids busy for hours. We actually used cocktail sticks, but you could also use straws or spaghetti. I set the children a challenge to build a structure that would hold a chocolate egg off the ground.

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DIY Torch

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Yr 4 Senses Investigations

4.4.1  I can give examples of how we use our five
senses to gather information about the world
around us.

Duration: 40mins

Resources:

Box with small peephole cut into one of its sides

Objects to put inside the box

Oven gloves

Pen, pencil, crayon

Headphones + music

Sweets (Skittles)

Blindfold

Intro to the lesson:

What sense do I use to:

a) find a blue crayon

b) watch TV

c) know that the church bells are ringing

d) know that the pillow is soft

e) know that an airplane is flying overhead

f) know that the milk has gone bad

g) know whether the water is warm or not

h) realise that my friend has a pleasant perfume

i) someone is at the door

Development:
1.Is it enough to have eyes to see?  Can we see without light?  How much light do we need?  Investigate by getting a box which has a peephole cut into one of its sides.  Put objects or pictures inside and ask the children to try to see the object when the lid is closed.  This we cannot do because there is no light.  Open the lid slightly and see if the children can now see what the object is.
2. Can we tell what an object is by touch even though we are wearing bulky oven gloves?  What if there is just a little difference between the objects we touch – would we still be able to identify the object by touch only?  (you can use pens, pencils, crayons or other objects which are slightly different from each other in shape / size / material)
3. Can we identify sounds correctly when there is an interfering noise?  A child listens to music using headphones (make sure music is not too loud).  Teacher strikes the desk with a ruler or marker a number of times and the child listening to the music has to try and count correctly the number of strikes (better if there are more than 4 strikes).
4. Can we taste an object if we pinch our noses tightly?  Using sweets (like Skittles), the children experiment by pinching their noses tightly, putting the sweet in their mouths, chewing and then after some chews letting go of their noses.  This illustrates the link between the senses of smell and taste.

Conclusion:  Senses are very important to us so remember to take good care of yourself.  How can we take care of our senses? E.g. do not look at the sun as this can damage your eyes, do not watch too much TV or spend too long on the computer, be careful what you touch, take care of your hearing as loud noises can do much damage, be careful what you put in your mouth; is it a good idea to taste something which you don’t know what it is?

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How to make a simple water filter!

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Interactive

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The Solar System: online and pdf worksheet

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The Solar System online exercise and pdf. You can do the exercises online or download the worksheet as pdf.

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Interactive

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Our Solar System - Interactive worksheet

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The Solar System interactive and downloadable worksheet. You can do the exercises online or download the worksheet as pdf.

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Make an Egg Float in Salt Water Activity

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Interactive sheet

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States of matter interactive and downloadable worksheet. You can do the exercises online or download the worksheet as pdf.

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Does the temperature matter when we're dissolving sugar?

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Does the temperature matter when we're dissolving sugar?

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Dissolving Sugar at Different Heats Activity

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Animal hunt! Interactive sheet

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Animals online exercise. You can do the exercises online or download the worksheet as pdf.

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animals movements - Interactive worksheet

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Animals interactive and downloadable worksheet. You can do the exercises online or download the worksheet as pdf.

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Interactive sheet

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The weather interactive and downloadable worksheet. You can do the exercises online or download the worksheet as pdf.

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Interactive worksheet

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Pushes and Pulls - Interactive worksheet

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Magnets and Forces interactive and downloadable worksheet. You can do the exercises online or download the worksheet as pdf.

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Interactive worksheet

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Magnetism interactive and downloadable worksheet. You can do the exercises online or download the worksheet as pdf.

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Interactive worksheet

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Ocean Animals interactive and downloadable worksheet. You can do the exercises online or download the worksheet as pdf.

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Interactive worksheet

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Science 2 1º de primaria - Interactive worksheet

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Materials interactive and downloadable worksheet. You can do the exercises online or download the worksheet as pdf.

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Interactive worksheet

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Conductors and insulators - Interactive worksheet

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Energy interactive and downloadable worksheet. You can do the exercises online or download the worksheet as pdf.

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Interactive worksheets

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Pulleys interactive and downloadable worksheet. You can do the exercises online or download the worksheet as pdf.

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Interactive game

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7 Kinds of Bears - Listening - Interactive worksheet

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Animals interactive and downloadable worksheet. You can do the exercises online or download the worksheet as pdf.

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Interactive worksheet

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The Solar System interactive and downloadable worksheet. You can do the exercises online or download the worksheet as pdf.

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Interactive worksheet

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Sources of energy Science worksheet. You can do the exercises online or download the worksheet as pdf.

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Transparent, Translucent, Opaque

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What makes a shadow - Interactive worksheet

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Ligh interactive and downloadable worksheet. You can do the exercises online or download the worksheet as pdf.

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Interactive worksheet

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Energy transformation - Interactive worksheet

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Energy interactive and downloadable worksheet. You can do the exercises online or download the worksheet as pdf.

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Interactive worksheet

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Sound interactive and downloadable worksheet. You can do the exercises online or download the worksheet as pdf.

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Interactive worksheet

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Natural online worksheet. You can do the exercises online or download the worksheet as pdf.

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Interactive worksheet

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Characteristics of Vertebrates - Interactive worksheet

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Vertebrates interactive and downloadable worksheet. You can do the exercises online or download the worksheet as pdf.

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Interactive worksheet

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Vertebrates vs invertebrates - Interactive worksheet

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Animals interactive and downloadable worksheet. You can do the exercises online or download the worksheet as pdf.

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Interactive worksheet

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Living thing and non living things - Interactive worksheet

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Living things and non living things interactive and downloadable worksheet. You can do the exercises online or download the worksheet as pdf.

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Interactive worksheet

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Animals online worksheet. You can do the exercises online or download the worksheet as pdf.

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Plenty of challenges to choose from

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YEAR 4 SCIENCE AM EPISODE 4 (VERTEBRATES)