Prep Blog: Science and Nature

Head of Lower Prep, Clair Foster reports on Lower Prep news including the 10s first sherbet-flavoured taste of Lab Science, their Bushcraft trip to the country and the 8s and 9s sunny summer visit to the Wetlands Centre.

Hands-on experience of Science and Nature has been central to Lower Prep activities and trips in the past few weeks. The 10s will make the step up to specialist Science taught in our laboratories in September and, as usual, Head of Harrodian Science, Ms Oldacre and her team produced a couple of brilliant lessons that showed what it's like to have lessons in a laboratory and encouraged pupils to think about safety and the features of a good experiment.

For this year's group of 10s, the 'taster' lesson did just what it said on the tin. Pupils were asked to make sherbet by combining citric acid, bicarbonate of soda and sugar and to judge which combination produced the fizziest, sourest and tastiest results. As you can see from the sequence below there were some taste shocks to endure before the mix was perfected.

The previous week, the 10s (year 6s) had spent three days fully embracing the glories of nature through their 3-day Bushcraft visit to the Oxfordshire countryside.

Over the years, Bushcraft has become a favourite and memorable Harrodian rite of passage for pupils moving up into the Upper Prep.

Thanks to the unreliability of the English climate the Bushcraft trip has sometimes been a chilly or damp experience but this year the 10s had the weather on their side.

Whatever the conditions, it's a brilliant trip involving the acquisition of diverse new skills – ranging from first aid, through shelter building and skinning and gutting salmon to advanced marshmallow toasting – as well as plenty of fun by the campfire and perhaps the odd illicit midnight feast.

Characteristically the 10s threw themselves into each and every task with real gusto and huge fun was had by all.

The 8s and 9s also had the opportunity to get out into nature when they visited the Barnes Wetlands Centre in mid- June.

The children were excited to be able to apply knowledge acquired in the classroom through the pond-dipping and other practical activities that had been planned for them on their morning visit.

The Wetland waters were brimming with life and the 8s children enjoyed finding out, from experienced and knowledgeable Wetland experts, how the animals that they fished out adapted to life in their environment.

The 9s were able to view examples of the different life cycle stages of a variety of pond creatures and asked pertinent questions to help them deepen their knowledge and understanding. A visit to the Wetlands is never complete without going to see the otters who were in a particularly playful mood when we observed them at feeding time!

Several of the 8s were especially impressed by the spectacle and colour of damselflies and dragonflies in flight and at rest. They produced some beautiful labelled study drawings when they got back into the classroom. The ones below were created by (left to right) Irmak, Joshua M and Jack of 8REG.

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