Kennedy School Y4 Natural Disasters Exhibition (Or, You Will Never Look The Same At A Marshmallow Again)

Kennedy School Y4 Natural Disasters Exhibition (Or, You Will Never Look The Same At A Marshmallow Again Predominantly picture post; Because That Thing They Say About Pictures And A Thousand Words…

He da Rockstar

Most of it isn’t Rockstar’s btw – amongst themselves his group had decided (via rock-paper-scissors haha) Rockstar was on laptop preso detail for this one…

So technically the majority of that poster is his group-mate’s effort (and handwriting), and another group-mate mixed the vinegar and baking soda to make the volcano… (Oh, and a reminder that Rockstar has SEN classmates and group mates..)

Rockstar says they had to change the tray that volcano was on…

…because the first few times they did it for the Y1s and Y3s, the “lava” over-ran everything… (Which is another thing I really like about the big school – the kids teach each other as well; the younger years often visit the older years’ exhibitions and vice versa… they practice presenting in front of a student audience before any grownups…)

Some classes also included comments sheets where visitors can express encouragement…

Although this is a – ok it says so right there

(Thought it was cute this group actually labelled their explanation text “This is an explanation text” :D)

One group decided to include evacuation procedures…

There’s not a few groups with these diagrams, the kids must’ve learnt to do them recently in class on the school-issue laptops…

This diorama is cool – when you stop by this one, the kids will show you this Youtube of an avalanche…. happening right where the mountain in the diorama is…

“Wait, wait – stay til the end – here’s my favourite part” – the whole screen gets engulfed in snow.

One kid: And then everyone dies. Can you imagine someone filmed that?

Me: You made that up.

Same kid: No, no really. Look at that. Oh ok, so everyone gets buried in snow.

This one however, is my absolute favourite – when you ask this group to show you what they did, those “terrified people” stampede across the screen  – note the one on the right (and yes they really say “Stop – you’re running the wrong way!”) And then there are the pretty volcano drawings in back..

Next to these, there’s also classwork in their regular journals….

A marshmallow and jelly structure to simulate what happens in an earthquake – Yum!

I ask this group some very scientific questions:

Me: How many did you eat?

Them: <thoughtful pause> One.

(suspicious)

Me: What about the jelly?

Them: Uh… You wouldn’t want to eat that. Been sitting out couple weeks – it’s got mould in it.

Not so yum. But they’re growing a mould culture in their Natural Disasters exhibit!

And then dis….

This is…. a whirlpool….. with sparkles and bubbles innit!

…to brighten up this Tornado Group’s preso!

Magma is red hot liquid that is under the earth’s crust… Lava is molten rock (soft rock)

Can you see that? “This is a seismograph…”

“…it is used for measuring (the size of the earthquake). It works by a pendulum swinging”

In this one you get to play with the landslide…

In this one you’re supposed to put your head in the box and it’s supposed to look like you’re “in” the earthquake scene..

(Hope I didn’t get pranked… Otherwise I’m just Most Gullible Person Ever, With Her Head In A Box)

This one’s paper clips dancing on a line when you whack the box

“This is a fore-quake <lightly smacks top of box…. and this is the real quake <smacks much harder>”

These were outside one of the classes…. Very pretty, too bad about the reflective glass when I tried to take a pic though…

(Ok, this is from Rockstar’s exercise book)

This too… (I mention by way of saying I didn’t go through any other kid’s book!)

I think this is some of that child-led learning they talk about… Prep for the exhibition.. Rockstar’s supposed to come up with his own question based on the natural disaster he’s chosen to work on (because they’ll be more enthusiastic about learning it/ doing the research if they get to choose)

Not Rockstar’s, but the book was open to this page and placed on one of the display tables – and its funny! The surfer dude is saying “Amazing view”…

…and the person in the boat is saying “I am going to survive.” (For real though, the boats the Tsunami passes under, like in the picture, really do ride it out safely, don’t they?)

…and last but not least… I can’t read the Chinese. Yes the kid who wrote that is Chinese, I asked him..

So, did you learn something about paper clips, recycled Xerox boxes and Natural Disasters? Just think, if you were one of these kids (or one of the younger ones visiting their exhibits)…. something’s bound to stick, don’t you think? And I don’t mean the jelly