BLOODHOUND SSC at Hook School

Education News

Tuesday, 18 January, 2011

We recently received the following correspondence from BLOODHOUND Ambassador Robin Hines. This is a great example of both how rewarding being an ambassador is, and how schools are benefitting from including the BLOODHOUND SSC project in their curriculum! If you are interested in becoming a BLOODHOUND Ambassador, there is more information here with details on how to contact Jonathan Ellis. To join our Education programme, then go here!

Hi Jonathan

As promised, attached is the write up from Hook Junior School where I spent a full day on 30th Nov with Years 3-6 (360 youngsters!) as they used the Bloodhound project as the catalyst for a full Science day!

I met Sharon Sibley when I went to the School to invite them to join the Science Made Simple day that I had arranged at my daughter's current School on 6th July. At that time, Sharon Sibley / Hook School were not able to attend but much to my surprise she follow-up with me as she saw Bloodhound as an excellent opportunity to enthuse and motivate the School from a Science aspect (seem to think I’ve heard this idea before!).

In reality it was a long time coming but in fairness to Sharon she fully embraced the idea from the start and was the sole driver in getting the head teacher and the rest of the school behind the idea. I was as much pleased for her as anyone when the day proved to be such a hit.

Basically kicked off with myself giving a 20-25 min presentation to all the children using video clips and PowerPoint, tailored in a number of cases specifically for the school (for example I used a section of local map and recognised landmarks to emphasis the 10 mile run and how long it would take to drive normally v the run time in Bloodhound).

After that the children went off to their classes where they built vehicles from kits of materials that Mrs Sibley had put together for them to use. As you will see on the attached, different years had different materials and aims.

I then went from class to class answering questions, giving advice and helping out... to be honest it was all I could do to visit each class twice during the day! At the end of the day the various year groups got together and tested out their vehicles – example of which is on the attached.

I took in a number of posters that I had and these were used as year group prizes based upon various categories.

As you will see on the attached write-up (that contains a number of pictures including a rather un-flattering one of me!) the school consider the day to be a great success!!

For me this is the ideal thing to happen – the school picks up on what Bloodhound can offer / inspire, they run with it ... with us supporting them along the way – I would like to think this is a good example to publicise and would be an excellent addition to the website.

Regards, Robin

BLOODHOUND SSC at Hook School

At Hook Junior School on 30th November we held an extremely exciting Science Day inspired by the Bloodhound SSC project where the children had to use all of their skills of science and technology in order to create their own vehicles which would be tested at the end of the day. We had a great turn out by parents and governors who came to support the day. In the morning the children were shown a presentation all about the Bloodhound Project and the vehicle that they had created and were all desperate to get started with the designing and making of their own vehicles. To vary the difficulty of the task the children in each year group were given a different set of criteria that their vehicle would be tested against at the end of the day and most notably years 3 and 4 were given equipment to make an electrical circuit, where years 5 and 6 had to try to generate their own mechanism to generate the power for the car.

Once designed the children then checked the resources that they had been given and made sure that they understood the criteria that they had to try to meet. All of the children were completely engrossed with the making of their vehicles, and took ensuring that it met the criteria that they had been set very seriously.

By the end of the day all of the children had created a vehicle ready to be tested and had all learnt the value of testing and altering their designs as they encountered obstacles.

The end of the day lead us to the moment that all of the children had been waiting for, the testing! All of the children were very keen to see how well they had done in comparison to their peers within their year groups and they all showed great team spirit.

Overall the day was a huge success with all of the children engaging in meaningful scientific enquiry, which they were given the opportunity to lead. The response from all of the children and adults involved was evidence of the enjoyment and enrichment of the curriculum for all participating. The Bloodhound Project gave great inspiration and allowed us the opportunity to put this challenging but motivating day in a real life context for all of the children here at Hook Junior School.