As part of Science Week, one of our amazing parents, Nicole, came and delivered a day of workshops all about Da Vinci. Nicole is a Stem Ambassador and had planned the day around ‘Da Vinci: scientist, engineer or artist’. The children were shown the cross overs between art, science and engineering – they learnt that being an artist doesn’t stop you from being good at science and engineering and vice versa. Children looked at the range of work – helicopter designs, trebuchets, drawings, paintings and sculpture. They discussed whether they were created by an artist, engineer or a scientist. They soon learnt that Da Vinci had created all of them; he was talented in many fields and people can do more than one job.

In KS2, children had a team challenge to build a bridge using lolly sticks and nothing else. This linked into understanding how the bridge stays together with just friction and gravity. After making mini bridges, the children went outside and created a large bridge which they could walk over.

In FS2 and KS1, the focus was the same but they went on to create paper helicopters and even carried out some experiments, making predictions about what would happen if they added a paperclip or dropped their helicopter upside down. The children also made their own Mona Lisa’s.

The day was absolutely amazing and the children learnt huge amounts. Thank you so much to our sensational Stem Ambassador, Nicole.