Fair Testing in Year 6!

Year 6 have been continuing to develop their scientific enquiry skills this week through exploring light. They explored the research question: How does the distance between an object and a light source affect the size of a shadow? 

The children first discussed what type of investigation they could do to explore this question. They established that conducting an enquiry that was a fair test would be the best way to find the answer. 

In groups, the children cast shadows and measured them, looking at if the size changed depending on where the object was in relation to the light source. They were able to identify the dependent and independent variables and discussed the control variables (the things that were kept the same to ensure that they were conducting a fair test.)

"We made sure that the object was the same each time because that might have affected the size of the shadow."  Lillian

"The light source was also kept the same - we used the same torch every time." Kayla

The children demonstrated brilliant scientific skills as they were able to record their results in a table and draw conclusions from what they found. 

"I found that when the object was closer to the light source, the shadow was bigger. When the object was further away from the light source, the shadow was smaller." Jessica

"I think that the shadow is bigger when the object is closer to the light source because more light is blocked." Elizabeth

The children then had to decide who they agreed with in the concept cartoon below. Whose statement do you agree with?