News

Year 6 trip to Daws Hall

At the beginning of September Year 6 went to Daws Hall on a really hot and sunny day. We arrived and were shown a map of Daws Hall by Mr Perry; it was a very large area! Our first activity of the day was to go and check some animal traps that Mr Perry had put out the night before. We found a Bank Vole and a Field Mouse and examined them carefully, discussing how they were adapted for their habitat.
Our next activity was to look at different habitats in woodland and a meadow. We looked at the habitat found under large logs and found many creatures that we examined closely. We then moved to the meadow to use large nets to scoop up the insects and then we had to use a pooter to suck them up and examine them. We found lots of spiders, assassin bugs and a cricket!
Our next activity was at the brook where we went into the water, holding a net down and kicking the gravel. We put the contents of the net into a tray and sucked up what we had caught with a pipette. We found various aquatic creatures and discussed how they were suited to life in the brook.
We then moved onto the pond. We had to dip our net just below the surface of the water and had to record how many different creatures we had caught. We also performed some chemical analysis to the water from each source to compare them for pollution. We were then lucky enough to visit the beehives and learn about the working lives of bees, and then we examined all the moths caught overnight in a moth trap.

Our final activity was to recreate a food chain. Mr Perry wanted us to see that all food chains started with plants and if these were missing the food chain would suffer. We had a really wonderful day and learnt a great deal about Habitats and Interdependence.

By Alex Moss & Tom Baslington, Science Prefects