Year 7 Trip to Natural History Museum

In the week before half term, Year 7 set off for the Natural History Museum for a joint Science, Art and English trip.

Our young scientists explored different aspects of the animal kingdom, being set specific tasks as they studied small invertebrates and the four main types of Arthropods in the Creepy Crawlies section. They then moved on to Mammals where, amongst other items, they were able to admire a life-size model of the largest of them all: the Blue Whale. The last stop was at the Dinosaur section where they gathered information on some of the more fascinating animals to have populated the planet and came face to face with the most iconic one in the shape of T.Rex.

However, it wasn’t all Science. The boys also found some time to sketch some of the creatures they saw for Art and began to think about how they might creatively write about what they saw for English.
After lunch we went behind the scenes to a hands-on workshop on Colour in Nature. There we learnt about the nature of light, were able to use a spectrophotometer to look at the different colourations of animals, explored the different properties of colours from a range of organisms and learnt what these can tell us about how colour is produced. We used scientific equipment to determine if specimens are coloured either by pigments or microscopic structures. We then looked at various types of camouflage in animals such as cryptic, disruptive and counter shading. Finally we divided ourselves into groups and we were challenged to come up with practical applications of what we had learnt.
All in all it was a challenging, fascinating, and fact filled day that was enjoyed by all. We are looking forward to the next school trip already!

The post Year 7 Trip to Natural History Museum appeared first on The Cedars School.