Victorians – Science Ideas Web Age range: 5–7 years

Nutrition – eating the right foods Grouping living things Comparing and grouping rocks Identifying and grouping everyday materials Thousands of homeless children lived on the There was an explosion of interest in gardening Victorian schoolchildren used slate writing streets of Victorian London. They wouldn’t be during Victorian times. Plant collectors loved tablets instead of paper. The slate (a type Most Victorian toys were made of materials able to keep clean and most of the time they to find new and unusual plants. For example, of rock) was usually set in a wooden frame. such as wood, fabric, china or metal. Poor would be starving. Dr Barnardo decided to the ornamental monkey puzzle tree, which Children wrote with a slate pencil to make Victorian children usually had homemade toys set up children’s homes for these ‘urchins’ to comes from Chile, first went on sale to the a mark that could be removed by rubbing it like clothes peg dolls and skipping ropes. Rich make sure they were fed and well cared for. British public in 1843. with a cloth. children owned toys like rocking horses, dolls What foods would you include in a healthy How many different kinds of plants Which different surfaces can we write on and clockwork train sets. meal for a street urchin? What can we do (including trees) can we collect or photograph with a pencil? Can we test different pens Can we sort our toys into groups? What to keep clean and healthy? in the school grounds? Can we sort plants and pencils to find out which ones write best can we find out about the materials that our into groups using similarities and differences, on different surfaces? Can we use a table toys are made of? eg size, shape, colour? to record what we found out? Identifying things that are living, dead or never lived Changes of state

Queen loved animals. She had many In Victorian times, houses didn’t usually pets over the years, including birds, horses, have freezers. Ice was collected in winter donkeys, cats and dogs. One of her favourites BIOLOGY and stored in underground ice-houses or was Dash, her King Charles spaniel. imported from cold countries such as Norway. What can we do to care for our pets? CHEMISTRY How can we make our own ice from Can we make a table to show the VICTORIANS water? Where in the classroom does ice differences between a living animal and a melt quickest? toy animal?

Sounds and their sources

Victorian Britain had lots of factories such as textile mills. The machines in the mills were PHYSICS very noisy and people had to shout above the Written by: Janet Barnett, CSciTeach, PSTT Primary Science Teacher rattle and hiss of machinery. Sometimes the Award winner, PSQM hub leader loud noises would even damage their ears. Which sound sources can you identify by listening carefully in our classroom? Can Electrical circuits we make safety equipment to protect our ears from loud sounds? Forces: buoyancy In Victorian times, electric lights started to replace candles, gas lights and oil lamps. Grace Darling was a brave lighthouse keeper’s Joseph Swan and Thomas Edison each daughter. When she saw a shipwreck through developed successful electric light bulbs. In her window, Grace climbed into a small rowing 1883, they formed the Edison & Swan United Edited by: boat with her father and rowed through stormy Electric Light Company. seas to rescue the ship’s survivors. Can we build a circuit to light a bulb? How well do different objects float in Where does the light come from? water? Can we use modelling clay to How can we use our circuit in a model, make a boat that floats? eg in a lighthouse? Victorians – Science Ideas Web Age range: 7–9 years

Conditions for growing plants Keeping teeth healthy Fossil formation Identifying and grouping everyday materials Victorian country homes usually had a large In 1874, William Gladstone, the prime minister, Mary Anning (1799–1847) was a famous fossil kitchen garden, which provided fresh food removed the tax on sugar. This made sugar hunter. She often went searching on the The Great Exhibition in 1851 was a celebration such as vegetables, herbs and fruit for the more affordable and led to more people coast after a storm because this caused cliffs of Victorian industrial technology and design. household. The garden often had a high having tooth decay. In early Victorian times, to fall and rocks to break open. Her work It was housed in a spectacular glass and metal wall around it. anyone could be a dentist and the most helped to change scientific thinking about building known as the Crystal Palace. Where could we grow our own vegetables, common treatment was tooth extraction. prehistoric life and the history of the Earth. Can we find out which materials have been herbs and/or fruit in the school grounds? What can we find out about how sugar Can we find out why fossils are found inside used to build our school? How can we How can we help the plants to grow well? affects teeth? Can we make a poster to cliffs and other rocks? Can we make a test materials to compare their properties? Do you think that plants would grow better show how we can care for our teeth? What model to show how fossils are formed? Could we design a silly product using in a walled garden area? Can we test this? kinds of treatments do dentists carry out today? materials with unsuitable properties?

Basic structure of a plant and Uses and properties of materials functions of parts of a plant Victorian cooks often made jellies in fancy The streets of Victorian London would have designs to form a centrepiece for the dining smelt horrible. Flower girls were a familiar table. Elaborate jelly moulds were used and sight on the streets. They made posies of BIOLOGY the jellies could be sweet or savoury. sweet smelling flowers, such as violets and CHEMISTRY How can we use jelly cubes or powder to roses, to sell to rich ladies and gentlemen. make different jelly shapes? How much does Why do you think some plants have VICTORIANS jelly wobble? Can we change how much it flowers? What can we see if we observe wobbles by making jelly in different ways? a flower carefully? How can we find out if sweet smelling flowers attract more insects?

Day and night, day length

During the , Britain ruled many PHYSICS countries around the world. The British Empire Written by: Janet Barnett, CSciTeach, went right around the globe. People said ‘the PSTT Primary Science Teacher sun never sets on the British Empire’, because Award winner, PSQM hub leader it was always daytime somewhere in the British Empire. Sound: pitch and volume Why do you think we have day and night? Magnets Can we use a model of the Earth to During Victorian times, a scientist invented a explain why it is daytime in Australia and New Wealthy Victorians enjoyed playing indoor way of recording human voices for the first Zealand when it is night time in Britain? parlour games together, such as charades time. Some famous people (eg Napoleon) had and blind man’s buff. Magnetic fishing was a their voices recorded, but as far as we know popular game, where miniature fishing rods ’s voice was never recorded. Edited by: with magnets were used to catch paper fish What differences can we notice between that have a magnetic part. different people’s voices? Can we find How can we find out if all of our magnets a way to make a louder or quieter sound? are the same strength? Can we make a Can we find a way to make a higher or magnetic fishing game that is fair to play? lower pitched sound? Victorians – Science Ideas Web Age range: 9–11 years

Adaptation and evolution Health and microorganisms Irreversible changes Irreversible changes

Charles Darwin (1809–1882) noticed In the first half of Queen Victoria’s reign, Victorian houses had fireplaces for burning Afternoon tea with cakes became popular that living things are adapted to suit their death from diseases such as cholera, coal or wood, with chimneys to let the in Victorian times. A sponge cake made with environment and suggested species could tuberculosis and influenza was common. smoke out of the room. Soot would collect butter, sugar, flour and eggs was named change slowly over long periods of time to Many babies died before their first birthday. in the chimneys and needed to be cleared Victoria sandwich cake after Queen Victoria. become better adapted. Victorians such as Dr John Snow, Joseph regularly. Chimney sweeps used small boys, Can we make a table to show the Which animals and plants can we find in our Bazalgette, Sir Charles Cameron and Henry around 6 years old, to climb up inside the properties of the materials that we use to school grounds? Can we identify any ways Littlejohn helped to improve public health. chimneys and clear away the soot. make a cake before they are mixed together, that they are adapted to suit their habitats? What can we find out about them? What can we find out about soot and why after they are mixed together and after they Can we design a poster to persuade it builds up inside chimneys? Can we are baked? What changes do you see people that hand washing helps to prevent create a storyboard to show where the soot when the cake mixture is baked? Life cycles of animals and plants diseases spreading? comes from?

Butterfly collecting was a popular pastime Uses and properties of materials for many Victorian gentlemen. Margaret Fountaine was a woman who became an William Perkin made the first synthetic dye, expert in tropical butterfly life cycles. called mauveine, in 1856. This artificial dye What can we find out about the life cycle BIOLOGY could turn silk a beautiful purple colour and it of a butterfly? Can we create a storyboard didn’t fade as easily as natural dyes. to compare the life cycle of a butterfly with CHEMISTRY What can we find out about how to dye another animal? fabrics using plant and man-made dyes? VICTORIANS Let’s compare plant dyes and artificial dyes. Which fade fastest if they are left in the The solar system sunshine? Which fade fastest when they are washed lots of times? In 1843, John Couch Adams predicted an undiscovered planet before it was seen through a telescope. The new planet, Neptune, was finally observed by German PHYSICS astronomers in 1846. Written by: Janet Barnett, CSciTeach, What do we know about the planets in the PSTT Primary Science Teacher Award winner, PSQM hub leader solar system and how can we find out more? Light and shadows Can you suggest why people used to believe that the sun orbits the Earth? Why don’t we Cutting paper silhouettes was a popular believe this anymore? way to represent someone’s likeness. Forces The solid shape looks like the person’s shadow. Silhouettes became less popular as Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–1859) was a photography developed. Queen Victoria was British engineer who designed and built many the first British monarch to be photographed. Edited by: railway lines, bridges and iron ships such as Can we use a data logger to find out the S.S. Great Britain. which objects cast the darkest shadows? Let’s find out about different bridge designs Why do you think shadows have a similar and identify which features help make bridges shape to the object that causes them? strong. Who can design a bridge to hold the Can we use diagrams to explain how we heaviest weight? see objects?