At the end of Autumn 1, Year 6 conducted a science experiment to answer the question: 'Is yeast a living thing?'
At the start of the lesson, children had to make predictions based on their observations of yeast and the characteristics of living organisms.
We then mixed yeast with water and sugar in a bottle, placed a balloon over the top of the bottle and waited.
After a while, the children noticed something was happening inside the bottle: they could hear strange popping sounds and see a foam forming on the surface of the mixture.
After around an hour had passed, the children returned to the classroom to find that the balloons had inflated! They used their prior learning to suggest reasons for this, realising that a gas had been formed, causing the balloon to inflate.
We then revisited our knowledge of the characteristics of a living organism and evaluated our prediction.
Many children's predictions were wrong because yeast IS a living organism!
