TLHP Year 4: How does the invention design process shape our world?

This term Year 4 were exploring the big question of "how does the invention design process shape our world?" We started off the year with a workshop by Ada Lovelace where the children learnt about lots of different inventions through the years and learnt about some of the most influential inventors throughout history. 

We learnt how to build electrical circuits in Science and the children planned and carried out their own investigation to find out which materials were insulators and which were conductors of electricity. They loved finding out what it's like to be a real scientist and to follow the scientific method when investigating big questions. In Art, the children applied their knowledge of electrical circuits and inventions to help them to design, make and evaluate a torch which fitted a specific design criteria. They really enjoyed thinking about the function, properties of the materials they would use and bringing their inventions to life.

In Writing, the children wrote their own Dragon's Den style persuasive writing pitches for their owninventions. We spoke about how inventions needed to solve a problem or to improve people's lives in some way and the children thrived at developing their persuasive writing and oracy skills when presenting to a panel of very tough judges in the Hive as their High Stakes Project.