We will use the theme of Invention and discovery to stage a week of science activities about Charlie’s Chocolate Factory.
The tasks would involve various dilemmas that Charlie finds himself in as he tries to run his factory and would see the pupils having to experiment and design to solve them. They would work as Factory Operating Groups (or FOGs!) to carry out Scientific Investigations, solve Technology Problems and eventually provide the factory foremen (the teachers!) with a suitable display and appropriate reports. There would be 3 sets of problems involving creative colouring (chromatography), smelling smells (wrapper investigation), health and safety concerns (designing a fire alarm buzzer system), display problems (designing origami egg cups), eco issues and dental health issues. The children would learn about creating natural food colourings with vegetables after testing Smarties by chromatography, which wrapper materials are best to avoid smell contamination, how to design an electrical circuit, paper technology and fair testing. They would also have to use co-operative skills to work in groups to design carrier bags with eco credentials and use their combined knowledge to create 10 Eco rules for the factory. Older pupils would have opportunity to visit younger pupils throughout the week to pass on their learning and demonstrate working models they have created. In this way, as the teachers of a scientific method, rule or fact, their learning will cement.