Science Club
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Now in its third year since Head of Chemistry Mrs. Clark took over, Science Club is going from strength to strength. Together with the Biology technician Liz Shaw the Science faculty is aiming to bring science to life across lower school with three separate clubs for years 7, 8 and 9. The rest of the Science faculty also love to get involved in whatever is going on, whether it is slime, stick insects or explosions! By following guidance from the British Science Association we are able to link Science Club with the CREST award schemes. CREST allows our students to gain a nationally recognized science award either at bronze, silver or gold level. We aim to give the pupils a chance to study subjects that are not covered in the curriculum and get hands on with experiments. This year we hope to be able to forge links with the community and in industry to allow the students to experience science in the real world. We are currently seeking sponsors to get involved and allow Science Club to continue to thrive. If you are interested in getting involved then contact Liz Shaw for more information. Each year group has its own theme. In Year 7 after a few introductory sessions, the science labs become crime labs for C.S.I. @St. Mary's. A crime has been committed at the Science Museum and they need our help to solve it! Using a variety of forensic techniques, such as fingerprinting, superglue fuming, footprint casting and blood typing the students must work together to find the culprit. It helps that we have an in house forensic specialist in Miss Shaw too! Year 8 examine the world around us in Eco Club and assess how we can make a change at a local level. This project is accompanied by field trips, surveying habitats and coming up with ways to encourage wildlife. The final project is to build a bird box and monitor it for signs of nesting. A side project which the pupils always enjoy is growing sunflowers from seed. In year 9 we aim to encourage independent learning. The pupils can choose from a range of project ideas that span all three sciences. Some titles include – 'Why slugs and salt don't mix', 'Tectonic tower' and '100 million years AD.' They are given suggestions as to how to solve the initial question posed and they must work out ideas for experiments, what equipment is needed and complete a risk assessment. The students must then carry out their experiments and report back on their findings. Any suggestions, resources or expertise for future sessions would be most welcome. If you have any thoughts regarding this or would like more information on Science Club activities please contact Miss Liz Shaw. We will be updating this page every week with news and pictures from all three clubs so keep checking to see what we're up to! |
Week 11Having taken two of the suspects' fingerprints last week, this week Year 7 were issued with hand lenses and a guide to fingerprint patterns. This allowed them to ascertain who had what patterns on their fingerprints. Working together they were quickly able to identify the different patterns present and whether there was anything unusual about them. Year 8 were still completing all the worksheets in their packs but this allowed time for a lively discussion on cryonics. After doing some research we were able to explain the theory behind cryonics and some of the issues that this branch of science faced. Year 9 science club was dominated by bubbles this week. A team of pupils have decided to research ways of making bubble mixture and bubble wands. They cam armed with three different homemade wands and some homemade mixture. Having tried two different mixtures at home they decided to bring the best into school and test it in the lab. We had some brilliant bubbles blown but no record breakers yet. One bubble blower was made from a paper plate which quickly became waterlogged so the next task for the teachers was to come up with a more durable replacement. After some discussion the pupils came up with the idea of a frisbee! The next task was to replicate the mixture and use the frisbee whilst ensuring they were writing up their experiments.
Bubble blowers need alot of concentration! |
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