Science Club

Science_pic

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 11

Having 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.

bubbles1

Bubble blowers need alot of concentration!

Week 10

This week Year 7 truly took on the role of Crime Scene Investigators. They were issued with ink pads and fingerprint sheets in order to take the fingerprints of two of the suspects. The pupils ensured that the suspects' fingerprints were clear to see in case comparisons needed to be made at a later date.

Year 8 are on the verge of finishing their C.S.I. files with just a few tweaks left to be made. As they were completing questions we discussed topics in the area of ballistics.

One project in Year 9 that requires some careful planning is the Biome in a Bottle project. One pupil has chosen three different biomes to investigate and is consulting various sources to find out the soil pH, soil type, plant types and any other factors which could impact on the investigation. I have donated a small aloe vera plant that has just appeared on my large plant and another pupil in year 9 has donated an echeveria seedling!

Week 9

Year 7 were issued with magnifying glasses this week and continued to examine their own fingerprints to determine which patterns were visible. It was interesting to see that some of the students had ‘rare’ patterns and some accidentals too!

Attempting to answer questions on fingerprinting lead to an interesting and lively debate about the different types of bullets this session. Year 8 need to ensure that their work is up to date in order to qualify for the Bronze CREST award so it’s all about the writing side of things for the next couple of weeks. However this provides an opportunity for the students to ask a wide range of questions, not all of which I know the answer to! This is no problem though as I am happy to research topics and learn something new myself.

This was another week of getting crafty with Year 9 as we made beeswax candles for the Autumn Fayre. The idea of candle making intrigued them and they were fascinated by pouring the wax and watching it set.

Week 8

As some of Year 7 were absent last week we used this weeks’ session to allow them to catch up. So some of the pupils were taking their own inked fingerprints and some started to examine the patterns contained within their prints. They were attempting to ascertain whether they had loops, arches or whorls.

Having attempted the blood typing practical last week and not getting the expected results we decided to have another go this week. After all –real scientists’ investigate! Although the results were slightly confusing the pupils relished the chance to have another go. They were then able to work out who the blood sample from the crime scene may have come from.

This week we enlisted the help of Year 9 in making bookmarks. These were honey bee bookmarks to sell at the Autumn Fayre in aid of the schools’ Honey Bee project. All the bees had their own individual character and the pupils thoroughly enjoyed making them. As this was a practical that required minimum fuss we were able to have an open discussion on all the topics beings researched.

Week 7

This week we let Year7 loose with the ink pads. They were all given a fingerprinting form and had to take their own fingerprints. These stay in the Science Department and are not used for anything other than the purposes of learning. They particularly enjoy a practical session where they can get dirty!

Having spent most of last week ensuring the pupils understood the theory behind blood typing, this week we moved on to the practical side of things. They were given a sample of ‘blood’ from the crime scene and samples taken from four suspects and had to work out what blood type they were. This is a simple agglutination test used with the ABO blood groups. However, not all went to plan and the results were not as expected!

This week we explored the world of micrometeors. What are they made from, where do they come from and how can we find them? A fascinating topic and a lot more accessible than ‘normal’ size meteors! We hope to set up an experiment to collect some of this space dust and examine it in further detail.

More Articles...