St Edmund's
STEM at STEDS
British Science Week took place from the 7th – 15th March and this year’s theme was “change and adapt”.
Henry, an Upper Sixth student, takes up the story…
“The A level Science Society met on Friday 7th for an online talk “life under the waves, the science of adaptation”. The talk was delivered by Jen, STEM ambassador and education manager at the Manta Trust, an organisation formed to conserve manta and devil rays from extinction. In the talk we delved into the world of marine biology, looking at the huge amount of diverse fauna that lives in our oceans. Most interesting to me was the knowledge that around 95% of the ocean floor is unmapped, and an estimated two million aquatic species are yet to be discovered. Jen was a fantastic speaker, and thanks go to Ms Hummerstone and the other science staff for providing such an opportunity.
On Tuesday and Wednesday we were visited by year 4 and 5 pupils from Preston and Wingham primary schools. In Chemistry, Dr Tebbs-Warner led an interactive session covering the topic of Chemical Reactions. They discussed what reactions were, and their signs and changes that we would observe. Pupils experienced some explosive, cold, colourful and smelly demonstrations, before trying their hand at some simple experiments and noting down the changes they observed. In Biology, Mr Clapp’s session saw pupils learning what makes plants green. The pupils blended spinach leaves with a chemical called a buffer to keep the contents of the cells intact. They then filtered the blended spinach (or ‘chemical spinach soup’ as Mr Clapp called it) to produce a green liquid. The pupils then put their tubes of green spinach extract in the centrifuge which spun the small cell fragments to the bottom. We then poured away the clear liquid and added a little more buffer. The pupils then took one drop of this and put it on a microscope slide. Pupils were then able to see the tiny chloroplasts, the parts of the plants cells that make the leaves green and are where photosynthesis happens. Each pupil saw chloroplasts and they were excited to use the centrifuge and the microscopes. Thanks especially to the sixth-form science ambassadors that assisted with the sessions.
On Wednesday 12th we enjoyed our annual Sci Soc quiz, hosted by Ms Hummerstone. Seven teams took part including a guest team from the Upper Fifth and a small staff team of Dr Masterson and Ms Chenery. Teams competed over seven rounds including “animal sounds,” “name the scientist,” “adapt a word” and a picture round that involved matching celebrity names to chemical elements. Once the staff team’s score was discounted, the winners by quite some margin were the very impressive team from the Upper Fifth – we look forward to seeing them again next year as part of Sci Soc!
On Thursday 13th the Sci Soc gathered again for another online talk “Lions, Science and X-rays” from STEM Ambassador Samantha, a radiation scientist at the UK Health Security Agency. A childhood eye problem led to Samantha’s interest in medicine, and she pursued a career in medical physics, only to have to reconsider her options when she failed the exams necessary to continue. She shared how she took lower paid, less qualified positions in order to gain new skills, eventually ending up as a senior radiation protection scientist. Her career path has changed and adapted and she advised us to be prepared to change your mind or your circumstances and to always be ready to learn.
Finally, the end of last week was the closing deadline for this year’s British Science Week competition run by the Science department. The competition invited pupils to create something inspired by the theme of “change and adapt.” We received a record number of entries, particularly in the Junior category, including posters, lego models and clay constructions. Many of the entries demonstrated wonderful creativity and scientific understanding.”
Thorny Devil Lizard by Maria (Y10)
https://www.britishscienceweek.org/
