March 18, 2024
The entire school enthusiastically participated in the celebration of British Science Week. It was a week brimming with a plethora of scientific activities that sparked everyone’s curiosity. From visiting speakers to hands-on experiments, the week offered plenty of exciting opportunities for exploration and discovery.
Starting with our guest speaker in Monday’s assembly, Dr Matt Pritchard – a physicist turned science magician, who introduced this year’s theme of Time. We learned about our perception of time, measuring time, and finally, some of the things possible with precise time measurement including GPS. The talk informed as well as entertained through a perfectly-timed presentation. It was obvious from their eagerness to ask questions how engaged the boys were! Following the assembly, Year 3 pupils eagerly continued discussions about the concept of time.
Alexander shared, “It was a brilliant start to the day. He performed a magic trick using a zip string. It was incredible because it looked like he had frozen time!”
Christopher commented, “There were many fascinating experiments and I enjoyed them all.”
Rishabh added, “Scintillating Science at WUS this week!“
Tuesday saw the start of the Science Challenges within lessons with Year 6 successfully extracting DNA from strawberries and 3R working as scientists to investigate their reaction times.
On Wednesday, Year 5 was recruited by MI6 to investigate the friction of various surfaces and report back to Agent Jamie Bond. We understand from Mrs Wheeler Bennett that he has been back in touch to thank them for their vital contribution to national security!
Meanwhile, Year 7 undertook an engineering challenge to create a device that could pick up and move a ping pong ball and then place it back on the ground. It sounded deceptively simple, but there was a tariff for the materials used and so it became a highly competitive contest of ingenuity and frugality.
During Form Time, we watched part of Brian Cox’s awe-inspiring documentary about gravity and black holes which linked to Thursday’s Church Talk about Science and Faith by Mrs Horridge. Mr Isaac ran Science Blookets in break times and, on Friday, it was Year 8’s turn to have a piece of the action with “Time for Slime”: mixing it, enjoying it, and perhaps learning something about the chemistry of polymerization that makes it possible in the process.
The Master, Mrs. Jefferson, said, “Well done to Mrs Horridge for curating an interesting, engaging and highly educational week, and on top of that for delivering this week’s Church Talk on the juxtaposition (or lack of it) between science and faith.”
It was a magical Science Week thanks to Mrs Horridge, Acting Head of Science, as well as our indefatigable Laboratory Technician, Mrs Hauke-Smith, who cheerfully tested recipes and provided multiple sets of chemicals and equipment!
