Science day

Science day

This was highlight of the summer term for both girls in school or with our guided home learning programme with lots of challenges and activities.

A highlight of the summer term both for girls in school and those at home on our guided home learning programme was the ingeniously designed Science Day. It was jammed packed with lots of challenges and activities.

Whole School Science Flower Challenge

The challenge set to the girls was to design a flower that takes 20 seconds to open when dropped in water. See the gallery of the girls’ work below:

Year 6 Science Project Videos

Year 6 girls worked in small teams, chose an issue of particular interest and devised experiments to explore findings. They each created a video of their projects to share with the whole school – which were amazing and wide ranging.

  • Which fruit is the easiest to extract DNA from in order to be able to see it with the naked eye. Is vodka or rubbing alcohol is better for precipitating DNA into a visible form.
  • What is the most effective way to prevent your eyes getting irritated while cutting an onion?
  • How the size of sailboat keel affects its speed and stability.
  • How growing plants upside down affects them.
  • Does Spirulina grow better in a store-bought or homemade medium?
  • What amount of water and Alka Seltzer makes the film canister travel the highest.
  • Does peppermint affect a person’s performance during an alphabetising activity?
  • To find out the best vegan substitutes for eggs and milk when making cupcakes
  • To find out which method of shooting in Netball is the most effective for girls learning to shoot.
  • To find out which fruits ripen avocados the best.
  • To find out if sunglasses cut out UV light.
  • To build Santorio Santorio’s pulsilogium and find out if it can be used as an accurate measure of heart rate.
  • To find out whether a person can run faster with trainers or barefoot

Parent Expert talks

Girls from Year 2-6 were fortunate to have their Science Day enriched by parents and members of the scientific community who shared how science affects or is part of their jobs. Talks included about working for NHS Blood and Organ Transplant, as an engineer working for Tideway tunnelling, a talk about the brain by a neurodevelopmental psychologist, a postdoctoral scientist at the Centre for Stem Cells & Regenerative Medicine and a medical research scientist working on understanding cancer and developing new therapies for it.

Wildlife Photography

Paul Goldstein, the passionate and well-known British photographer talked to Year 6 about ‘Antic vs Ethics’ in Wildlife Photography. The quality of the girls’ questions in all the talks is both testament to the accessibility of these talks and the willingness of our girls to learn new things.

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