Elizabeth College enjoy fun science activities
ELIZABETH College students have been learning all about growth as part of this year’s British Science Week.
British Science Week is an annual celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths to raise awareness, spark enthusiasm and celebrate how science links with the world every day.
This week Elizabeth College Science Club students enjoyed a fun vertical challenge building towers with spaghetti and marshmallows.
The activity linked the three subjects as students used problem-solving strategies to create their designs. They had to also focus on collaboration and teamwork skills, to ensure they create a tower that stayed upright.
Year 7 student Edith Gonder, 11, said she enjoyed science club because it involved lots of practical work.
‘I really enjoyed building the spaghetti tower as you had to have a plan, as if you didn’t it would fall – which is what happened to us, twice,’ she said.
Students also explored the Ames window illusion in another British Science Week activity.
The illusion involves a cut out window shape that is spun on a piece of string.
When watched closely, the brain does not interpret the window as spinning 360 degrees, instead it appears to be swinging back and forth in a regular rhythm. This happens because the Ames window is a trapezoid, but the brain is used to seeing rectangular windows.
‘Our thriving Science Club meets on a Wednesday after school and each week students enjoy various challenges designed to help them to hone their creative thinking skills, develop a can-do attitude, and encourage key attributes such as curiosity, imagination and patience,' said Rick Le Sauvage, head of science at the college.
'Science Club is a very popular option at college, and this is undoubtedly testament to the success and enthusiasm of the whole faculty.’
In addition to the club's activities this week, sixth form biologists took part in the British Biology Olympiad. Later in the year all Year 9 and Year 10 students will take part in the British Biology Challenge; Year 12 physicists are preparing for the Physics Olympiad; and Elizabeth College hopes to enter a Year 9 and 10 team in the Salters’ Festival of Chemistry.
At the Junior School ‘growth’ as a theme offered a range of topics to delve into.
The younger children have worked to explore plant growth, with a display of sunflowers, and the older children have created science projects for the annual Elizabeth College Junior School Science Fair.
Due to the restrictions, this event has been cancelled but there will be a virtual display to celebrate their enthusiasm for science.
