SCIENCE WEEK 2016 - 'Science In The Workplace'
Science Week May 2-4 2016 ‘Science in the Workplace‘
We have enjoyed an overwhelmingly positive reception to this year’s Science Week from teachers, pupils and parents. What helped make it this year's Science Week especially lively and varied was all the wonderful contributions from parents and adults associated with the school who came in as guest speakers, sharing their knowledge and enthusiasm with us all.
It is fair to say that EVERYONE learnt something new in all of the sessions, whether it was what comets are made from, the size of a sugar granule needed to make chocolate melt in your mouth or how many times a mobile phone is dropped when it is being tested!
A wealth of people visited the school, and some were even kind enough to allow the children to visit their place of work! We had:
Philip Plewa talked to Year 1 about surfaces of planets and space exploration.
Janine Becker spoke to Years 7-9 about ionizing radiation and medical imaging.
The Johanniter taught a basic first aid course to Year 2 and some of Year 3.
European Southern Observatory were able to welcome Years 5-9, who learnt about: galaxies; the size of planets and stars; how to line up telescope mirrors; infrared radiation and what a comet is made of.
Vincenzo Mainieri came to St George’s on both Tuesday and Wednesday morning to talk to Year 4 and Year 1 about Space and working as an astrophysicist.
Paulo Brusegan, Krish Venkatasubramanian and Davide Tonelli visited us from SKY and spoke to the whole school about how TV works and how the pictures and audio make it to our television sets from the locations they are shot in. Years 3 and 4 were also able to visit the SKY site.
Andrew Bufton talked to part of Year 3, Year 2 and Year 5 & 6 about the production of chocolate and chocolate science. (We were all very hungry and jealous after that talk!)
Daniel Hernandez Ortega Came in and talked to Years 4 & 5 about testing of mobile phones. We were most impressed by the number of times he dropped his own phone (as part of the demonstration of course…)!
Year 1 visited the BMW museum and learnt about the different shapes of the cars over time. Paul Doe spoke to Year 2 and Year 6 about roll-cages and building cars for BMW. There was a lot of spaghetti involved in this activity!
Noel Campling gave a very interesting talk about patent law to Years 7-9.
Daniele Bernadini spoke to a small group of Years 7-9 students about sound waves.
All the staff at St George’s would like to offer their most sincere thanks to all of the above people for working so hard to make this year’s science week so excellent!
Year 4 learning about enormous telescopes with Vincenzo Mainieri.
We learned that the telescopes ESO use are found in the desert in Chile where there are no clouds or streetlamps so we have a clear view of the stars and planets.
Did you know that the observers sleep during the day and work all through the night? And it takes the whole of the daylight hours to clean and maintain these massive telescopes!?
Andrew Bufton giving his demonstration on how not to make chocolate before explaining to us how important the science of chocolate making is. The science that allows people to enjoy a melt-in-the-mouth bite of chocolate instead of the gritty, buttery mess we made in class…
Paul Doe explaining how knowledge and the application of science is necessary when designing a racing car. Properties of materials, strength of structures, friction and aero-dynamics are all considered when planning for a fast, yet safe, car. Year 6 used their own knowledge of science to design and build roll-cages to protect the driver in the event of a crash.
Paolo Brusegan explaining how TV works to our Early Years classes.
We were very lucky and had three visitors to school from SKY – between them Paulo Brusegan, Krisch Venkatasubramanian and Davide Tonelli were able to give presentations to the whole school about how a television works.
Speaking to them after the presentation they all commented on how much knowledge the children already had about this subject and that they were very well-informed.
