British Science Week

An annual event designed to acknowledge science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the theme for this year’s British Science Week was ‘Time’ and pupils from Year 1 through to Year 6 enjoyed broadening their horizons and expanding their knowledge on a key core subject.

Coming together, pupils in Year 1 and Year 4, listened intently to Dr Tom Matheson who gave a fascinating talk about locusts and highlighted their unique ability to jump. Such was their level of excitement, pupils were very good at showcasing their understanding through bouncing around in a fashion not too dissimilar to a swarm of locusts!

Quite the contrast in Year 2, where things were much slower and more measured. Acknowledging this year’s theme, children used their observation skills to gather data and used stopwatches to measure how fast snails could move; some pupils are still waiting for theirs to finish!!

Professor Ezio Rosato spoke to Year 3 about circadian rhythms in fruit flies, whilst Year 5 pupils had a real eye-opening lesson – quite literally in fact. Carried out by  Frank Proudlock and Seema Teli, the children looked at the main structure of the human eye, learning how vision worked and how it has changed over the years. They also examined how Opticians conduct eye tests and how vision affects reaction times.

Lastly, Year 6 were visited by Dr Nicola Royle from the University of Leicester who hosted a captivating discussion about genetics and DNA in living things. The children then enjoyed getting hands-on as they extracted the DNA from a variety of different fruits.

What a thoroughly enlightening and engaging week and one that certainly brought an important core subject to life!