British Science Week 2024
To start British Science Week, out two Pupil Panel representatives led an assembly introducing this years theme; Challenging Stereotypes in Science. They shared with the whole school the purpose of the Pupil Panel and also the results of the stereotype activity the whole school had taken part in, looking at how we perceive scientists and other professions.
Year 2 to Year 6 were then lucky enough to meet with our STEM ambassador, Niamh Fox, who is a lecturer in polymer science at The University of Manchester. She told the children all about her job, how she became a scientist and the challenges she faced, but also how she has lots of similar interests to them.
Children in EYFS to Year 4 all took part in a fantastic workshop, led by Sublime Science. They saw amazing demonstrations of forces and each made their own pot of slime.
Year 5 and Year 6 took part in a forensic workshop, where they learned all about how science can be used to help solve crimes.
Science Selfie Competition
To help celebrate British Science Week, we held a science selfie competition. Children were asked to send in photos of themselves taking part in science activities at home and outside of the classroom. Look at the amazing entries we received.
Science Fair
We enjoyed our first Science Fair during Science Week. The children produced some amazing displays and models to present their independent research on an area of science which interested them. It was wonderful to see the children confidently explaining their work to members of our school community. There was a variety of scientific enquiry types demonstrated along with substantive and disciplinary knowledge. We look forward to seeing how this grows and develops further for next year.
The Great Science Shout Out
This enrichment activity engaged pupils of all ages to write and share a letter in order to make a great noise about why science is important in our lives.
As Great Science Share for Schools joins the celebrations for The University of Manchester’s Bicentenary, we are helping to raise the profile of science by shouting about what we think is important.
The aim is to make a noise about why asking-investigating and sharing science is important to all our futures. We had the privilege of meeting Professor Lynne Bianchi from The University of Manchester and giving our letters to our local MP, Chris Clarkson.
Pupil Panel: Session 2
The focus of our second session was diversity and inclusion. The children looked at some statistics about the breakdown of ethnicities across professors in STEM subjects and how many people feel that science is not for them because people who study or work in science, don’t look like them. They discussed gender stereotypes and unconscious bias and how we can tackle this in school.
During lunch, they were able to talk to a range of female professionals about their interests, chosen careers and challenges they have faced. The second part of the day was spent planning the third session; when our school will be paired up with a STEM ambassador to work with for the day. This was an amazing experience for the girls, who both came away with a greater understanding of diversity and feeling empowered to help make a change.
Mad Science Club
Children from Year 1 to Year 6 engaged with the science club run by Mad Science. Over 6 weeks, they developed their subject knowledge and working scientifically skills through investigating forces, chemical reactions and separating mixtures.
Mad Science Assembly
We we’re treated to a fantastic assembly, hosted by Scientific Sarah from Mad Science, all about energy. We were shown some exciting examples of how kinetic energy can be changed to electrical energy and then light energy. Scientific Sarah explained how there are different types of energy and demonstrated how we get our energy from the chemicals in the food we eat in an explosive way. Mad Science will be delivering a science club in the new year. Places can be booked by clicking on the link below.
https://northernengland.madscience.org
Pupil Panel Project
We have been invited to represent Rochdale in a brand new project with SEERIH at Manchester University. This project is for year 5 girls across Greater Manchester, helping them to develop their communication skills and team work, whilst also raising aspirations for girls in Science.
For the first session, Lydia and Lilliarna attended The Manchester University and along with the other girls had to decide which project to give their £3000 funding to, through asking questions and debating.
