What affects bread rising? Does colour affect what we eat? How does sight affect your balance?
British Science Week is a celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). From Monday 13th – Friday 17th March pupils and teachers at St Augustine’s Priory embraced the chance to get hands-on with their subjects. Lessons at the beginning of the week were dominated by demonstrations of exothermic reactions – a chemical reaction that releases energy by light or heat.
These displays lit the way for a STEM-filled week, including the senior school painstakingly piecing together hot air balloons and building rockets that launched high into the air, and culminated in the Junior Science Day on Friday 17th March.
On Wednesday 15th March Lower IV assembled in the Sports Hall to put their hot air balloons to the ultimate test – whose would reach the ceiling first? A video of the big race and ensuing celebrations may be found on our facebook page, as may the unveiling of Lower V’s pressure-powered rockets.
We’ve grown fond of the Sports Hall ceiling and its functionality, so the rockets were launched from the netball court. Aarthi and Zara of Lower VA won the competition which compared how long the rockets were airborne for and took into account whether or not their parachutes deployed. Well done girls!
The Juniors worked hard on Friday in the lead up to their Science Fair on Friday afternoon. Entries were judged by Head for the Day, Miss Isabel Upcraft of Lower IV Alpha, and the exhibitions were impressive. The winners will be announced this week!
A display exploring which liquid soap creates the longest lasting bubbles, whether an egg can bounce before it breaks and, of course, the classic mentos vs. Coca-Cola experiment (adding mentos mints to a bottle of Coca-Cola causes a very fizzy reaction) were among the fantastic and thought-provoking projects that filled the Junior Science Lab on Friday afternoon.
