Science Week 2021
It was British Science Week last week and our Science Society organised special activities for the pupils to get involved in. British Science Week is an annual celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths and the Science Department are pleased to support it to encourage more pupils to study STEM subjects and consider STEM for future career options.
In the Society’s launch, our appetites were whetted with some ‘science in the news’, namely the Perseverance Rover which recently landed on Mars. To follow up, they showed some photos of ‘science in action’ that showed us how much this field of study has to offer; hoping to sow the seeds of curiosity and inspiration to do further research in these areas. This included an atom held nearly motionless by electric fields, a close-up image of a light bulb filament wire where the resistance of the filament heats the bulb producing light, and an image of the coronavirus and how it acts.
As part of the week’s activities, pupils engaged with various competitions and experiments to get more involved in the topic areas. Some results are still to come in as some activities will take time and patience over a matter of weeks, which is a regular occurrence when doing real-life research and testing.
One of the main activities that pupils are taking part in is re-growing vegetables from leftovers in the kitchen. Pupils have taken a ‘before’ photo and will take an ‘after’ photo at the end of the experiment. We look forward to seeing which vegetable grows the best.
It is important that we encourage these subjects at Wycombe Abbey and our STEM provision is carefully designed to prepare pupils for careers in these important fields. We develop interdisciplinary awareness and give them the skills and ability to adapt in a range of fields including the Sciences, Design Technology and Computing. I am pleased all pupils enjoyed taking part in the variety of activities that were on offer throughout the week and hope it sparked a little curiosity into the wider world of science.
Mrs Susan Buxton
Director of Science and STEM