Snake
The new Sharples snake, Ramona, has enjoyed a nice meal (pictured right). Miss Booth has been demonstrating to the Animal Care students how to feed baby mice to the snake. The students will now be responsible for feeding the snake themselves.
Contrary to popular belief, snakes do not dislocate their jaws in order to eat. Instead, they have a split jaw with very flexible ligaments which allows them to ingest their food whole, without any need for chewing.
Educake
In Year 9, the top performers this week were Shaiza Noor and Ella Kennedy, congratulations to both of you and well done to all of the Year 9 students who completed their Educake Home Learning.
In Year 10 and 11, the highest scores were achieved by Ethan Eslick, Fatima Umarji, Zaynah Malji, Fatimah Matadar and David Lin.
Potions
To celebrate Halloween in science, Year 7 students had a lesson on Potions! Students first observed a scary Pumpkinator demonstration, with a blue solution, turning green then bright orange to make a scary pumpkin. They then added dragon’s whiskers to snake venom, unicorn horn to monster serum and vampire’s blood to the elixir of life.
Peeking behind the magic, students learned about the signs that a chemical reaction has taken place, such as fizzing, colour change or the production of a solid precipitate (see pictures below).
STEM Club
STEM Club students have been making marble runs (see picture right), using creativity and knowledge of physics in order to come up with interesting and complex designs.
Space News
On the 9th November, Uranus will appear at its brightest in the sky, making it an ideal time to try to see the 2nd farthest planet in the solar system. The reason for Uranus’ bright appearance is due to it being at “syzygy”, meaning the Sun, Earth and Uranus are almost in a straight line. Looking South late evening on Wednesday will be the best time to attempt to spot a faint blue-green spot in the constellation of Aries. If available, a pair of binoculars (or telescope) is recommended to aid viewing the distant planet.
Mr. Fowlds – Science Enrichment Coordinator
