Educake Top Scorers
Well done to everyone who completed their home learning this week. The top scores for each year group are:
Year 11: Haleema M and Ella H.
Year 10: Aaliyah S, Aaliyah B, Mohamed E, Michael C and Ying.
Year 9: Evie A-S, Umar I, Ismael Q, Emmilee W and Muhammed A.
STEM club
This week in the STEM club, pupils learnt about all the nasty bacteria and fungi that live amongst us! Using a cotton swab, pupils took samples from a variety of sites around the school including: the girls’ toilets, Mr Albrighton’s keyboard, Mr Crowe’s desk and also the touch screen monitors located in each classroom! Once the samples had been safely retrieved, the cotton swabs were dabbed onto agar jelly. This provides tasty sustenance for any bacteria or fungi to feed off and grow. The agar plates were then inserted into an incubator to ensure that they are at the optimum temperature and humidity for maximum growth. Next week the pupils will observe their agar plates and investigate whether any new species of bacteria or fungi have been discovered!
Astronomy club
In the Astronomy club this week, students were building a model of the GAIA Satellite. GAIA is a space probe designed to measure the distance of hundreds of millions of stars in our Galaxy. It will provide important information about the structure, origin and the history of the Galaxy in which we live. Stand by for updates as the group starts to assemble the model.
The Oaks Astronomy Session
Year 5 students from The Oaks Primary School enjoyed a session all about space and astronomy. The students, ably helped by the astronomy ambassadors, completed a series of activities, such as investigating the properties of light and sorting galaxies, before heading outside to use telescopes, solar glasses and visiting the Sharples observatory.
Science career of the week
This week’s career is Engineer. Engineers work in a variety of roles developing new products or solutions to technical challenges. Information about experience opportunities, providers, entry requirements and much more can be found here: Science career of the Week
Please speak to Mr. Burke, who will provide you with more information about this, or any other, science career.
Space News
Fans of Star Wars will know that Luke Skywalker’s home planet of Tatooine orbits 2 stars. This was once thought to be a far-fetched idea constrained to the realms of science fiction. However, recent research has found that many binary star systems could be host to Earth-like planets which have stable orbits for a billion years. Should such a planet orbit within the ‘habitable zone’, where the temperature is such that water is liquid, this raises the possibility of life being discovered. Maybe Star Wars is more realistic than we thought.
Mr. Fowlds – Science Enrichment Coordinator
