Activities aplenty for British Science Week

Before Easter, Heathcote participated in British Science Week, with a number of lessons and activities geared around this UK-wide activity. Teacher of Science and STEM Co-ordinator Ms Faria tells us more;

Biology Challenge for Year 10 students

As part of the activities organised for British Science Week, a group of Year 10 pupils (Ayaan Hussain, Chanel Munroe, Cameron White, Ann Rider, Richarnie Burrows and Tom O'Dwyer) took part in the Biology Challenge organised by the Royal Society of Biology.

This online challenge stimulates students’ curiosity for the natural world and encourages them to take an interest in biology outside of school. Questions were set on the school curriculum, but the competition will also reward those pupils whose knowledge of the subject has been increased by reading books and magazines, watching natural history programmes, taking notice of the news media for items of biological interest, and are generally aware of our natural flora and fauna.

Every pupil who took part in the competition is eligible to receive free BioNet membership​ for one year.

We're keeping our fingers crossed for all of these brave pupils, who will be offered the opportunity to attend an awards ceremony at IET: London, Savoy Place if they are amongst the top scoring students in the country.

Inspire Activities at Heathcote with Scientists from Imperial College London

Once again, scientists from Imperial College London visited Heathcote to deliver a series of workshops relating to their area of research. This time, the main focus was on Astrophysics.

The year 9 pupils (pictured) learned about the principles of mapping the stars and built their own astrolabe. They then used their astrolabes to calculate the altitude of other pupils' heads and determine their distance from them! 

There were also sessions involving a toilet paper solar system and visits to an extra-solar planet using "NASA's eyes". Some physics pupils were also able to calculate the distance of galaxies using real data and mathematical equations. This was a fascinating experiment which all involved really engaged with.

Citizen Science Project in Ms Lattibeaudiere's ICT Club 

 The school's ICT club, which includes year 7 and year 8 pupils, took on the Plastic Tide Challenge set up for British Science Week and contributed to create a program that can auto-detect, measure and monitor the levels of plastics and other marine litter washing up on our beaches. They also stored evidence of their contribution to this project and will therefore be entered in the draw for Amazon vouchers - winners to be announced by the end of next week!​

Well done to the fantastic pupils below for doing their bit to help protect wildlife and marine habitats from the damage caused by plastic pollution: 

Takunda Crowley, Odo Fajlhauer, Daniel Abel, Christopher Miller, Francesca Dieu De Bellefontaine, Temiloluwa Daramewa, Roisin Daly, Precious Asiedu, Keiran Matthews