A group of St John’s Form 6 pupils presented their STEM (Science, Engineering, Technology and Maths) work at Schools’ Zone, part of the University of Cambridge Science Festival. The Schools Zone invites pupils from across the eastern region to bring a display of their STEM projects to the Festival. It is a wonderful opportunity for pupils to be the ‘experts’ and show a large and diverse audience what tomorrow’s scientists are doing today.
The children engaged enthusiastically with members of the public, assisting with hands-on experiments and answering their questions. It was a chance for the children to showcase their scientific findings and successes. In school, during their Enrichment sessions either in small groups or individually, they worked on a range of projects of their own design, inspired by current affairs. Their display was entitled “Glitter bugs and grand ideas”.
The children set out to answer questions that fascinated them such as ‘can sea water be used to grow crops?’ (they proved they can!) and ‘what household items spread norovirus?’ (using glitter to model the disease). They also analysed the acidity of local rain water and found that city centre traffic has a large effect on its pH, investigated the physics of electromagnets and looked at alternatives to compost in order to combat famine.
Mr Tristan Igglesden, Head of Science, explained, “The children provided hands on demonstrations of their research to the public and were a credit to the school. This was a great opportunity for the children to convey their ideas to a wider audience and experience first-hand, the positive impact scientific research can have.”
The Schools Zone was held at the Hauser Forum on the West Cambridge Site on 19 March 2016.
