2nd Year Science Fair

Across the sciences this term, we have been encouraging the 2nd Year pupils to think beyond the curriculum, to tap into their curiosity, and to develop their investigation skills by working on a project for the science fair. Students have been given free rein to explore any topic which interests them and we have enjoyed a huge range of projects as a result; including calculating how long a person could survive trapped in a supermarket, what affects how long raisins will dance in fizzy water, through to a student replicating a method used to analyse DNA. It has been incredible to see some of the ideas and methods used by the students and we are incredibly proud of their efforts. Class teachers selected the strongest projects to go through to the final and Mr Johnson, Dr Pope, and Mr Vanstone had the challenging job of deciding the 2021 winners. Congratulations to all students, finalists, and especially to the winners:

1st prize  – Sam T and Jacob T – For an incredibly well thought-out project on whether knowledge of brands affect a person’s perception of the taste of chocolate. These students had considered how to ensure the experiment produced reliable data by controlling variables rigorously and they also had a large sample size compared to many investigations. Their project produced some interesting data from which they could draw conclusions. Sam and Jacob also presented their project very well too.

2nd prize  – Celia – Celia had explored various project titles before settling on delving into her passion for music and investigating whether genres of music affect heart rate. Celia did a fantastic job of critically evaluating her own experiment showing an awareness of what she could do in future to enable more conclusive data to be collected. Her display board and presentation skills were absolutely fantastic too!

Highly commended – Sam B – Sam was interested in whether salinity and temperature affected the density of water. Sam had done a lot of research into the context of his investigation in oceans and how these factors would vary from equator to pole. He had an interesting and visual method for conducting his experiment and did a great job of producing his display board and with his oral presentation too.