two faces of science
14 March 2011
20 of our Year 9 students took part in "The Two Faces of Science" at Oxford Brookes University on Monday, 14 March 2011. These students were selected from those who took part in the Aimhigher Science Challenge in December last year. They had the choice to attend the following workshops:-
STRAWBERRY DNA EXTRACTION
Scientists from the University of Bedfordshire helped students extract DNA from strawberries. They were able to unravel DNA from its pencil dot sized package to the 6cm found in each cell.
TASTE THAT! (or not)
Different tests were carried out to address aspects of our olfactory system (taste and smell). There was a lot of smelling and tasting involved.
WHAT DOES KITCHEN SCIENCE DO?
Kitchen Science is a series of science outreach experiments that can be done with common 'kitchen ingredients' like cornflour, bicarbonate of soda and tinned peas. Oxford science students demonstrated how to make Non-Newtonian fluid. Students worked together in small groups to work out the underlying science principles of the experiments they conducted and were given workbooks to guide them through the scientific process.
THE SECRET OF THE WINNING STREAK
This was a range of activities run by "Marcus' Marvellous Mathemagicians" (M³). They ran workshops, activities and gave talks about maths which were designed by Professor Marcus du Sautoy, the Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science.
OLYMPIC TOWERS
Teams had to build a model tower out of paper tubes and produce persuasive marketing materials. They also had to produce accurate costings for the final tower.
ALICE (IN WONDERLAND)
This is an innovative 3D programming environment, making it easy to create animation for telling a story, playing a game or making a video to place on the web. Students got the chance to populate a virtual world.
