National Science & Engineering Week

National Science & Engineering Week was a very busy one at St. Helen's with science-related activities taking place across the school.

In Little St. Helen's, children in Nursery got involved by planting seeds in pots which they will replant later whilst Year 1 participated in a fascinating lesson on sound with Mrs Williams, one of our Senior School Physics teachers. They enjoyed using rulers to discover that vibrations are needed to make sound and that the stronger the vibration, the louder the sound. The girls used tuning forks to hit a rubber bung and listened to the vibrations being amplified on a wooden box. They put the vibrating tuning forks into water and observed the ripple effect. The lesson ended on a musical note with the girls using flutes filled with varying amounts of water to play ‘Old McDonald had a farm’.

Also in Little St. Helen's, the highlight of Year 2's week was undoubtedly their visit to the Senior School science labs, where Chemistry teacher Mr Reynish taught the girls about some of the elements that are the building blocks of everything we can see and about acids and bases. The girls also had the chance to try some of their own experiments.

Meanwhile, in Junior School, each year group got involved in their own science projects. On Wednesday, Year 6 were invited to a Chemistry Magic Show in the Senior School science labs and, inspired by what they had seen, organised a science fair for the rest of Junior School on Friday. They designed their own experiments around the theme of kitchen science and the rest of Junior School came to look at the experiments and to learn about the theory behind them.

Finally, in Senior School, girls enjoyed a number of lunch time activities including a dissection demonstration, a celebration of Einstein's birthday, which involved several different science-based activities, and a rocket-launching competition.

Great fun was had by all during the week and the girls' science learning has undoubtedly been enhanced by the activities they have been able to get involved in.