British Science Week - A round up

15 March 2021

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'Innovating For The Future'.

We had lots of fun celebrating British Science Week last week; a ten-day celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths.

Staff and pupils got involved, sharing their favourite inventions, and coming up with innovations they would like to see in the future. 

There has been some very interesting discussions going on with some fantastic suggestions in both categories, some of which are detailed below:

Inventions 

•    Kettle - where would we be without this kitchen staple!
•    A library – "because it can widen my imagination and I can escape reality"
•    Camera – it allows memories to last.
•    WD40!
•    Chemotherapy 
•    Ball-bearings 
•    The Turing machine 
•    The chair!
•    Books 

Pupils and staff were also asked to think about what they would like to invent.

Innovations

•    Ocean vacuum 
•    Recyclable false nails
•    A cure for cancer 
•    Teleportation devices (this was a very popular suggestion!)
•    Folding shopping trolley (no need for shopping bags)
•    Computers with a larger memory
•    Butter spreader (like a glue stick but butter!)

Key Stage 3 pupils have been taking part in a competition to design a poster on the theme of 'innovation'. There were some excellent entries, some of which can be seen here/front page and will also be displayed around school.  The winners were Abbie S (Year 7), for her beautifully researched and presented poster about the light bulb, and Lewis T (Year 8) who won the hearts of the Science department with his thought-out reason for his favourite invention: music.

And finally, we have been testing staff and pupils' knowledge via a quiz centred around scientists from Lancashire and their scientific contributions. This ranged from the more well known to the obscure. Lots of pupils got involved with this and the winners selected at random were:

Josh B (Year 8), William S (Year 8), Louis D-H (Year 7), Ally R (Year 9), Aluna H-G (Year 8).  

Parents - Fancy having a go at the quiz?

Questions:

  1.  What was Sir Richard Owen known for?
  2.  What was Sir Edward Frankland known for?
  3. Which science was Norman Haworth known for
  4. Astronomer William Lassell has a crater named after him on which body?
  5. Nancy Rothwell was the president of which scientific body?
  6. C D Darlington was influential in which area of biology?
  7. Trevor Elliot was a Lecturer in which field of geoscience?
  8. Kathleen Mary Drew-Baker's work on phycology (the study of algae) was so influential in which country, that they call her 'Mother of the Sea' and celebrate her life on 14 April?
  9. Geoffrey Evans, botanist, was director of which famous botanical gardens?
  10. True or false, the youngest person to achieve nuclear fusion in the UK went to Priory?

(see bottom of page for answers)

Answers:

  1. Coining the term, 'dinosaur'.  He was a Lancastrian anatomist and paleontologist who is remembered for his contributions to the study of fossil animals, especially dinosaurs.
  2. Discovering helium
  3.  Chemistry
  4. The moon
  5. Royal Society of Biology
  6. Genetics
  7. Sedimentology
  8. Japan
  9. Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew
  10. True! (Jamie Edwards left Priory in 2016)