When science lessons become electric

On Wednesday pupils in Year 7 and Year 8 attended an in-school STEM workshop. The session, led by BAE Systems, the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy centred around the theme of electricity and its generation.

Pupils were very enthusiastic to join in with the session where volunteers built a model circuit and discussed how the moving electrons created the current. When discussing electricity generation, pupils considered the pros and cons of each energy resource and how, although there are many such as coal, oil, biofuel and geothermal to name a few, each one works ultimately in the same way by turning a generator.

The group also discussed electrostatic build up and demonstrated this with a very brave pupil who had a hair-raising experience on the van-der-graaf machine.

Electricity generation was demonstrated by using a simple generator as well as teachers taking part in a bike generator to produce enough electricity to create a colourful display behind the bike.

The very engaging hosts ended the workshop by discussing the varied range of engineers that exist, and the 27 engineers that were required to make a mobile phone!

Assistant Leader of Science, Mrs Potter, said, "The session was an excellent opportunity for the pupils to become engaged with the topic of electricity. It has provided an introduction with the pupils getting hands-on and visual demonstration experience of the topic before they actually cover it in the classroom".