Exciting science: explosions, snakes and surprisingly cute snails!
29th April 26
Making learning fun is core to The King Alfred School’s philosophy, and that was certainly the case around British Science Week, as a range of activities brought science excitingly to life.
Upper School Science
The Old Library reverberated to the sound of pops, bangs, oohs and aahs as Ben from Explorer Dome came in with his ‘Tricks and Bubble Science’ shows for Upper School students in Years 6, 7 and 9.
Students were wowed by science-powered tricks, including putting out candles with invisible water, making a cake tin roll up hill, shooting smoke rings across the room and the creation of mega-bubbles.
It was a fun and engaging way to learn new facts and have common misconceptions corrected.
“The science show was incredible,” said Wren M (Y7). “I loved how he used chemicals to make pretty explosions.
“My favourite was when he drank the water with the dry ice – you have to be careful not to swallow the blocks of CO2, but the water itself is fine – but we didn’t know that! It was exciting.”
“The science show was really cool,” added Eden T (Y7). “It was interesting and interactive, and made me think of science as a much more fun subject.”
Elsewhere, Year 8 got up close and personal with creatures including snakes, millipedes and a tarantula as part of a visit from ZooLab, exploring how and why some species adapt, evolve and adjust to a changing environment.
“It was really interesting,” said Emma M (Y8). “I liked that you got to hold the animals and ask as many questions as you wanted.” Her friend Anoushka D agreed: “It was really fun and we learned a lot.”
Sixth Form Science
Elsewhere in the department, Sixth Form students studying A Level Science participated in some interesting practical experiments.
In Ryan’s Biology class, students investigated ‘habituation’, where animals gradually ignore a repeated, harmless stimulus – with the help of some surprisingly cute snails.
Meanwhile, over in Jo’s lab, students pitted synthetic polyester against natural flax fibres to see which was stronger. They used weights to gradually increase the load on each, keeping their feet safely out of harm’s way as the fibres finally snapped!
Science is just as exciting in our Lower School, too! We’ll shortly be sharing details of all the fun activities that students enjoyed during our STEM Week.
