How much do you weigh on Mars? Which is denser olive oil or Fairy Liquid? and Which element literally melts in your hands? Were just some of the research projects budding scientists at Dean Close Prep School investigated over their Easter break.
At the end of last term pupils were invited to investigate a topic, develop an experiment or challenge a hypothesis about an area of science that inspires them. Working individually or in pairs, projects were submitted to this voluntary challenge, creating a colourful exhibition of fascinating concepts, which fellow pupils visited over the following days to learn new facts and interesting ideas from their now expert classmates.
The exhibition was judged by Head of Science, Daniel Fraine and Head of Biology at the Senior School, Andrew Martin. A couple of projects that really stood out were the melting point of Gallium. Gallium is a solid at room temperature, but has a very low melting point of just 29 degrees Celsius. When held it melts! This was a brilliant way of demonstrating the different properties of elements. Another excellent project was ‘Tricking the brain’. Drinks coloured incorrectly had everyone’s heads in a spin as pupils tried lemon squash that was actually red and other incorrectly coloured flavoured drinks.
The winning project was a fantastic piece of topical research by Evie Turner and Rachel Silvester who created ‘Chemical Element Top Trumps’. Evie and Rachel had done a great deal of research to be able to score each of the elements according to how strong they were, when they were discovered and how often they were used. Some of the top scorers included Oxygen scoring 7/10, 1772 and 10/10 and Iron scoring 8/10, 500BC and 9/10.
Mr Martin said, “The amount of research the girls would have had to do to create this correctly would have been vast. They would have also learnt a great deal along the way. This would certainly make a fun revision tool!”
Mr Fraine, Head of Science at the Prep School said, “We had more entries than ever before and an excellent variety of experiments covering all kinds of different areas of science. When parents visited the exhibition it was wonderful to hear them commenting on how well the pupils explained the science behind each of their projects. Teaching someone else is a very effective way to learn!”
A list of all the projects entered is listed below.
Exhibitor/s | Project | |
Y7* |
Benedict Braddock, Bella Chihota and Florence McKinnes |
Investigating Gallium and the Melting Points of Metals |
Y7* | Erin Jeffreys | Directing Sounds |
Y7* | Rachel Silvester and Evie Turner | Element Top Trumps |
Y7* | Sophie Bowcher and Charlotte Jenkins | Weight on Different Planets |
Y7* |
Genevieve Bullingham, Evie Cooper and Bella Gillet |
Testing Solubility |
Y7* | Samuel Crawford | Fire Triangle |
Y7* | Liv Thomas and Alexa Ellison | Symptoms of Smoking |
Y7* | Georgia Pinkham and Lucy Webber | Brain or Eyes? |
Y7* | Evie Mossop and Mirella Rymer | Lava Lamp |
Y7* | Charlie Richards | Homopolar Motor |
Y7* |
Jemima Workneh, Emma Mardon and Raquel Picazo Flores |
What Effect do Drinks Have on Teeth? |
Y7* | James Carder-Geddes | Sugar Science |
Y7* | Lizzie Coles | Convection Currents |
Y7* | Anya Bailey | Radio Waves |
Y7 | Brianna Brown and Daria Bannaya | Cartesian Diver |
Y7* | Ben Houser | Energy |
Y7 | Daniel Woodward Court and Daniel Wu | Coke and Mentos |
Y6* | Lucy Godfrey, Megan Byrd and Zoe Thompson | Sugar vs. Teeth |
Y6* |
Darcey Chambers, Thomas Ridsdale and Edward Sutherland |
Lava Lamp |
Y6* | Isaac Stott | Dancing Milk |
Y6* | George Mills & Maciej Wojcicki | Aerodynamics |
Y6* | Michael Coates Lyon | Growing Bacteria |
Y6* |
Izzy Phillips, Alice Montgomery and Rosie Thomas |
Layers of Liquids |
Y6* | Louise Cottingham and Jessica Hindley | Edible Slime |
Y6* | Oliver Mackay and Freddie Martin | Egg in the Bottle |
Y6* | Alex Ristic | Carbon Atom Model |
Y6 | Daisy Salisbury and Lizzie Woodman | Chromatography |
Y6* | The Caton Family | Nutrition Top Trumps |
Y6* | Ella Lee, Amber Woodman and Meghan Williams | Vinegar Volcano |