Students enjoy a week of science

January 29 to February 3 saw Glebelands School in Cranleigh host its annual Community Science week. Nearly 400 students from Years 1 to 6 from local primary schools, as well as students from Years 7 and 8 at Glebelands took part.
A week of science at Glebelands SUS-161002-125050001A week of science at Glebelands SUS-161002-125050001
A week of science at Glebelands SUS-161002-125050001

It was a fantastic experience with students taking on the role of engineers to design a way of dropping aid from a plane without it breaking. Unfortunately, the school budget did not allow for the use of a real plane so instead it was a large ladder. The aid that needed to be dropped was a whole egg which had to be easily removable at the end. Students needed to purchase materials and ensure that they stayed in budget to complete the challenge from the Glebelands shop. Students were awarded points for the science used, their design, being in budget, how easy it was to get the aid out and whether or not the egg survived. As Glebelands is a Science and Mathematics specialist we also set a Maths challenge for the students to complete to gain extra points.

I was really impressed with the range of designs that the students used from across all year groups, with varying levels of success. The strangest design being a spikey Plasticine shell which just proceeded to skewer the egg on impact! You could see all the students looking with baited breath as their design was dropped, and the joy if it survived, or the disappointment when the egg was seen oozing out of the sides after hitting the floor.

The overall week was a great success and hopefully inspiring students to think about careers in the much needed STEM subjects.

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