APS News 23

6 April 2020 Schools all over the UK celebrate Science Week, an annual event of STEM activities promoted by the British Science Association (BSA). We were busy at Abingdon Prep with every year group taking part, and this year we were joined by pupils from other schools for the first time. Read more about Pre-Prep’s activities with their Year 8 helpers on p13, and the chicks on the back page.. AbingdonPrep In School Science Week Year 6 had an afternoon of science where they were shown a forces show by Science Oxford and then given time to build K’NEX cars. They delighted in sharing their knowledge of forces and very much enjoyed being volunteers in the demonstrations in addition to the fun of building and racing their cars. Year 4 was joined by Professor Clare for a neurobiology workshop all about the importance of learning through building up neural connections, using Ben Stoke’s wonderful catch in the test vs South Africa as an example. They used soft balls to act as neurotransmitters and threw these across the gap to show the generation of a nerve impulse. Each time they did this they got better and could give a whole host of reasons as to why. Clare received some very insightful questions to field too. Year 5 were joined by girls from St Helen & St Katharine’s Junior School for a colourful experiment to build density rainbows. Year 8 was treated to a masterclass in chloroplast extraction from Oxford University researcher Ellie Williams. They mixed their samples in a vortex and then spun the tubes out in a centrifuge to concentrate the solutions. These were then tested for pigments using chromatography where we found chlorophyll a and b as well as carotene. Pupils from Year 6 at Standlake Primary School visited to do some flame testing with some of the salts used in fireworks. We loved hosting them, and hope to arrange this again another time. Rebecca and Zehra led our assembly for Science Week aided by Year 5-6 BrainSTEMs Science Club members showing the diversity of science. The boys demonstrated waveforms using a giant slinky. Zehra shared films from our trailcam in the woods which videos whatever passes its lens – muntjac, mouse, rabbit, pheasant, fox and a cat! Finally the boys carried out the ‘elephant’s toothpaste’ experiment, a reaction which created large amounts of striped foam to the delight of the audience. Year 3 made fun marble runs and Year 7 examined fingerprints in our crime scene. Many pupils from all years submitted their posters on this year’s theme of ‘Our Diverse Planet’, and we hatched a clutch of eggs (see the back page). What a week it was!