British Science Week is an event run by the British Science Association. It’s a ten-day celebration of the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths), people of all ages are invited to take part in the various activities that occur during this period. British Science Week is an annual event and this year it took place between the 9th and the 18th of March. Science Week aims to encourage more individuals to take an active interest in the STEM subjects and gives support to schools, teachers, students and other STEM professionals.
Some of the events that happen during Science Week include a sponsored run, talks given by professionals in the STEM subjects, STEM poster competitions and various experiment displays in schools. Notre Dame School, Cobham, was one of the schools that took part in the British Science Week. Students gathered in the science labs and were shown several exciting experiments. Some of the most memorable experiments included a rocket made out of a plastic bottle, filled with methane gas that was launched by igniting the gas. It flew straight across the lab and hit the wall on the other side. However, to some of the students surprise, it made an extremely loud bang when the gas was ignited, adding to the excitement. The next experiments that were conducted all included the used of liquid nitrogen and some of the highlights were; pouring the liquid nitrogen over a banana, which caused it freeze extremely quickly, and then using it to hammer a nail into a wooden plank; adding the liquid nitrogen to an egg in a pan which froze so quickly that it appeared as if the egg had been fried instead; and finally, to the delight of all the students (and some of the teachers) the liquid nitrogen was used to make ice cream. Due to how quickly the liquid nitrogen froze the mixture of milk, cream and sugar there were very few crystals formed in the mixture. This meant that the ice cream was extremely smooth and absolutely delicious. A sixth form student commented, “it’s great to see science in action in such a fun and relevant way, a lot of the younger students seem really inspired to carry out their own science experiments!”
Events such as this occurred all throughout the country during British Science Week and hopefully many individuals were similarly motivated to pursue their interest in the STEM subjects.
By Darya Vandromme, Notre Dame School
