Stars align well for inaugural Science Week 16-20th March

16^th-20^th March 2015

This year we are celebrating Science Week as a whole school and also at the same time as British Science Week (http://britishscienceweek.org). Our aims for science week are:

·        Involve every child in celebrating scientific, technological, engineering and mathematical (STEM) achievements

·        Generate creativity through practical, cross-curricular activities

·        Show how science influences and is influenced by other subjects, including arts and humanities

·        Improve public engagement in science throughout the school community

Putting together our schedule of events has been really exciting, and I cannot wait to enjoy all of the exciting workshops, trips and talks. The timetable of main events is as follows:

As well as this list of activities, many classes during the week will use cross-curricular ideas to help promote the impact of science, engineering or maths in different subjects, whether learning about Roman catapult engineering in Latin or roleplaying as different scientists in a French lesson.

Below is more information about some of the main events and competitions, including our very own citizen science experiment which I hope you will get involved with.

Science Open Houses

Over two separate events everyone in the school is invited to come and see all of the gizmos and gadgets we have for our science experiments. Get your hands on some slime, charge yourself up with the Van der Graaf generator and safely enjoy the best whizzes and bangs we can offer.

Venue: The science labs on the 2^nd floor corridor of the Edwardian building.

Dates:

Monday, 4:15pm – 5:15pm: Upper School children and their families.

Friday, 3:30pm – 4:15pm: Lower School children and their families

Children must be accompanied by an adult.

RSVP not necessary.

Newton Science Forum: Johnny Ball, Monday 16^th March 18:30

Upper School Science Week Coding Competition

Since September, coding has been a part of ICT and Computing lessons for every pupil in Upper School. All of the teachers involved have been amazed by the capabilities of the children, not to mention the creativity they have shown in improvising their own tweaks on the games and tools they have been building. In Science Week we will be putting these skills to the test, with our very first Coding Competition.

Emulating a real coding tournament, where coders are all given a task and a limited time to come up with the most creative solution to a problem, we are going to set each year group a specific challenge. During science week all upper school pupils will have one ICT or Computing lesson to be introduced to the task and then they have until 27^th March to submit their programme to their teacher.

The programmes must be written using Scratch 2, so you can get a head start by downloading the software to your home computer from http://scratch.mit.edu/ or by registering for an account to code online.

Submissions can be made by your child copying the file to their Newton Prep Google Drive and sharing it with their ICT teacher, or should be emailed directly to [email protected] stating the name and form of the pupil, by Friday 27^th March.

Every child who submits a working programme will earn a certificate, and the best programmes from each year group will be awarded a distinction.

Lower School Science Week Competition

I am very excited to announce this year’s Science Week Competition for children in Nursery up to Year 2. With the partial eclipse of the sun arriving on 20^th March, it seems appropriate to choose a space themed task that any child can have a go at. To appeal to children of all ages with different interests and skills, the competition is open ended and submissions can be in any form, whether a story, collage, painting, model, video, or any other medium you can think of. The piece of work should be based upon the title:

The Day I Went to the Moon

How did you get there? What might happen? Who or what could you meet? What might you find?

The predominant criteria for judging will be the originality and creativity (because you have think of a great idea before someone can begin engineering it!), and winners and runners up will be chosen from the following categories: Best Piece of Writing, Best Piece of Artwork, Best Alternative Work (for things that are neither writing nor artwork), as well as awards for best overall in each year group.

Every child who submits work will receive THREE house points! Runners up will receive a certificate (worth an additional 3 house points), while winners of each category will get a distinction (10 house points).

With recent successes in real life astronomical projects, such as the comet lander Philae, and the probes that are fast approaching Pluto and the asteroid Ceres, it is an exciting year for humans in space. I look forward to seeing what your child’s imagination can come up with to inspire the next generation of space scientists.

Submissions are due between Monday 16^th March and Friday 20^th March, and should be brought to each child’s teacher for being displayed. Winners will be announced in the following week.

Newton Prep’s Really Big Science Project

With all of the excitement happening in lessons during science week, it would seem unfair if we didn’t try to get all members of the Newton Prep Community involved in something big. And when I say ‘big’, I mean ‘really big’. You may have heard of Citizen Science projects in the past, relying on small amounts of participation from large groups of people to gather data sets that can really help scientists answer thought provoking questions. So here is our project:

Aim: What affects how quickly your brain can think?

Here is an experiment that we can all try at home, from Nursery children up to grandparents and beyond. It depends upon using a simple online tool to calculate how quickly your brain can process an image from your eyes and send a signal to your finger.

We will be able to see if there are any answers to the questions:

At what age does your brain work fastest?

Are girls sharper than boys?

Does your brain really slow down in the morning?

Is there really such thing as being ‘a morning  person’?

(And are they really more awake than the rest of us?)

Look out for more details in next week’s Newton News on how to take part.

Partial Eclipse Viewing, Friday 20^th March

The stars have aligned for us this year and on the Friday of Science Week, the UK will be able to see a partial eclipse of the sun, with the moon covering up to 80% of the sun and plunging the country into an eerie gloom. Those of you who remember a previous eclipse, such as in 1999, will know how mysterious the experience was, so we will be making sure that Newton Prep children get to make their own wonderful memories. We will be taking all children outside in the morning to view the eclipse, and have purchased special eclipse viewing glasses so ensure everyone’s safety. If only I could claim responsibility for arranging this one…

Stuart Wilson

Head of Science