I.E.T. CompetitionOn Friday 23rd March six Year 8 girls completed an intense (IET) engineering challenge event which washosted by the Liverpool University Department of Electrical Engineering. <strong>The</strong>y were: Sarah Whelan,Sabina Rhaman, Lydia Brady, Katie Lou Holland, Charlie Davies and Anna Nicholson Krakiewicz.<strong>The</strong> girls had to compete as a team and go through a number of stages before testing out their deviceto see if it could perform the given task which was to fill a plastic drinks cup with a specified amountof water and then move the cup through a distance of 20cm across a surface. <strong>The</strong> girls worked verywell as a team and were commended for their excellent initial stages of design and also for theirability to work as a team.<strong>The</strong> girls were excellent ambassadors of <strong>The</strong> <strong>Belvedere</strong> <strong>Academy</strong> in every way and were commendedby members of staff from other schools present for their excellent behaviour.<strong>The</strong> girls finished third in the competition this year with a total of 129 points out of a possible 150.<strong>The</strong> top score was 131.Mr Caulfield<strong>Belvedere</strong> is a school rich in history and is now over onehundred and thirty years old. So when Professors MareleneF. Rayner-Canham and Geoff W. Rayner-Canham camefrom Canada to do some research into <strong>Belvedere</strong>’s archiveslast week, I was particularly excited to go and meet themand see what it was they hoped to find in our school. <strong>The</strong>ybegan by aiming to write an article on “Forgotten Womenin Science” in the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth century,based upon research in British girls’ schools, in whichscience has been being taught for centuries, despite thegeneral acceptance that females did not learn science, in particular chemistry, until the 1950s at thevery earliest. However, when they found significantly more evidence than they had expected across anumber of GDST schools (amongst others), they decided, instead, to write a book on the topic.As they searched through the archives at <strong>Belvedere</strong>, they discovered that, although the importanceof women in science had reduced in the 1920s and 30s as men had returned from the first World Warand women were now needed as housewives. <strong>Belvedere</strong> had been teaching chemistry from as earlyas 1896, in which the subject, completely new for females, was taught in a normal classroom,rather than a lab, with “rubber tubing”attached to gas pipes in substitute ofactual gas taps.On Saturday 9th March at the start of National Science & Engineering week, the prestigious MerseysideYoung Analyst competition was held in the Chemistry Department at the University of Liverpool.Three Year 12 students entered from the <strong>Belvedere</strong> <strong>Academy</strong>; Stephanie Macilwee, Alex Hall andNiamh Forde.<strong>The</strong>y completed challenging chemical analyses to determine the composition of Coca-Cola and wereassessed against other schools from Merseyside and further afield.During the afternoon there was a lecture on the importance of analytical chemistry in stopping theuse of performance-enhancing drugs during the Olympics and their damaging effects on the humanbody.<strong>The</strong> day helped the girls experience chemistry at university and was a fascinating insight into theworld of chemical and forensic analysis.Soon, <strong>Belvedere</strong> got its first real chemistrylab, used by students from 1904 onwards,while other information shows thatour school had, unusually, two scienceclubs in the 1920s, which were able totake advantage of exploring the manyindustries involving science in Liverpool(including the customary trip to thegas works!). <strong>Belvedere</strong> even had anastronomy club in the 1890s, somethingI’m sure many current <strong>Belvedere</strong> girlswould have been eager to get involved in.Professors Marelene F. Rayner-Canhamand Geoff W. Rayner-Canham’s book willbe published in around two years andI’m sure <strong>Belvedere</strong> pupils will be excitedto see what they say. It’s exciting to seehow <strong>Belvedere</strong> has, even since the 1800s,been a pioneer of female education andscience.By Chloe Nelson 13MWOMENIN SCIENCE