NEWSLETTER events - The Cherwell School

science enric
The enrichment team kicked off the first term by
getting the Key Stage 3 Science Club up and running
and these young scientists have certainly been busy.
They have investigated the strength of Roman glue by
making some of their own, unlocked the secrets of nappies
by extracting the granules to see how much liquid they
could hold and discovered an alternative to the problem
of carbon emissions – some eggsperiments with eggs
proved they could hold a large amount of carbon dioxide.
More recently they became CSI Oxford and analysed how
the shape of blood splatters on solid objects was affected
by the distance the blood had travelled through the air.
Certainly not a club for the faint-hearted!
The Year 11 Applied Scientists were given a big boost to
their coursework research with visit representatives from a
range of industries including BP, NPower, Thatcham Motor
Insurance and LGC Forensics. This was a very productive
morning with the students gaining invaluable evidence for
their portfolios.
The Sixth Form Science talk series began this year with
Dr Erika Mancini from the University of Oxford who gave a
well-received talk about the genetic and epigenetic code,
explaining differences between identical twins. In the
following week, inventor and submarine expert Professor
Carl Ross, from Portsmouth University, spoke about recent
advances in submarines. Students were interested to hear
about his design to explore Jupiter’s moon Europa using
a robotic submarine. And finally, Dr David Pyle, University
of Oxford, came to speak about the Science of Volcanoes.
He outlined how they play a major role in the exchange of
heat, gases and other trace chemicals between the Earth’s
interior, atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere.
The full lecture series is displayed in Sixth Form tutor
rooms, science labs and on the school website and is open
to sixth formers from other schools