A number of events have taken place over the past five days as part of the annual Epsom College Science Appreciation Week.
Organised jointly by the Biology, Chemistry and Physics departments, Science Appreciation Week is designed to encourage all pupils to explore science and STEM outside the formal curriculum and involves a number of exciting demonstrations and activities.
The programme kicked off when Ian Dunne of Do Science treated the Lower School pupils to a ‘Magic of Science’ lecture in Big School. The talk investigated the biology, chemistry and physics behind some amazing magic illusions and delighted his audience by performing some of those tricks.
On Wednesday we hosted Colin Stuart, a renowned author and astronomer who co-wrote astronaut Tim Peak’s Guide to Being an Astronaut book. Colin wowed our Lower School with a talk looking at how we could journey beyond the moon to Mars, and the engineering and scientific breakthroughs that could help us on the way.
Colin then presented a talk on how we’ll live on Mars to our Fifth Form pupils, explaining areas of the GCSE curriculum and linking these to the science behind space exploration. He demonstrated how the biology, chemistry and physics that pupils study at the College can allow them to be the pioneers of the future by solving engineering problems and venturing to Mars and beyond.
The highlight of the week for the Middle Fourths was a live display of birds of prey by Martin Ballam from Dorset-based Xtreme Falconry, who showed and spoke about the characteristics of birds including a British barn owl and Indian eagle owl.
The Lower Sixth biologists also travelled to Southampton University for an afternoon seminar on Biological sciences.
The week finished with a bang for the Upper Fourths with one of the UK’s most popular firework science presenters, Matthew Tosh. Matthew returned to the College to give a presentation on The Science of Fireworks in which he gave a live explosives demonstration and discussed how chemistry and physics are used to build, design and engineer fireworks.
We also have a science photography competition running this week, which all pupils can take part in. All they need to do is take a photo to fit this year’s theme: ‘Protecting the Environment’.
The photo can be taken on a camera, mobile phone or iPad, it must be original and submitted to science@epsomcollege.org.uk by 6pm on Monday 27 January.
