British Science Week at Chelsea Academy – Mrs Holgate
This year we are very excited to be running Science Week activities over two weeks from 6th March until 20th March. This includes welcoming volunteers from Imperial College, STEM ambassadors from international engineering, finance and computing companies, and guest speakers from the Centre of the Cell. We look forward to showing you more in the next edition of the Chelsea Academy Update, but here’s a summary of what happened on Day 1!
Imperial Spectroscopy in a Suitcase – Yr 12 Chemistry workshops – Miss Edge
Year 12 Chemistry students all attended a spectroscopy workshop on Monday from Imperial College London. As well as fitting in with their AS chemistry course the workshop covered how analytical techniques are used in Formula 1, medicine, the Olympics and even music festivals such as Glastonbury to identify chemicals. The students got to analyse real spectra as part of a problem solving task and got to use a state of the art portable IR spectrometer worth £56,000! Everyone enjoyed using the exclusive equipment and gained essential skills for their AS course.
7Mars chat online with Scientists – I’m a scientist get me out of here! – Mrs Holgate
Students in 7Mars at Chelsea Academy have been interacting with scientists from across the UK in an online public engagement event aimed at getting students excited about science. I’m a Scientist, Get me out of here sees students putting scientists through their paces through online live chats in which they can ask the experts about anything, from climate change to coding. The aim of the event is to get students excited about science. Students see that scientists are normal people, learn that science lessons relate to real life, and become more enthused about science.
We look forward to taking part in I’m a Scientist every year; it’s a fantastic opportunity for our students to understand the work of real scientists, and be able to put their own questions to them about their career choices and interests. This year we were delighted to participate in the Organs Zone of the competition, chatting to Scientists including Neuroscientist Natalie Doig (see photo).
