8 May 2024
On Thursday 2 May, Lower Sixth members of Woldingham’s STEM Society and Head of Science Mr Rickard ran the first of three STEM for Schools events, designed to excite and inspire children in Years 5 and 6 about science.
Hattie C, Lower Sixth STEM Society member and Academic Ribbon
Our first eager bunch of pupils ready to become scientists for the afternoon came from Granville School, a school for girls in Sevenoaks. Mr Rickard started things off with a bang - quite literally – demonstrating highly exothermic reactions by exploding hydrogen balloons, which resulted in a chorus of happy squeals and much excitement from our visitors. Other demonstrations of this included incinerating Jeff the jelly baby, which also wowed the girls and caught their imagination.
The second half of the session was led by Lower Sixth STEM Society members. Onome and Keira ran an interactive session teaching the pupils how to use a Bunsen burner, where they had a lovely time switching between the blue roaring flame and the orange safety flame. Next, Anna and I taught them how to make brush bots using circuits and a motor. This was one of their favourite activities as they got to decorate the bots with googly eyes and gems. Finally, Andrea and Constance guided them through making hoop gliders - a very fancy paper aeroplane that travels much further than a standard one. The girls took their creations for a test fly outside and everyone came back beaming. To their dismay, it was time for them to leave the valley and return to Sevenoaks after a jam-packed afternoon of fun and learning.
