6 February 2024
Mrs Emma Petty, Head of Biology
Lower Sixth Formers Maisie Grace and Phoebe, members of our ever-popular Sixth Form Biology Society, ran a highly interactive workshop for Year 10 students on Tuesday 30 January. The topic was cell membranes, which at GCSE level tend to be thought about as simply lines around a blob of a cell. Our A Level students, having an appreciation of the complexity of the membrane and its specialised components, shared their knowledge with our younger students, many of them on our Kritikos programme, by means of a memorable experiment – modelling the cell membrane with bubbles. Our Year 10s loved how the membrane could be explained in such a fun way, particularly enjoying some tricks, including bouncing a bubble and making hole in it using string to represent transport proteins. Later the same week, a lesson about the kidney demonstrated the real world application of what they had learnt, which the workshop participants shared with their classmates.
Well done to Maisie Grace and Phoebe, who expertly planned and ran the workshop, demonstrating admirable leadership skills and passing on their passion for biology to the younger students, who had plenty of positive feedback.
Laura: 'The workshop definitely extended my knowledge. I loved the smart way of mimicking the cell membrane through bubble mixture - it was very educational and inspirational. I learnt how cell membranes are partially permeable for small molecules and about the different layers of just a simple, thin cell membrane. The Sixth Formers were so helpful and kind.'
Sophie: 'I enjoyed the biology workshop because it was a good way to discover more about the cell membrane. I am thinking about taking A Level Biology and it was nice to learn about the course content.’
Next up, Biology Society is planning a workshop for Year 9 students, where they will put their learnings about osmosis into practice by observing it in action through a microscope.