On the 16th and 17th June, Ely College saw the triumphant return of their Science Festival! This two day event is weeks in the making, as Year 8 hosted their Science Fair on day one and Year 7 families joined us on day two. With restrictions preventing the event last year, staff and students wanted this year's Festival to come back with a BANG and they certainly exceeded all expectations!
Over the last month of so, Year 7 and 8 students have been working hard in their science lessons to come up with an investigation which they can then plan, test, evaluate and present. There was a huge variety in the projects they came up with including dissections, titrations and 'flying teabags'... with some very interesting results.
These projects allowed the KS3 students to have their first independent attempt at following the scientific method; to take on a whole project that they could take ownership for, from start to finish. It also meant that, for Year 8, they were able to submit their projects for the Bronze Crest Award. CREST is a scheme that inspires young people to think and behave like scientists and engineers. Find out more here: https://www.crestawards.org/
It was so nice to see how proud the students were of the work they had produced and a really nice opportunity for parents to see what they’d been working on; some of them visiting college for the first time. Mr O'Neil, Science Teacher and lead on this year's two day Science Festival event commented: "Verbal feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and we hope that the science fairs will be as popular next year."
Mr Warburton who attended the festival each day, engaging students in their presentations and asking questions, commented on the two day event: "It was wonderful to see so many parents and carers give up their time in the morning to visit our science fairs and talk through the students’ projects with them. It was already a hot day without all the Bunsen burners on, but the students loved being able to show their science investigations to such a wide and expert audience."
"After a period of not being able to welcome parents into college, to see at first hand the quality of the students’ work and their interactions with each other, I was thrilled to see so many visitors. We will look for more opportunities to invite parents and carers in to College in the future."
Well done to everyone who took part and thank you to families and staff who visited to engage with our students. This is an amazing experience for them and counts towards their PLEDGES record and awards.
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