Stem Clubs Activities
Wierd Science with Year 6
02nd February 2010
An fun introduction to STEMNET for some year 6 pupils led by our current members. Crazy hair was optional!
Pot-A-Doodle Reward Trip
02nd February 2010
September 2009 Wolsingham STEMNET group spent the weekend away at Berwick-upon-Tweed to reward our students for their oustanding commitment to STEMNET. We stayed in wooden wigwams, studied sea shore ecology and did some extreme kite flying (physics optional!).
Pop Bottle Greenhouse
02nd February 2010
Project for pupils to follow a design brief to build a greenhouse for the school allotment from fizzy drinks bottles.
Marie Curie Cancer Care Fundraising Daffodils
02nd February 2010
We planted 2 bags of Daffodils around the dome and we put up posters to say ‘If you like the daffodils why not donate to The Marie Curie cancer trust!!’
Sustainability
02nd February 2010
Working with a group of year 6 pupils we are designing an ‘Eco-friendly’ village to show people how we could live sustainably in the future.
STEMNET Project Launch 2009/10
01st February 2010
The Launch for the new STEMNET students began with our current STEMNET attendants (Who have stayed on to become STEM Advisors in year 10) brainstorming some ideas together about what would be a good project to launch the project to year 7 & 8 (who would in September become the new years 8 & 9). They came up with the idea of STEMNET does the Apprentice.
During the planning stages, they decided upon making soaps and bath butters as the students could go through the various stages of planning the products, who the products were to be aimed at, packaging, design, budgeting and marketing. They enlisted the help of Miss Rix and Mrs Foster to order and purchase materials needed, booking school rooms and inviting students to the launch day.
They decided that the alunch would be judged similar to the Apprentice, an so throughout the day judged the particiating students on a range of criteria which they themselves had set out.
During the day, the students were required to plan the product, make the product, plan the packaging, budget how much the products cost to make and how much they would cost to sell and eventually end the day by doing a presentation to the groups and the judging panel of our STEM advisors and the school Finance ManagerJohn Findlay.
The day was a huge success – we had loads of visitors from the school teaching staff who helped out during the day and the comments that were made about the organisation of the day, how well the students behaved and the lovely smell coming from the school conference room were all extremely positive.
The day was such a success that the school asked if they could display the end products in a cabinet at the front of school for visitors to see.
DNA
30th January 2010
The strands of strawberry DNA were huge, about 5-6cm long compared to the kiwi Chromosone strands that were about 2-3cm long. Looking at Dna from strawberries and kiwis, is quite an extraordinary site.
Cloning
30th January 2010
First we had to chop some coliflour then make it sterile by quikly and carefully by exanging the sterile water with the coliflour in until after three swaps we stuck it in the last vile to grow a complete clone of the vegetable.
Mini Eden
30th January 2010
We began by working on designing geodesic greenhouses. We have settled on a solardome which we are buying with a lottery grant. Students are currently investigating effects of colour of light on plant growth. Once our dome is up we will be developing irrigation systems etc to maintain the dome using alternative technologies.
We have begun designing and building the raised flower beds to go in the dome. The work has been ‘sub-contracted’ to the year 10 life skills team who will be constructing the beds as part of their DT work.
The dome raised beds are now complete and filled with the help of a local plant nursery. The banana is doing so well it’s growing through the top windows! The school has a gardening club who tend to the plants in the dome on a regular basis.
Bio-fuels
30th January 2010
In the summer we grew a selection of bio-fuels(wheat, rapeseed and maize) in our geodesic dome. During theAutumn term we processd the fuels,fermnting the wheat and making biodiesel from vegetable oil..getting the oil out of the rapesed proved a little tricky! So far we have done various tests on the quality of our fuels. We are currently builting two model steam cars to run on the fuels we have made. We are planning a challenge to see which fuel is best…..watch this space to fnd out which wins!
Penair Mythbusters
29th January 2010
Clearly inspired by the TV program the group are going to be testing myths, given to us by the students, to show whether they stand up to the rigors of science.
We have already confirmed that 2 yellow pages with the pages interlocked cannot be pulled apart by a car, or two burly teams of year 11 students in a tug of war.
Soon to be tested are:
Can you break glass with you voice?
Can a hoover lift your weight?
A great way to inspire problem solving using Engineering, Maths and Science
Ultimate Bridge Building Competition
28th January 2010
With the help of the Technology Dept we are entering the Ultimate Bridge Building Competition. We started looking at bridges around Easter 09 when we made spaghetti bridges, and just before Christmas 09 we had a competition within the group making bridges to span a gap of 1 metre using only sellotape and 1 pack of plant sticks, see PowerPoint. We are now designing and building bridges for the competition using ideas from the previous sessions and the internet, we await the results!!