Activities tagged Biology
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.
Outdoor Classroom
11th June 2010
We wanted to be more sustainable after our environmental impact assessment and after lost of different projects we are trying something big! Adrian from Wholewoods (an environmental arts company) is working with year 8 pupils and a lot of volunteers from the staff to build and erect an outside classroom.
Adrian manages a forest in Sussex and he sources the wood from this forest in a sustainable way. So far the site has been cleared and we are in the process of stripping the sweet chestnut trees that will be the supports.
Will attach photos very soon as we have started a picture diary so we can illustrate the progress of this great project.
There is much support from other subjects particularly Maths who want to use this great environment to teach about circle theory and all sorts!
Science challenge
08th June 2010
Pupils from the club have been selected to participate in a forensic science challenge which involves four other schools in the local area.
Crime Scene Investigation (CSI)
02nd March 2012
Students donned their gloves and aprons, grabbed their police evidence note books for the first session of the CSI STEM. After being allowed to cross the crime scene cordoned area, students set about trying to solve ‘who dunnit’!!
In this first session students learnt the importance of collecting evidence from a crime scene. They took photos of the murder site and recorded any suspicious happenings before formally interviewing each of the 4 suspects (they all looked shady to me!!!). They took the 4 suspect’s finger prints and looked at fibres found at the scene under a microscope, sketching their appearance. All of their evidence from week 1 was bagged up ready for the 2nd and 3rd sessions.
Still to come in the CSI programme; students will take trainer prints from a variety of footwear and try to match it to one they ‘should’ have taken a photo of. They will compare their fingerprint samples with ones Forensic Scientists found on the victim. Students will also carry out a chromatography investigation to determine the ink used to write the note left at the scene.
The final session see’s students using DNA extraction techniques, just like the real deal!! (apart from we will look at the DNA of…fruit!!!)
The ultimate question remains…….WHO DUNNIT!!!!
Rolls Royce Project-monkeying around!
25th February 2010
Students from years 12,11,8 and 7 are working to produce a stimulating activity /toy to be introduced to primates at a zoo.
Students are now working in mixed age groups and have got their designs sketched and are presenting them to the whole club. They have considered how to construct them, what materials are suitable, how the feeder will work and where it will be located. this follows a visit to Chester zoo to meet the mandrills. this project has attracted additional funding after winning a place as a finalist in the Rolls Royce Science Prize.
Herb Garden & Weather Station
23rd September 2009
In order to investigate the importance of plants and grow some herbs for our future club activities like kitchen cookery we have decided to grow a herb garden in the front of our school.
This will lead to trips such as botanic gardens and Alnwick garden.
This is an on going project and will involve recording soil hydration, soil pH, measuring plant growth, effects of fertilising / vermiculite etc.
The effect of different weather conditions will be monitored and this will be related to plant growth.
This project will link with kitchen chemistry and weather station readings.
A bigger project to form an eco classroom outside the school for summer ecology lessons is being planned. (More information to be added soon).
Living Eggs
17th May 2011
A sample of fertilised chicken eggs were ordered from http://www.livingeggs.co.uk/. Along with the eggs was all the essential equipment needed to care for the young chicks once hatched.
An extract from the Living Eggs website:
Living Eggs Ready Hatch is a two week comprehensive programme providing all you need to successfully hatch chickens in your classroom.
Embryo eggs are provided, 2-3 days from hatching. The eggs are candled prior to shipping to ensure the highest possible success rate. No need to wait 3 weeks.
The Living Eggs incubators are specially designed for classroom hatching. An electronic thermostat ensures accurate temperature control for a high hatch rate. The large viewing windows allow the children to see all stages of hatching.
A brooder box complete with heat light, bedding, feed and waterer is supplied which allows teachers and children easy observation and access to the chicks.
A comprehensive instruction manual is supplied with the kit detailing all aspects of the programme.
Teachers Resources, including hundreds of activities directly linked to the National Curriculum are supplied on a CD with the kit, however this material can be accessed on our website with a password prior to the arrival of the programme.
Colourful wall posters are supplied depicting Life Cycles or Embryo Development depending on your pupils’ ages.
Living Eggs staff delivers the kit to your door. We set everything up for you and explain how it operates. Our friendly staff is only too happy to answer any queries you may have.
A helpline phone number is available 7 days a week to assist you with any queries or concerns you may have.
You are welcome to either keep the chicks or return them at the end of the programme. Should you decide to keep them, there are notes included on how to raise them. Please note once the programme ends and you choose this option, we cannot relocate chicks should circumstances change.
Year 7 After School Science Club 2011/2012
20th February 2012
At STM we run a weekly STEM Science Club for Year 7 Pupils.
We work in 2 week blocks rotating 4 themes. These consist of:
Bath bomb making (Chemistry)
Who Dunnit? (Forensics)
Disection (Biology)
Water rockets (Physics)
We have also done an interactive ‘Whizz Bang Show’ to round off the club.
Can You See what I Hear - project wins title at East Midlands Big Bang June 2011
20th October 2011
Redmoor High School took part in the Ignition sponsored Come Alive With Science Project during National Science and Engineering Week 2011. Working alongside 2 STEM ambassadors, over 80 pupils from years 7,8 and 9 put together a dramatic performance of how the brain communicates with the eye and the ear. It was entitled ‘Can you see what I Hear: My body’s Social Network’. The performance was based on a popular social network site – ours was called ‘FaceBod’. The pupils researched the function of the eye,ear and brain, wrote scripts, designed props, designed t-shirts, rehearsed endlessly and performed to several local primary schools.
As part of this activity a small group then took their project to the East Midlands Big Bang. Because we couldn’t take all 80 pupils, the group made a scale model of the show – using jelly babies! – put together a fabulous display and were thrilled when they were voted Best Stem Club Project 2011. This really was a fun project to be involved and the pupils learnt an awful lot along the way.
CSI Friesland
07th February 2011
Our first project of Year nine was CSI friesland. We learnt all about forensic science and Crime Scene Analysis. Here’s how we did it.
We started by looking at our own fingerprints and trying to see all the different features. After this we took the entire group up to a science lab in the sixth form and looked at our hair under microscopes and let’s just say some hair definitely had not been washed! Also, we analysed some animal hairs and compared them to the human ones, unfortunately we had to inform one of the school teachers that her cat had fleas. Soon we moved to blood analysis and trying to determine blood types. Obviously we weren’t allowed to use real blood for hygiene purposes so Miss Shapland mixed us a strange concoction of chemicals, vinegar, blood and food colouring. Finally we learnt all about Entomology by trying to identify how long someone had been dead by looking at the bugs on them. Again, we didn’t take a quick a visit to the morgue and we didn’t borrow a real dead body, we just looked at photos and gathered information about the bugs to make our own classroom-friendly versions.
A company the from the university called CEL came in to help us. They ran a workshop in which we had to try and determine who the killer was using all the skills we had learnt in previous sessions. We analysed “urine”, “blood”, “sick” and “bugs”.
Soon we had to start the rehearsal period for our end of project performance. This time was a murder mystery extravaganza, in which the audience got to take part in all of the experiments in the interval. With an amazing script written by one of our drama teachers we set out to perform an amazing new play.
On the night of the performance it all went well and all of our parents did really well at trying to understand the complicated experiments. We had a great time acting out all of the scenes and we found it hilarious no matter how many times we had done the scenes already. All in all a fantastic project :)
By Alanna Duff, Ruby Tebbs and Elsie Powers (again :D)
