This week, we celebrated British Science Week, a ten-day event highlighting science, technology, engineering, and maths, with the theme this year being ‘Curiosity’. Staff and students marked the occasion through a range of activities, from science shows to alumni talks, and of course the annual Trinity School Science competition.
Trinity Partner Primary Schools
The week kicked off with an enthusiastic group of over 150 school children from our partner schools visiting Trinity to learn about science and present their own science projects to Trinity teachers.
The children started the afternoon off by being invited to look at a science exhibition where Trinity students enthusiastically presented their entries to the science competition. Projects ranged from understanding the universe in a scale using peas, creating erupting volcanoes and turning plastic gloves into hot sauce. The primary pupils were able to interact with our students and ask questions about their projects. Congratulations go to Third Year Alex who went on to win the competition for his research into the piezoelectric effect where he investigated the idea of whether we could turn dance power into electrical energy.
After a quick lunch break schools were escorted to the main concert hall, where they were treated to an enthralling science show by Dr Manchester, Head of STEM, and Mr Flanagan, Head of Physics. The show was interactive and fun, with lots of explosions, which delighted both children and staff alike. A highlight of the show was Dr Manchester’s demonstration where he turned copper into gold, or a ‘gold-medal’ as he put it. The children got very excited as he showed them how he changed the coins to silver, then heating it through to become gold.
The day concluded with the visiting school’s own science projects and posters getting judged and awarded by our teachers. Overall, the schools had an exciting day, and we hope they were further inspired to learn more about science.
Alumni talks
The week also consisted of several talks from external speakers and returning alumni talking about the work they do in STEM, and how they got into it. A highlight was alumnus Yunus Skeet, who spoke of his work in AI engineering. He also talked about his time at Trinity, what made him decide to read Mechanical Engineering at Bristol University, and how he got into his current field of work.
Other alumni guest speakers inspiring our students were satellite operator Joshua Bernard Cooper and Red Bull engineer, Daniel Gilbert. External speaker Dr Rehan Shah, Lecturer in Mathematics and Engineering Education at Queen Mary University of London, also came to talk about his career in maths, and provided an interactive lesson where students helped him solve some hard maths questions.
Science shows
Other activities running throughout the week were the ever popular, ‘flash bang’, science show performed by Dr Manchester as well as the Friday ‘Liquid Nitrogen Show’, where students were able to see what happened to materials when cooled by liquid nitrogen.
Commenting on the week, Dr Manchester said, “It was incredibly inspiring to see how enthusiastically our students embraced this year’s British Science Week theme of Curiosity. It was also wonderful to see our students sharing their knowledge so confidently with visiting primary school pupils, helping to spark curiosity in the next generation. Our speaker event was another highlight of the week; hearing our alumni reflect on their career journeys clearly resonated with many students. Seeing their enthusiasm and ambition, it is easy to believe that we have many future scientists and engineers in the making.”
Thank-you to everybody who made this week a success, we hope students learnt lots and were inspired.
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