Recently, the Science Faculty and year 12 science students showcased a number of presentations and activities for British Science Week, 2019. With the assistance of a great number of the year 12 biologists, chemists and physicists, we were able to hold an activity every break and every lunchtime.

The week kicked off with a presentation entitled ‘Can non-dairy milk save the world?’, followed at lunch by an external speaker, Mr Mark Cruise of the West Herts NHS Trust, introducing the volunteering system in place for kind hearted people to give some time to assist the young and old patients at the hospital as well as gaining experience in many departments and wards within one of the three hospitals in the trust. Volunteers must be 16 years of age when they begin their role and many students have alerted us to the fact that they now wish to sign up! Great news that the students of BMS are giving back to their community!

The Scientist of the Century was chosen by Het Mehta and Shrey Shah, as Nikola Tesla, the pair giving an inspiring insight into his life and work on Tuesday morning, followed by a presentation on the size and scale of us as humans at lunchtime.

Wednesday was the day of the Chem Demos, with the Chemolition Squad performing at breaktime with Elephant’s Toothpaste.

At lunch, we saw their return with the Briggs-Rauscher Oscillating Reaction.Erikson and Kasra gave us a new hope with their insight into their well researched possible cures for HIV during Thursday break time. At lunch, the public rat dissection, performed by the weirdly named ‘Scissor Sistors’ was an incredibly popular event, with the room bursting with eager students and staff trying to catch a glimpse of the action!Thursday’s science support session was keenly attended with over 70 students from Y11 attending! You can almost see the brain working as these students attempt to solve their individual science problems.The week culminated with two awe-inspiring presentations, the first of which saw Abenaa and Noor educating us further in the use of DNA as an information storage solution, developing one jaw-dropping fact introduced in the school’s assemblies on the theme of the week, Innovation. Noor, Kasra, Abenaa and Benjamin fronted the school assemblies during the week, entirely unassisted and in such a professional demeanour that they drew praise from Mrs Wright and Mr Turner for their presentation and public speaking clarity. To put you out of your misery, the fact was that all the information on the internet could now be squeezed into a space the size of an average shoebox!Dr Mark Rosser, our second external speaker of the week, blinded us with science and began his treatise by explaining that matter was being annihilated approximately 5 miles from Bushey Meads! Positron Emission Tomography (PET scanning) takes place at Mount Vernon Hospital, and he explained the innovation and detail behind this and the use of radioactive, targetted drugs as a means to destroy cancer, but without many of the debilitating side effects of traditional chemotherapy or radiotherapy. The science of this really did accelerate our students’ comprehension and aspiration, truly a fitting way to round off the week!One other matter, raised by SciSquad, our science student subject leaders wish each CD group to help with recycling. One student per group should be nominated per CD group and, with parental permission, place a bag in the CD room, taking this home with plastic / metal once per fortnight approximately, to better assist the school in becoming greener and more environmentally conscious.

What visions will science week 2020 bring? Will you be able to believe it if you see it with your own eyes? (Get the pun?)

The Science Faculty and Y12 Scientists 2019