The 29th January to the 3rd February saw Glebelands School host its annual Community Science week. Nearly 400 students from
Years 1 to 6 from local primary schools, as well as students from Years 7 and 8 at Glebelands took part.
It was a fantastic experience with students taking on the role of engineers to design a way of dropping aid from a plane without it breaking. Unfortunately, the school budget did not allow for the use of a real plane so instead it was a large ladder. The aid that needed to be dropped was a whole egg which had to be easily removable at the end.
Students needed to purchase materials and ensure that they stayed in budget to complete the chal- lenge from the Glebelands shop. Students were awarded points for the science used, their design, being in budget, how easy it was to get the aid out and whether or not the egg survived. As Glebelands is a Science and Mathematics specialist
we also set a Maths challenge for the students to complete to gain extra points.
I was really impressed with the range of designs that the students used from across all year groups, with varying levels of success. The strangest design being a spikey Plasticine shell which just proceeded to skewer the egg on impact! You could see all the students looking with baited breath as their design was dropped, and the joy if it survived, or the disappointment when the egg was seen oozing out of the sides after hitting the floor.
The overall week was a great success and it gives the school real pleasure to be able to host this event each year, hopefully inspiring students to think about careers in the much needed STEM subjects in the future.
– Mr Stefan Radwanski Head of Science
