Tuesday 31 January 2017

NHM Crime Scene Live

Greetings fellow Scientists!

If you are a fan of the CSI show, check out this amazing event at the Natural History Museum in London:


Crime Scene Live allows you to become a CSI investigator, analyse evidence and solve a crime. The event gives you a chance to work with experts in fingerprinting or forensic entomology: 














Friday 27 January 2017

Tie Dye Art with baby wipes

Greetings fellow Scientists!

On Tuesday we attempted another DIY project we found online (click here for the instructions). We used the baby wipes and felt tip pens to create these butterflies:










Have a go at home, it's easy! Send us the pictures of your work via Twitter @JRCS_Smarties.

Tuesday 24 January 2017

Tomorrow's Engineers - Energiser Event

Greetings fellow Scientists!

Today two Y7 top set Science students took part in the Tomorrow’s Engineers Energiser Event which has been designed to encourage the next generation of scientists and engineers. Our students had a chance to work with an engineer, Mr Nigel Moore, and learn about his job. The pupils looked at the following areas:

- Our World, Your Future – the effects of a growing world population;
- Potential Energy – the global energy mix including renewable and non-renewable energy
- Kinetic Energy – building and testing a Solar Car;  
- Engineering Careers – looking at what engineers do and the routes into engineering careers.

We had a lot of fun building wind turbines and cars of the future. Have a look at the photos from the sessions below.

Group 1 - 7J1










Group 2 - 7R1










Wednesday 18 January 2017

Winter Lights at Canary Wharf

Greetings fellow Scientists!

Until Friday 27th January you have a chance to explore the Winter Lights Festival in Canary Wharf. It's an exciting event which exhibits a great selection of art pieces by various artists, who use light as their medium. If you like physics, you are going to love all the exhibits as they allow you to explore light and sound.

"Our spectral vision" by Liz West

"Liter of light" by Mick Stephenson

"Angels of freedom" by Ove Collective, Merav Eitan and Gaston Zahr

"Light movements" by Neil Shirreff

 
"Transforming from stardust" by Lorna Carmen McNeill

 "On Your Wavelength has been developed specifically for Winter Lights at Canary Wharf. This interactive light sculpture and music installation is controlled by participant's mind via EEG headset. As their thought patterns change, the electrical data from their brain is used to control the music and create intricate light patterns, which illuminate a large-scale light tunnel fitted with over 30,000 LEDs" (source: Winter Light Festival brochure).


Tuesday 17 January 2017

Foam fire extinguisher

Greetings fellow Scientists!

Today we tested out a fun method for producing a foam fire extinguisher.

We started by dissolving aluminium sulfate in the first beaker.


Then, in the second beaker, we dissolved sodium hydrogencarbonate. 


After that, aluminium sulfate was transferred into a conical flask and we added a few drops of washing up liquid. 



Lastly, sodium hydrogencarbonate was added to the conical flask and this is what we have observed: