Science Week at DCIS
The first DCIS Science Week was an enriching and exciting week that mirrored the annual British national science week.
This was the first DCIS Science Week, an enriching and exciting week that mirrored the annual British National Science Week. Such science weeks aim to engage and inspire people of all ages with science, engineering and technology. We know at DCIS that our learners love scientific demonstrations and experimental procedures, so we were determined to deliver a week of activities that was beyond the normal curriculum and memorable.
On Monday we fired off with Mr. Goold’s Flame Show, a series of combustion demonstrations including methane-bubbles, whoosh-drum and flame tests. Such demonstrations not only ignited the excitement of the audience but also had a more serious message of the care that must be taken when handling flammable materials around rich oxygen sources and heat energy. No teachers were harmed during these demonstrations, but there were a few singed hairs!
On Tuesday we invited in the portable planetarium from Singapore's National Science Centre. Year 8 was the lucky year group selected to all experience the planetarium and learn about the wonders of our night's sky. Constellations are not taught on the curriculum, so it was a unique experience for these learners to discover the many fascinating myths and legends that surround the patterns of these celestial bodies.
On Wednesday we had a session of discovery and wonder, for those with strong stomachs. Ms Binkin and Mr. Barry led a group of students through an ‘owl pellet’ dissection. For those you not familiar with owl pellets, they are masses of undigested material regurgitated by owls following a tasty meal. As such the pellet often contain the complete skeletons of small mammals, amphibians or birds. Participants carefully and painstakingly pulled the pellets apart with their dissection kits, to reveal the many skulls and bones inside.
On Thursday Mr. Tuckley sparked some more excitement into the week with a Lightning Show. With his trusty Van der Graff generator, a contraption which builds up large amounts of static electricity; he amazed and inspired his audience, most of which left with their hairs standing up on end. The most impressive demonstration was the lighting of a Bunsen burner from a spark generated from the end of a volunteers finger. You have to be very brave to get this infamous procedure to work!
Friday was the big finale. The entire science teaching team delivered a rather wacky extra-long special assembly, which included the teachers lip-syncing a parody of a Talyor Swift favourite, before the chaotic but very funny annual Science House Quiz. There was the usual Kahoot quiz round but then followed by some more silly rounds, such as ‘name that element’, where contestants had to say chemicals from the periodic table with a ‘shout-out’ mouthpiece in. Needless to say, there were a lot of laughs and dribble. Newton won the 2019 Science House Quiz, closely followed by Jurong, but all the quiz teams and the audience did themselves proud. It was certainly a memorable experience and week for all. We will need to start preparing for next year, if we want to make sure our science weeks only get bigger and better.
Adam Goold
Head of Science
