British Science Week at Queen Anne's School

The week commencing Monday 11 March was British Science Week!

At Queen Anne’s, this week was packed full of various STEM events, and extra special guests from the field of science.

Monday 11 MArch - Inter-House Science Competition

British Science Week kicked off with our Inter-House Science competition.

All of our teams put in their best efforts, and the competition was fierce, but in the end, the results were as follows:

• 1st place Maddock
• 2nd place Fflyer
• 3rd place Wilkins
• 4th place Webbe
• 5th place Wisdome

Congratulations Maddock!

Tuesday 12 March - Sixth Form Brain Day with Dr Guy Sutton

On Tuesday, our Sixth Form Biology and Psychology students were joined by Dr Guy Sutton, for an interactive ‘Brain Day’.

Dr Sutton gave interesting and engaging talks about various aspects of the brain, including brain anatomy and development, neurons and synapses, brain disorders, neurobionics, and organoids.

The ‘Brain Day’ was rounded off with dissections of sheep brains, which gave our students a hands on opportunity to explore further into how the brain works.

Dr Sutton’s talks were extremely engaging – he was clearly very passionate about his work, and this infectious excitement had a hugely positive impact on our students and their learning.

Wednesday 13 - Working in the NHS with Queen Anne's Alumna Alexandra Redpath

On Wednesday, our U5 students were joined by Alexandra Redpath, who was a student at Queen Anne’s in the 1980’s.

Alexandra has spent a large amount of her career working as a nurse in the NHS.

The NHS is the biggest employer in Europe, and the fifth biggest employer in the world, with a variety of roles available.

Alexandra has experienced working in various departments, such as A&E, pediatrics, and sport medicine.

She told our girls about her personal highlights working as a nurse, which included working voluntarily as part of the medical team for the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, as well as the Commonwealth Games -twice!

“Its such fun working in sport medicine!” she told our girls.

Alexandra Redpath’s talk was funny, entertaining, and extremely insightful into the possibilities that working in the NHS can lead to. Our girls really enjoyed her visit!

Thursday 14 - Why Study Science? With Professor Lord Robert Winston

On Thursday, our students had the pleasure of being joined by renowned British scientist Professor Lord Robert Winston.

Professor Winston spoke to our girls about his career in science, and his encouragement and admiration of women in STEM.

“Don’t be frightened if you don’t know where you want to be going.” Professor Winston explained.

After applying to medical school, he actually took a break to work in theatre for a couple of years, and then made the move back to science.

Much of Professor Lord Robert Winston’s studies revolve around fertility, including IVF. His passion for his work was clear throughout his talk, and he shared many inspiring examples of why studying science is so important, and can be so rewarding.

“One of the reasons I love to study and talk about biology is that it’s beautiful!” he told our girls.

The Biology Department at Queen Anne’s made a generous donation to Professor Lord Robert Winston’s charity Genesis Research Trust, that undertakes ground-breaking research to improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of a range of devastating conditions affecting women and their babies.

L4's Plastic Recycling Challenge

Thursday also saw our L4 students take on a plastic recycling challenge!

They spent their chemistry lesson looking at how to separate plastics for recycling.

They saw how some plastics dissolved in water, and how polystyrene reacted with propanone, before a class experiment to separate plastics by density.

Some of the older girls gave their time to help the younger girls and shared their expertise showing great community spirit. Thank you India, Abby and Camille.

L4Q discussed their findings with Lord Winston when he popped in to see what they were doing after his talk. A truly inspiring day in Science at Queen Anne’s!

Friday 15 - Mufti Day

On Friday, British Science Week at Queen Anne’s came to a close with a science themed MUFTI Day!

British Science Week was a busy time at Queen Anne’s School, but was extremely valuable to our students, and has really inspired a passion in STEM subjects.

Thank you to everyone who made this wonderful week possible!