NEWS FROM THE SCHOOL
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School Partnership Grant
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The Biology Department has received one of only 20 Royal Society school partnership grants to work
with scientists from the prestigious Babraham Research Institute based in Cambridge. The project will run for the academic year, involving all year groups and led by Year 12 and 13 biologists. They will be supported in the research by scientists at Babraham who will visit the school. There will also be trips throughout the year to the Babraham labs to undertake more DNA based research. Babraham are world leaders in biological research into the molecular processes that cause aging and disease. The grant is to fund research into the epigenetics (inheritance of characteristics but not due to changes in the DNA) of C. elegans, a little nematode worm (1mm long). Students will attend scientific meetings at the Royal Society and at the Cambridge Science Festival to present their results. They will be addressing a real research question that has not been investigated before and this could lead to scientific publication.
This work has now started and they reported in February that they had begun their worm project. The scientists from Babraham Institute came to show them how to bleach C.elegans, causing them to release their eggs to see the effects of heat from one generation to the next. The students have learnt new practical skills, ie, using very accurate pipettes and also been introduced to new equipment, such as a centrifuge. After this they collected apples that students in Year 13 planted the previous week to allow them to investigate by environmental sampling if there were any of the worms living in Colchester soil.
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STEM Exchange Visit to China
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A level Physics students and Miss Blackburn spent half term visiting their exchange partners at Yangzhou High School, in the Jiangsu Province of China. The school is much larger than ours, with over 2000 students. Our students joined in with many of the lessons and experienced the extremely long school day in China, from around 7 am until 9 pm at night. Chinese students largely spend their time in one classroom. Our students were able to demonstrate their practical skills in one of the labs. When studying science, there are specially designed laboratories that students use to complete experiments. There are also specialised laboratories for Physics, and we had a Physics lesson using their data loggers. As well as science laboratories, the school as special rooms for robotics. It even has its own 3D printer. Students were able to experience traditional Chinese arts with stamp carving, calligraphy and watercolour painting. There was also an opportunity to teach an English Oral lesson. In this class students are educated about English culture and practise speaking English. Our students taught about English food, particularly desserts. The food in China is very varied. Cakes can be made from rice. One familiar food was the duck pancakes! At the farewell party, students and staff celebrated another successful visit. Three of our students performed a song, playing the guitar and singing. They received a massive round of applause.
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Jack Petchey Award
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Poppy Sugden has been presented with a Jack Petchey Foundation Achievement Award for her work in support of the Sparkle Foundation. This charity works with local communities to create sustainable health, nutrition and education projects in one of the poorest countries in the world – Malawi. Poppy has been fundraising for the charity by selling handicrafts from Malawi at a range of events. Poppy’s family have been hosting Malawian student Patricia, who was invited to the UK by the foundation to develop English skills, boost her education and broaden her opportunities. In Malawi, 1 in 14 children die before the age of 5 and over 50% of girls are married before the age of 18. Sarah Brook, the founder of Sparkle, came to CCHSG to present the award and talk to Year 8 about the work of the charity.
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