STEM Week

In tandem with British Science Week, we hosted a range of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths-related activities.

On International Women’s Day, Year 6 Scientists joined pupils from across the GDST for a Royal Institution virtual workshop on chemical reactions, complete with exploding jelly babies.

Throughout STEM Week, Senior School pupils had a full programme of virtual lunchtime speakers, including Google Cloud communications expert, Laura Wheeler; AI Professor Rose Luckin of UCL; and CEO of the Guardian Media Group, Dr Annette Thomas. With the girls back in school, they were able to enjoy a range of STEM activities in person, from puzzle-solving to escape room challenges. A wealth of recommended after-school, online talks included Professor Chris Whitty on infection and immunity, Dr Hannah Fry on the Mathematics of Love, and YouTube videos ranging from building skyscrapers and the future of nuclear energy. Movie night suggestions included Hidden Figures, Mercury 13 and The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.

The House Science Fair competition generated impressive results from pupils of all ages. In the Junior School, Tamara in Year 6 took the prize for her fantastic explanation showing why ice floats, in which she demonstrated how the volume of water increases when frozen and discussed icebergs along with the Titanic disaster. In the Senior School, Lower Sixth student Eleanor’s winning experiment focused on the number of coke bottles needed to build a jetpack enabling a South Hampstead penguin to take flight.

Another competition which attracted creative entries from across both the Junior and Senior School was STEM Photographer of the Year. Olivia in Year 2 was awarded the top Junior prize for her effective photo of ice and its reflection. Alina in Year 8 was awarded the top Senior prize for her image ‘Apophenia’, illustrating the tendency to perceive meaningful connections between seemingly unrelated things.

Students across the Senior School also entered brilliantly written essays for the GDST STEM 700 writing competition on a range of topics from the influence of artificial intelligence on organic chemistry to the challenges of discovering extra-terrestrial life. We await the results from the GDST, but have awarded the South Hampstead prize to Jacqui in Year 10 for her incredible essay for which she wrote a program that simulated the effect of an evolving virus on a susceptible population and discussed what can be learnt from modelling viruses in this way.