Bexley Grammar School has had another exciting and action-packed year of STEM. There is a summary in the Summer Magazine that is well worth a read, to see all the things the students have been doing.

The summer holidays are a great time for students to build up experiences that they do not have time for during a busy term. It can be an opportunity to develop an interest and also build up evidence of your passions. Whether a Year 8 student has an afternoon free or a Year 12 student is looking for something to add to their Personal Statement, there are lots of fantastic online resources to help spark an interest in Science. I would highly recommend students have a look at the University of Oxford’s Independent Science Magazine, which has a wealth of fascinating articles and reports from the cutting edge of scientific research. In addition, the Royal Society awards a Science Book Prize annually. The 2024 shortlist will be out over the summer, but the 2023 list is also well worth a look. It includes books for those interested in any STEM field, from Engineering to Evolutionary Biology and everything in between. Please see more details here.

Primary Science Clubs

Over the last four weeks, three local primary schools have been fortunate to be visited by our Science Leaders. The teams of Year 12 leaders have been delivering a series of Science Workshops after school to Year 5 pupils. They have been absolutely amazing and the glowing reports from the Primary Schools fill me with pride. The Science leaders represented our school really well and helped to promote a love of science.

Ms Lusted, STEM Coordinator

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

STEMFEST ENGINEERING PROGRAMME

Bexley Grammar Students Win Big!

For six weeks this spring, a group of 30 Year 8 students were invited to take part in a new Engineering Programme called STEMFEST run by The Fest Hub. The aim of the programme is to bring together schools, engineers and the football community to inspire a new generation of engineers. Our school was paired with Charlton Athletic Football Club and an Engineering Firm called Ramboll Group, and we competed against two other schools from the London area.

 

 

 

 

Students worked with engineers and representatives from Charlton’s Community Outreach team over a number of weeks to learn about engineering and its role in football and also to design a new stadium. We then attended a grand final at the London Stadium where they pitched their ideas to a panel of industry experts, who then quizzed them on their designs. I was incredibly proud of how all the teams performed. Anyone would have found the presentations daunting, but they all rose to the challenge and really represented Bexley Grammar School brilliantly.

All the students were given a goodie bag and enjoyed the novelty of having a free lunch, which made us all feel very professional!

Overall, our teams did fantastically well, winning three out of the six prizes available (we didn’t actually enter two of them but who’s counting??)

Ms R Lusted, STEM Coordinator

The winners were:

Most Sustainable Design

Nibodh Shrestha, Jason Hammond, Victoria Lawani & Guin Homfray

Best Presentation

Radleigh Pompei, Adam Sulcas, Sid Pant & Josh Rehal

Strongest Bridge

Lilla Berglund, Florie Nalepa, Freya Savage, Hannah Keeling,
Katy Fletcher & Christopher Male

A student’s perspective 

Stemfest was an amazing opportunity to learn more about the field of engineering, allowing us to learn more about a profession we may want to pursue in the future. They accomplished this by setting us the task of redesigning Charlton Athletic Football Club's, 'The Valley'. We then spent the next few sessions of STEMFEST learning about the roles of engineers in a team and working on our presentation for the redesign of The Valley stadium. We started the event by, in groups, building the strongest bridge possible with newspaper rolls and cable ties. Juice cartons filled with water were then placed onto the bridge to see how much load our bridges could hold. This depended on our design and how well our bridge dispersed the weight of the load. The winner of this bridge contest was a group from our school with a load of 43 cartons, each weighing 1.75kg to a total of 75.25kg, which broke their all-time record.

We then went to present our group presentation that we had been working on over our past few STEMFEST sessions to a board of professionals who assessed our stadium designs and presentation skills. After that, we were treated to a buffet of sandwiches. Then it was inspirational speeches delivered to us by special guests who, against all odds, became incredibly successful in the engineering industry, passing some of their immense knowledge onto the new generation of potential engineers. This was followed up by the award ceremony, which presented the well-deserved to students awards for best design, sustainability, and presentations, being awarded a trophy and a £30 Amazon gift card, and although I didn't win, I still had a very enjoyable experience. Throughout this experience, I have learnt greatly about the field of engineering, and it has developed my interest in engineering and increased my curiosity in science.

Elwood Battye, Year 8

Please click on the link here to view the STEMFEST Photo Gallery.

Chemistry in Action

On the 29th February, myself and a group of higher chemistry students went to the Chemistry in Action lecture at the Emmanuel Centre in London. In this lecture we gained an insight into multiple fields of chemistry that we could go into in the future and their current ideas and innovations in solving problems with society, the environment and industry.

We learnt about the current progress in making batteries more sustainable by finding more environmentally friendly alternatives for their components while also trying to increase their effectiveness in supplying and storing energy.

In nuclear chemistry we were informed about the ways that nuclear waste can be recycled in order to decrease the amount of high level nuclear waste. Some fission products can be used in medicine to target metastatic cancer cells and in space exploration in the form of nuclear batteries. They debunked misconceptions and explained in detail how nuclear waste is disposed of and how rigorous safety regulations are, which definitely helped ease a lot of our fears about the disposal of nuclear waste affecting the environment.

Then there was a panel of Chemistry graduates who gave their experiences in university and career decisions. We could go into chemical engineering, with study years abroad, and write a PhD on a cell's chemical signals or work in industry in analytical chemistry and do an iterated Masters, or even do an apprenticeship and specialise in crystallisation of medicine. What connected all of their experiences together was a love and curiosity for chemistry.

Since important tests are coming soon, a professional chemistry marker explained and clarified the questions on the papers and helped us avoid common errors in regard to the command terms in the question. As usual, always read the question.

An “Accidental” Material Chemist explained how she became passionate about material chemistry through opportunities offered by university and international competitions, pushing science to its limits. She also wrote a PhD on creating a type of composite pellet that would be viable as a sustainable container of hydrogen to power cars, which involved lots of hands-on practical work and exploring different ratios of material to see new properties.

Finally, we learnt about the ways that synthetic chemistry can help diseases like snake bites in the tropics (a commonly disregarded illness). Current treatments include antivenoms which rely on knowing the species of snake for a specific medicine or having to deal with multiple horrible side effects from receiving many different antivenoms. Antivenoms are also really expensive, hard to synthesise and hard to transport due to their temperature requirements, so chemists have been trying to synthesise glycopolymers in order to replicate the properties of antivenoms in order to diagnose and treat snake bites while also increasing accessibility of healthcare to all people.

This was a fantastic learning experience which broadened our horizons with what we can do with the field of chemistry in the future.       

Adrianne Yu-Mason, Year 12

This was a fantastic introduction to British Science Week which commences on Friday 8th March, so please look out for more STEM events organised by the Science Department.

Mrs Moore, Head of Science

There are a huge number of extra-curricular clubs and competitions running throughout the year that fall within the umbrella of STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Maths). Check out our timetable for a full breakdown.

They start next week and some sixth form activities only run for the autumn term so don’t delay!

Just turn up!

Ms Lusted, STEM Coordinator

Power Day 2 on the 24th November had a STEM theme.

For Years 9 and 10 this meant workshops run by ambassadors. Despite the threat of Covid, we managed to pull in a record number of ambassadors with two full year groups taking part for the first time.

Year 9 each completed three different workshops including food technology, engineering, product design, architecture, emergency medicine, police robotics and computer science. Sadly, the emergency medicine ambassador had her own medical emergency a few days before the event and broke her foot! This meant that she could not deliver the session in person but put together a virtual workshop instead. Although this meant a slightly different approach we all appreciate the efforts she went to!

For Year 10, seven engineers from a variety of specialisms joined them in completing a series of tasks and challenges throughout the day. We are extremely grateful to them all for giving up their time to come in and inspire our young people.

Every workshop meant an opportunity to work as a team, problem solve and think creatively, and also meet someone who really works in that field. As always our students impressed all our visitors with their attitudes, efforts and achievements. The ideas and creations from both year groups were amazing, and I couldn’t have been more proud!

"In engineering we were tasked to make a roller coaster out of various materials like cardboard boxes, paper cups and tape. For the first part of the session we were taught about different types of engineering and the process engineers go through to create. I think it would have been a little more interesting to learn more about the different jobs you can go into regarding engineering and the different subjects within it, as they were only touched on briefly. Making the roller coaster was very fun, and the presenter made sure to come around to each group and check how we were working. I think the group sizes (about four or five) worked very well as there were enough people so that there were lots of ideas, and it was enjoyable, but not too many that there was room for arguments, and it was very well planned and termed so that we could all understand.

I think a lot of people wanted to do cooking, so some were disappointed when they didn't get it. Obviously that can't be helped, but I wonder if there are ways to get more engaging subjects for people who aren't as academically focused on classic STEM subjects. I think a good example of this was the last minute product design workshop that replaced the medicinal chemistry one, but I think all the workshops did a good job of being accessible and engaging for all students.”

A happy student, Year 9

Click here to view the STEM Power Day 2 2021 photo album.

 

It has already been a busy start to the year for ‘STEM’ers at BGS.

Timetable of clubs

STEM Club	Years 7-8	Tuesday, M16 at lunchtime
Chemistry Club	Years 7-9	Thursday, M8 at lunchtime
Engineering Club	Years 10-11	Monday, H2 after school
Senior Science Society	Years 12-13	M6 at lunchtime

 

Increasing Diversity in STEM
We are all well aware of the stereotypes around what an ‘engineer’ looks like and the lack of diversity in some STEM careers. At BGS we are passionate about levelling the playing field and ensuring everyone has high aspirations and the opportunities to achieve them. There is an amazing program coming up, and I am pleased to help support our students in applying.

 

Young Women in STEM - female talent programme 
Female and non-binary students in Year 12 could get the opportunity to learn about the world of STEM through a series of group mentoring sessions, work experience and workshops. Plus meet the females leading top UK companies.

With the option to nominate only ten students and only 100 places available nationally, competition will be stiff, but I hope to be reporting the successful application of our students in the coming weeks.

 

Engineering Club - Special Event
Open to all years! ‘I’m an Engineer, Get me out of here’ SPACE edition!

When? Monday 18th October 3.15pm- 4.15pm Where? H2

We will be chatting live to real engineers who work in the field of space exploration and observation. Please email lusted_r@bexleygs.co.uk if you are interested in joining us for this event.

 

The Senior Society
The Senior Society has been researching and taking it in turns to present on topics of their own choosing and are looking at attending some online lectures.

You can join these lectures too using the link: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/attend/

The Senior Science Society is a group of Sixth Form students that gather together once a week to present and discuss a range of scientific topics. From next-gen fighter jets to new Covid treatments, it provides an opportunity for students to come together and engage with scientific news around the world, as science should not be limited to the classroom. Recently, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to deliver a presentation on Dementia and how cognitive stimulation in the workplace could lower the risks of developing the disease later on in life. The presentation allowed me to not only share new scientific knowledge with my peers, but also to start conversations about the validity of scientific experiments and what it means for a study to be “reliable”. If there is one thing I really enjoy about the Senior Science Society, it is definitely the discussions we have after presentations. Hearing the variety of viewpoints and passionate ideas that other students have is refreshing, and further amplifies my belief that learning science is about keeping in touch with the world around you and how it relates back to what you know.

Shannen Sarkodie, Year 13