Science
Biology
The Department endeavoured to inspire our young Biologists with some innovative remote teaching again this year, and the experience of the first lockdown meant we could at least hit the ground running. Students were sent out into their gardens on a flower safari, hunting for flowers of different shapes that attract pollinators of different types. They sampled tree trunks to quantify the amount of algae growing on different aspects of the trunk and undertook studies to investigate how different vegetation grows and develops over time as the soil is enhanced by added organic matter. They even conducted some fieldwork indoors, creating a complete self-sustaining ecosystem in a jam jar and creating home-made quadrats out of straws or pencils to sample organisms (beads or seeds) on the living room carpet.
BioSoc Live moved online for this year, an interactive lecture with the Fourth Year and above, which explored the importance of fat in the diet and involved tasting home-made fat free cakes!
unperturbed, undertaking interesting and fun science experiments. Unfortunately, Covid restrictions meant they were unable to play host to the Junior School Fifth Year, which is usually a highlight of the Science calendar for both them and us. The Lower Sixth were able to go on the Slapton Sands Field Trip, investigating sand dune succession, trapping moths and small mammals and going on a bat walk. And the Second Years were treated to an amazing raptor display at the end of the Summer Term by Hawkeye Falconry. A wonderful end to the year! Ms M Westwood
Chemistry
Chemistry lesson plans were reorganised before the start of the year to maximise the amount of practical work we did in the first half of the Autumn Term, just in case there was another lockdown. This proved to be a good decision and the subsequent lockdown put paid to some of the more practical teaching, including the Chemistry of Art sessions for the Fifth Year.
Some core components of the Churcher’s Biology year were untouched: thankfully the First Year Gophers Club was able to continue
Cosmetics Club continued in the Autumn Term despite all the restrictions, although it did mean that the Sixth Form were not able to help as in previous years. Some enthusiastic Second Year pupils made soaps, lip balms, body butter and more.
48
The Churcherian 2021
In the Summer Term, the Second Year academy group learnt about gunpowder and other explosives. For obvious reasons practical work and demonstrations in this area are more limited, but pupils were able to investigate aspects of explosives such as the role of oxidising agents, the difference between substances burning and exploding, and the difference in power output when the same fuel burns or detonates. ChemSoc has grown this year under the guidance of Mr Chen. Aimed at the Sixth Form to provide them with a forum to investigate, present and discuss Chemistry ideas beyond the scope of the A Level course. The enthusiasm of the students made it a real high point of the week. The Chemistry Olympiad is aimed at the most able Upper Sixth students, although it is open to the Lower Sixth, too. The aim is used to select the best four students in the country to form the UK schools’ team which competes in the International Chemistry Olympiad. This year it was held remotely with staff invigilating remotely via Teams. 7,160 of the best A Level chemists entered this year with the top 635 (8.9%) awarded a Gold certificate, the next 1,663 a silver and the next 2,356 a Bronze. Over a third of those that entered did not achieve a certificate.
