Biology

With the return of public exams, the expectation for A Level and GCSE grades has been high, giving our strong cohorts the opportunity to prove themselves against the rest of the country. The departure of Miss Cuthbertson led to the arrival of another new Biology teacher, Miss Finnegan, all the way from Cornwall.

We were able to resume our Brain Day, in collaboration with Psychology, with visiting lecturer Dr Guy Sutton delivering yet another engaging day of lectures to the Sixth Form biologists that included a sheep brain dissection. A Level students took part in the UKBC Biology Olympiad in March with some outstanding achievements. Kyle Park, Louis Pisarro-Jensen, Lara Pilcher and Rohan Korpal all achieved Highly Commended awards, Ed Phillips achieved a Silver Award and Leon Feltham achieved KGS’s firstever Gold Award, a truly outstanding achievement given that he is a Lower Sixth student and much of the Olympiad covered Upper Sixth content.

Our annual A Level Field Trip to Leeson House in Dorset was blessed with excellent weather that allowed the students ideal conditions to study sand dune succession, freshwater invertebrate ecology and rocky shore marine zonation. These investigations set them up well to plan and carry out their own ecological investigations that go towards the award of the CPAC practical endorsement, part of their Biology A Level.

First Year Science Club ran weekly from September. The Autumn term involved making streamlined plasticine animals and seeing which were the fastest, testing how acid and alkali everyday substances are, examining weird and wonderful biological specimens and looking at cells under microscopes.

Opportunities for themed science experiments were also taken and students enjoyed learning the science behind fireworks around Bonfire Night, carrying out flame tests using Bunsen burners, as well as making their own slime at Halloween. The run-up to Christmas prompted the production of Christmas trees made from salt crystals and testing which solvents dissolved candy canes the fastest.

Springtime saw our young scientists using the carbon in match heads to extract iron, measuring the speed of sound in air, learning the science behind lava lamps, and extracting DNA from strawberries. They also built their own models of DNA using gummy bears. Students had a go at writing secret ‘fire’ messages to each other using potassium nitrate to varying degrees of success, as well as observing the foaming ‘elephant’s toothpaste’ experiment. Other sessions included a game of ‘maggot football’, dissecting locusts and using fruit and vegetables to make pH indicators. Thank you to Ms Thomas, Miss Finnegan and Mrs Mayor for putting together such an exciting programme of activities. Mr M Rodgers, Head of Biology and Ms F Thomas, Biology