Science

Sean Deighton - Subject Leader

It has been another year showing us the importance of the scientific process and the need for future scientists to tackle the next issue that we may face.

The science department at Knole Academy have been working hard showing students how science shapes future technologies from a visit by England’s first hydrogen bus, to building demolition machines in science week.

Here are a few highlights from the Science department this year, written by some of the hard-working science team. Science is all about innovation and working to create a better future for all. Year 7 students spent a week of science lessons designing and building an apple annihilator for the British Science Week 2021. All of the students engaged well, developed team spirit, shared their knowledge with their peers, and have learned a lot about Newton’s Law of Motion (Physics).

Mrs Kalis

Mr Collins and Mrs McGauley came to judge the best three designs based on creativity, the number of glue sticks knocked over and stability. The students were extremely enthusiastic on the final day of the competition and participated really well with their models. Out of 10 designs from each Year 7 class the top 3 winners for Year 7 British Science Week 2021 at Knole were:

1st - Milly 7G3 (Rudolph) 2nd - Syed 7H1 (Khan) 3rd - Sofia and Phillipa - 7G4 (Rudolph)

Well done to all of them who have participated in creating the apple annihilator.

British Science Week occurs yearly in Springtime with the aim of developing creative skills in young budding scientists. Our year 8 students were involved in designing roller coasters with every class taking part to reflect the physics topics they had learnt at the time. The raw materials given were: A4 card, art straws, masking tape, marble, and cardboard for mounting.

Using their skills and working in their teams, they had to fulfil the following criteria:

• design their roller coaster to stand without external support

• be a continuous structure with the marble travelling through from start to finish without being obstructed

• designs had to be creative and portable. The best creative and technical designs were put forward by each class teacher for the final competition. Mr Collins, Mrs Noble and Miss Whitlock were the judges and the winners were:

Mrs Corbett

Dissections

The year 10 separate science option class have been using dissections to cement some of their lockdown learning on coordination of the nervous and endocrine systems. Below are some highlights: Brains – We were fortunate to have some fully intact brains to be able to identify the 3 key areas we learn about at GCSE: The cerebellum, for movement and balance, the cerebral cortex for memory and language and the medulla, the most primal part of the brain, responsible for involuntary behaviours such as breathing or the flight or fight response.

Eyes – The eye dissection showed us the key structures of the lens, cornea, pupils and the retina. As seen in the pictures the retina looks beautifully iridescent, due to the photoreceptor cells. These cells contain photopigments that change shape when light is upon them, which is detected by the optic nerve, sending a signal to the brain to indicate we have seen. Students were also able to use the lens to magnify words on a page. Kidneys – Students did excellent dissections of kidneys in relation to the hormonal control topic of their GCSE, they have learnt about how waste products such as urea are formed in the liver are filtered from the blood in the kidney along with additional water. The water concentration of the blood is controlled by the Hormone ADH, if water concentration in the blood is too low the kidneys will reabsorb more water back into the blood from the nephrons.

1. Oliver and Zach 2. Ciaran and Aoife 3. Ewan, Charlie and Guila

The other designs were also impressive, but there could be only 3 winning groups. Well done to the rest of the teams who put in a lot of effort into their work.

Hydrogen Bus Our triple students were fortunate enough to have a ride on one of the first hydrogen cell vehicles in the county. The managing director of Go Coach contacted us as they were able to trial the bus and were keen to use its presence to help educate students on the potential future of travel.

The bus used hydrogen as fuel and electrolysis to create energy to power the bus. The marvellous thing about hydrogen as a fuel is that the waste product is water, which drips from the back of the bus. This means that as an alternative to fuel it produces no carbon dioxide and so doesn’t contribute to global warming. The bus had 2 fuel cells, 5 hydrogen tanks and a lithium-titanate-oxide (LTO) battery. We also learnt about the common misconceptions about the safety of storing hydrogen and considered ‘greener’ methods to extract hydrogen to use as a fuel as currently it still requires fossil fuels. 5% of hydrogen can be produced from electrolysis of water but this still requires a lot of energy. Students declared that they will be able work out how to get greener hydrogen without such an energy demand, watch this space.

This year in Science Club, year 8 students have been having loads of fun carrying out lots of experiments for all three sciences.

For biology, they have been identifying species of plants and animals, improving microscopy skills, and analysing swabs under the microscope. In chemistry, students have been investigating density by using skittles rainbow water and making their own geodes from eggs. Students have also carried out physics practicals, such as drawing a graphite circuit, creating the best design to protect an egg in the egg drop challenge, investigating centre of mass using balancing birds, and experimenting with aerodynamics in the form of hoop gliders. Our next segment for science in Knole review is some science that you and the family are able to do at home. In this edition you can make your own amazing geodes with some instructions from Miss Moore. Please send any pictures of your creations to the science department at Knole Academy. Miss Moore

Hello science-enthusiasts, thank you for joining me to partake in some science at home. We will be making some sparkling eggshell geodes, using salt crystals. To do this you will need:

- Eggs and an egg carton - Salt

- Saucepan

- Wooden spoon for stirring - Food colouring (optional) 1. Crack your eggs and remove the top, as though you are eating dippy eggs and toast. Carefully using a knife can help with this. Discard the inner egg, or save it in a bowl to cook.

2. Gently run warm water in the inside of the egg, until the thin white membrane cooks and can be peeled out and removed. Be sure to remove all the membrane, or your geode will grow mould.

3. Stand the empty egg shells upright in your egg carton.

4. With adult supervision, heat very salty water in a saucepan. For geodes with impressive crystals, you should use half as much salt as you use water. For example if you use 2 cups of water you should use 1 cup of salt. 5. Heat and stir the salty solution until most of the salt has dissolved. This may take a few minutes.

6. Take off the heat, and if you would like to add food colouring, do this now. Add drops of food colouring until your solution is the desired colour.

7. Carefully pour your solution into your egg shells. Be mindful that the water will be hot. Fill the egg shells as much as possible, without making them overflow. 8. Now leave the egg carton in a safe place for the solution to evaporate. As the salty water evaporates, salt crystals will form, creating egg geodes. If you want small crystals, leave in a sunny, warm place so it will evaporate quickly. If you want larger crystals, leave out of direct sunlight, so it will evaporate more slowly. Be patient, this can take a few weeks.

9. Admire your egg geodes.

Finally, I would like to say a massive thank you to all the members of the science team, the students and parents who have supported the learning of all our students. The science team also wishes the year 11 and 13 students of 2021 the best of luck for the future, it has been a pleasure teaching you science and watching you develop into the young adults you have become. In your honour we have created a display using upcycled corks and bungs that some of you may recognise.