The Faculty of Science

The atmosphere within the Science Faculty this year has been both innovative and inspirational, with the burgeoning of student-led societies and the publication of several excellent academic journals.

The Natural Sciences Society has gone from strength to strength under the leadership of Jenni Visuri, Harry Jenkins and Fraser Boistelle. Friday meeting are always well attended, with talks being given by members of the society and by outside speakers. A third issue of the NSS Journal was published in the Spring and another issue is going to press as I write. Medics’ Society has continued to thrive and published their own journal in the summer, and the Physics and Engineering Society attracted record numbers of students to its first few meetings with a journal now in the pipeline.

Sixth Form students continued to run the lower school Chemistry Club, and Biology Club has become a forum for talks given by younger students as well as an exciting opportunity for dissections and more extended projects. Our academic prefects ran several in-school activities during National Science week as well as visiting St Paul’s

Cray Primary School with a range of exciting practical activities.

A level Biology students visited a range of institutions, from the Sanger Institute to the Natural History Museum, in preparation for their coursework reports, and years 7, 8 and 9 enjoyed various enrichment trips during activity weeks. A level Biology students also spent a week at Nettlecombe Court Field Study Centre in Somerset where they carried out individual investigations into various aspects of the surrounding habitats. In addition, I was lucky enough to lead an outstanding expedition to South Africa under the auspices of Operation Wallacea, brilliantly brought to life by Alexandros Adamoulas in this edition of The Olavian.

The results of last year’s public exam result were excellent, and we now look forward with interest to the new A level structure and to the first cohorts taking the Certificates in Science (formerly IGCSE).

Caroline Marwood S___Head of Science Faculty

Year 7 trip to Colchester Zoo

The Colchester Zoo experience was amazing! It was a great day out with special opportunities. It’s not often that you get to feed elephants and giraffes, but Colchester Zoo provided us with that possibility. The zoo is a 600 acre park with something new, exciting and interesting around every corner you turn. From lions to warthogs, this zoo provides a bigger range of animals than London Zoo! My personal favourite were the Sea Lions.

This area had a glass tunnel under the pool where the Sea Lions swam. We were not able to see some species of animals as it was too cold at the time for them to come outside, but luckily enough most of them had their own indoor space that we could see into. This trip showed us all how the animals needed different life surroundings, which related closely to our current topic of ‘evolution.’ Seeing how animals have changed over millions of years is a fascinating study! I would definitely recommend Colchester Zoo to anyone, whether it is for studies or just fun! This zoo provides a thrilling experience for anyone. I obviously want to say a huge thank you to all of the science staff and especially Doctor Bradley for organising this brilliant trip.

Dominic Marshall, 7H

Royal Observatory in Greenwich

During Activity Week 1, Year 8 visited the Royal Observatory in Greenwich where they enjoyed an interactive talk on Exploring Exoplanets and, under the panoply of a ceiling of stars and galaxies, an intriguing lecture-show about the features and nature of our universe.

Year 9 trip to Kew Gardens and the National Archives

On Thursday 4th October 2012 Year 9 visited Kew Gardens where we were shown a variety of plants that have use in medicines, cosmetics and foodstuffs as part of a tour that focused on Economic Botany. The saffron crocus was the first plant we saw, and some of us even got to try the stigmas (which when dried create saffron), which tasted more like orange peel than saffron! We were then shown a poisonous type of lily which looked very similar to the saffron crocus. You wouldn’t want to eat this plant, though.

We were then taken to Kew’s jewel in the crown –the Palm House, which is still today a great piece of architecture. It has stood since the Victorian times, and one particular palm is as old as the building itself! We were shown how the plants represent the rainforest, with some of the palms in the canopy reaching over 50m tall! We were shown some well-known plants, such as the cacao and brazil nut trees, as well as the lesser-known annatto and cycad and Neem trees.

After having lunch at Kew Gardens we walked to the National Archives. Once inside our guide told us about the Archives. Any member of the public can access any document of importance over 30 years old over 14 as long as it doesn’t affect the security of the country. Next, we were showed the Doomsday book which you could read it through the glass cabinet. After that we had a chance to study and handle actual sources on the table in front of us which included a Tudor manuscript, a Victorian prison book, the census from 1881, a poster from the WW2 and a map of London from 1667 showing the areas destroyed by the fire.

Richard Decker (9B) & Finnian Robinson (9C)

Lower School Biology Club

St. Olave’s Biology Club opened its doors for the first time in the Autumn Term of 2012. It has since developed into one of main extra-curricular activities for a host of lower school students who attend every week to take part in exciting practicals that lie outside of the normal school curriculum, and receive presentations from older students and their peers on a range of topics.

The practical activities, selected and organised by the 6th form students have ranged from dissections to excursions to the school pond. The club started with a Brine Shrimp project, where students were provided with a population of new-born brine shrimps and tasked with supporting their new pets to adulthood. Two-litre bottled were duly filled with water and a nutrient mix, and the shrimp were provided with their habitats. Some of the populations were not as successful as had been hoped, but a few survived the term to be taken home for Christmas.

The most exciting practical by far was the heart dissection that was carried out as part of the science week activities. Trays of scalpels, scissors and knives were distributed to a record attendance of younger students who made quick work of the pig hearts. The dissected hearts were then examined to identify the chambers, valves and the path taken by the blood. This was most students’ favourite practical to date, due to the extra responsibility given to the students and the advanced nature of the practical work. We have also dissected mackerel, to investigate the structure of the gills and to gain an understanding of the anatomy of fish.

Other investigations have included collecting organisms from the pond and identifying them under a microscope, and solving a crime by matching the fingerprints of the culprit to those on the evidence. Microscope work has been a recurring theme in the Club, with plants and animal cells alike both being examined.

There have been presentations from sixth formers and younger students alike, with younger students using the opportunity to improve their presentation skills and demonstrate their interest in a particular area of Biological Sciences. These have included turtle conservation in Cyprus and the heart defect Supraventricular Tachycardia. A particular highlight was a fantastic talk on the prehistoric underwater predators, ranging from Megalodon to Liopleurodon covering time periods, prey and possible reasons for the extinction of each species. Other talks have included a terrifying presentation on BSE and its ever-present risk to man-kind. A presentation on the life of Fungi opened the eyes of many students to the hidden world of microorganisms that exists all around us. This was followed up with an investigation into bacteria and fungi around the school. Teams of students were armed with petri dishes and swabs and combed the school for all manner of places thought to be harbouring micro-organisms. Door-handles, bins and drains were swabbed, as well as more unusual places such as the Piano Keys in the Great Hall and the tyres of a bike. The results were truly surprising, with a multitude of bacteria growing in the unlikeliest of places, leaving many of the students with thoughts of the organisms they are exposed to each day.

Biology Club continues to grow, with more students arriving every week!

Joe Cox & Abigail George (Lower VI)

National Biology Challenge

The National Biology Challenge is open to students in Years 9 and 10 and Finn Duggan (10M), Ian Chiang (10M) and Tom Wang (10N) were all awarded Gold medals in the competition. Well done to them and to the seven others who gained Bronze medals.

A Level Biology Trips

On Tuesday 27th November, Year 12 biologists visited the Sanger Institute, Wakehurst Place, the research labs of the Royal Free Medical School and the Natural History Museum. They were introduced to many aspects of scientific research and were able to meet scientists working in a range of pioneering fields including stem cell research, genomics and evolutionary relationships.

Year 12 Biology Field trip

This year, Year 12 A level Biologists visited pastures new, moving from their old haunt at Flatford Mill to

Nettlecombe Court near Taunton in Somerset for Biology field trip. Seventy four students and three members of staff spent 6 days investigating a variety of ecosystems, from the rocky shores of the Devon coastline to the heathland of Exmoor.

British Biology Olympiad

Seventeen Year 13 students took part in the National Biology Olympiad on February 6th. Asher Leeks and Mohammad Fallaha were awarded gold medals; Nikhil Math, Stanley Ho Andrea Grillo James MacDonagh and Aishwarya Pai, were awarded silver medals; bronze medals went to Ella Wells, Morgan Roberts, Joseph Barrow, Fadil Nohur, Rahul Bagga and Ben Shotnes.

Salters’ Festival of Chemistry

Archie Grant, Misha McFeat, Samuel Mellis and Shachin Pratheepan (all of 7C) entered the Salter’s Festival of Chemistry at University College London on Thursday 25th April. They carried out flame tests and test tube reactions on salts and finished the day being entertained by Professor Andrea Sela who performed some amazing demonstrations.

Astronomy Club

The year saw some great spectacles for Astronomers including Asteroid 2012 DA14 making a pass within 14,000 miles of Earth. Thanks go to Dylan Abeelack (7B), Shaun Sanu (7B) and Theo Antonov (9B) for their contributions in the Astronomy club assembly and James Teoh (13Q) for taking the time to image and present many wonderful celestial objects in the club. You can see a stunning picture of the Orion Nebula, taken by James, on the next page of this magazine.

Year 5 Maths and Science Day

In mid-June, eighty Year 5 pupils from three local primary schools, Chelsfield, Highway and St. Paul’s Cray spent the day at St. Olave’s solving puzzles in Maths and Science. The day consisted of four lessons, Maths Carousel, Maths Quiz, The Mystery at Inkworth Manor (chromatography and flame tests) and Electromagnets and Static Electricity. The Maths prize went to “The Brain Box” team from Highway. The Science prize went to “Maths Invaders” from Chelsfield” and Highway school were awarded the overall School prize.