Science Showcase

Science Showcase – Science for Life and Institute of Physics Event

On Wednesday 3rd of May, pupils from three Islington primary schools, and students from Arts and Media School Islington (AMSI) and Samuel Rhodes MLD took part in the Science Showcase held at the Institute of Physics. Pupils listened to Dr Maddison Coke, an electrical engineer, as she spoke about overcoming difficulties such as dyslexia to become a scientist. Maddy told attendees how she was always curious and creative and how she never gave up even when learning became difficult. Going to university taught her a lot of life skills, like how to solve problems and be resilient; as well as, the skills she needed for her profession. 

Pupils from different schools collaborated with each other to complete a physics challenge which was to build a structure over 20 centimetres tall to support various weights. They had a certain number of tokens to spend on extra materials to support their endeavours. The Year 7 AMSI students did a great as mentors during the challenge.

Groups of pupils from each school then made a presentation about a physics-related activity they had completed at their school. Presentations were made about the following topics: how air resistance acts upon different materials for parachutes; how different shapes for bows of boats are affected by water resistance; how air resistance affects the speed of different snowflake shapes as they fall and how to make a circuit for a quiz. AMSI mentors spoke about Marie Curie and secondary school STEM club activities.

Following the presentations, pupils enjoyed sharing their learning, and posters about their learning, in the gallery space with their parents. Each student left with a physics goody bag and an activity booklet.

Thank you to the parents that came to support the event and congratulations to all the pupils who took part and were great ambassadors for their schools. Huge thanks must also go to Toby Shannon-Smith and Katy Pallister at the Institute of Physics for helping to host such a great event and to the teaching staff who took part, including, Abu Hassan (Science for Life's Principal Investigator).

Megan Begley