Bringing Science to Life -GCSE Science Live! 2015
On the 26th of November, Year 10 visited the Apollo Theatre in London to attend Science Live. This event is run every year for students in the first year of their GCSE syllabus, and is a fantastic opportunity to understand what Science GCSEs involve and can eventually lead to. To start the proceedings, we were taught about time travel, black holes and worm holes by Professor Jim Al-Khalili from Surrey University. Professor Al-Khalili explained the theories and notions in a way that we could understand, and helped us gain a bit of insight into what many scientists are studying today. Following on from Professor Al-Khalili, we had a thought-provoking lecture from Professor Dave Cliff. Professor Cliff began by telling us about how technology companies "predict the future" so that they gain the biggest gross profit, and how it is estimated that in 2035 there will be a device with enough memory to store and entire life. Next, Professor Andrea Sella educated us on chemical reactions. He wanted us to all think of not just an equation (with the reactants and the products being the most important things to learn), but to think of the reaction itself, not just an arrow but the most important part of chemistry. Later on in the day, we were lucky enough to have a talk from the esteemed Professor Lord Robert Winston, who is very well known for his commitment to scientific education. He began the talk with embryology and IVF (which he pioneered), and then went on to the topic of genetics. He left us with his belief that biology is all about making a difference, and encouraged us to follow our dreams. Professor Alice Roberts ended the proceedings of the day with her lecture on evolution. Her concept was that even in a world without any fossils, we would still have evidence proving evolution. This is because of the wealth of evidence found inside the bodies of living animals. We can compare species, for example, ape and human hands are startlingly similar and the embryos of different species are also look the same. Professor Roberts showed us all how similar we really are to the exotic range of species populating our planet. The day was a great way to expand our knowledge, and all of year 10 is very grateful to the science department for organising this.