All About STEM NEWS

August 21st 2016

STEM Spotlight! The Bishops’ Blue Coat Church of England High School

We are so excited to share all the latest news from Bishops’ Blue Coat Church of England High School. Along with their amazing Forensics Day they have so many STEM-sational activities taking place, not to mention an impressive list of achievements!

Thermo Fisher Forensics Day

“At the Thermo Fisher Forensics Day, the team from Thermo Fisher Scientific provided hour long sessions for two groups of students in Year 7 and Year 8.

Students were introduced to the ambassadors who gave them a brief background about themselves and how they got to be in the jobs they are in. On the day, all ambassadors were women in STEM – fantastic role models for the girls!

Students were then treated to a brief introduction about what DNA testing in labs is like, four student volunteers helped to demonstrate how to wear protective clothing before entering a ‘crime scene’ and collecting items that could potentially have DNA evidence on them such as a hairbrush, drinks can and chewing gum.

Once this had been discussed, students then worked in pairs on a ‘who’s the daddy’ DNA activity where they had DNA profiles for a woman and her son, along with 3 males who could be the father. Students had to interpret the data using what they had learned about DNA in the session and work out who was the dad to the boy.

The students had a great time and most of the students that demonstrated the protective clothing went on to their following lessons and the home still wearing it all, creating a massive buzz around the school!”

K Thomas
Deputy Head of ICT

The ICT department at Bishops’ Blue Coat Church of England High School have taken part in a number of different STEM activities and competitions:

• They reached the national finals of CyberCenturion, a cyber security competition, their Year 8 students were the youngest team in the competition in 2015.
• They have had a VEX robotics team for the last 2 years, winning a Judges Award in 2015 and being one of 40 teams in the National final in 2016 at The Big Bang Fair!
• They attended a Rocket Scientist day at University of Chester Thornton Science Park campus where they were able to build rockets and watch a workshop on how rocket fuel works.
• They competed in a All About STEM Robotics Challenge. Four students were able to build a VEX Robot and battle other schools in the area in a robot war.
• They created an ‘Escape Room’ activity as an end of year Activity Day. Students had to use their STEM critical thinking skills along with some subject specific knowledge to solve puzzles to break out of the room within a given amount of time.
• They have also had two students and one staff member attend Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. Three budding astronauts spent a week learning what it takes to go into space, experiencing a 1/6 gravity chair that simulates walking on the moon, taking part in space missions and working with others from around the world. Their team were three of only six UK participants attending alongside nine Australians and over eighty Americans!

Ingenious ideas! An awesome school dedicated to making STEM fun, well done Bishops’ Blue Coat!

STEM Spotlight: Bishops’ Blue Coat explorers take a Google Expedition!
All About STEM Spotlight: Bishops’ Blue Coat High School visit US Space Camp!

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