We’ve had a fantastic week celebrating British Science Week at Connell. 

The week began with Lewis, who studies graphene and is completing his PhD at the University of Manchester, coming in to talk to students about research, PhDs, graphene, 2D materials, superconductors and the future of materials.

Our Applied Science students went on a trip to Manchester Museum to celebrate British Science Week and look at the beautiful galleries. Some of the highlights included the natural history specimen collections and the vivarium housing live amphibians and reptiles, including many critically endangered species.

We’ve been running some fun class activities this week too. Our Y12 Chemistry students have been looking at STEM and who could build the tallest tower from straws and tape. This resulted in some excellent teamwork and structural engineering prowess on display. The winning tower was a whopping 185cm tall!

Our Y12 Chemistry students have also been doing molecule building to form complex substances. They created black tea, RNA, base pairs for DNA, vitamin B12 and diamond.

Our Y13 Chemistry students went to Manchester Metropolitan University at the end of February to visit their labs and to complete a synthesis and recrystallisation of aspirin.

During half-term, one of our Chemistry teachers, Valentine, went to Elmridge Primary School in Hale Barns to show their reception and Year 6 students some science experiments and answer their questions about studying sciences.

Find out more about British Science Week.

Lewis from the University of Manchester

Manchester Museum trip

STEM

Molecule building

Primary school visit

MMU chemistry trip