Thanet Science Challenge Day 2007
How would you cook an egg with a candle, or measure a bubble?
These were just two of the problems faced by Marcy Chaplin, Brandon Le Roux, Jackson Perry and Joshua Yeoman when they tackled the Thanet Science Challenge. On Friday 21st September 207, a total of 25 schools came to St Lawrence College to take part, bringing with them 100 of the best Year 6 scientists in Thanet, eager to prove that they had the brainpower, problem solving skills and the teamwork to be the best.
There were 4 challenges in all that the brave teams had to face.
The first task was to collect as many bubbles as possible from sliced, diced, or crushed potatoes reacting with hydrogen peroxide solution. The gas was easy to make but hard to control, catch and measure! Our Junior School team managed to collect a cup full of gas from their potato. That’s a lot of wind!
Ready, Steady, Cook! The second task was to find a way to cook an egg as efficiently as possible using just a candle and different insulating materials. The teams could boil or scramble the eggs, but were not judged on taste, but how energy-efficient they were. It was the team who had the candle burning for the shortest time and used up the smallest amount of wax that won. Our team proved how green they were by only using 3.8mg of candle!
Next they had to build a skyscraper out of paper, straws and lots of glue. The building had to be as tall as possible, but still strong enough to support a huge weight without collapsing. St Lawrence managed to create a structure nearly 900mm tall.
The final challenge of an exciting but testing day was a fiendishly hard Science quiz!
The day was rounded off with a magical science display, full of explosive rockets, mountains of foam, disappearing water and liquids that changed colour before your eyes. After the display, prizes, kindly donated by Pfizer, were given to the teams from the three schools that had performed best overall in the four challenges.
The children from the Junior School performed well on all the tasks but narrowly missed out on a prize this year. However, they were all buzzing with excitement having had a thoroughly enjoyable Science-filled day. Our thanks go to all the staff at the Senior School who helped organise a wonderful day.
Who knows what challenges are in store for next year’s teams?!
Written by Mr R Perry
