Three Year 12 biologists, Ella Studholme, Jess Dunnington and Alisha Rathod, teamed up to participate in this year’s ‘Cambridge Biology Challenge’ organised by Homerton College, University of Cambridge (https://www.homerton.cam.ac.uk/cambridge-biology-challenge). They have received distinctions for their work and an invitation to Cambridge in the summer with other top ranked teams. Jess tells their story:
Every 6 weeks, a new question was released by the organisers challenging us to submit an entry of any format to explore the prompt. All of the projects were then graded, so each team could be ranked on the national leader board. The first challenge asked us to discuss whether behaviour fossilised. We focused on how isotopes can be used to determine the diet and habitat of fossilised animals and dinosaurs and created a Lego stop-motion video describing isotope analysis in the context of a court case. This challenge was really fun, and we not only received a distinction, but the project was a runner up to the most creative award. Our December challenge centred on ‘an aspect of winter from a Biological Perspective’ and we decided to do a video in sub zero temperatures where we did a news report on the genetics and evolution of albino deer on the frozen school field, and managed to secure a distinction and badge of merit for this too. We have enjoyed the challenge of innovative thinking in a biological context and have learnt a lot of biology in the process as well as developed our team skills and time management, a great example of character building as part of the Bishop’s 360. We are looking forward to visiting Cambridge and meeting the other top ranked teams and would like to thank Dr Bune for introducing us to the challenge back in September 2024.
Jess Dunnington
On Wednesday 11th June, 2 teams of Year 9 scientists presented their science projects to the judges as part of their Industrial Cadets bronze award. This award is organised by the Engineering Development Trust and the Bishop’s teams enter as part of the London & East region.
Each team discussed their projects, showing their results and answered questions. “My team”, said Victoria “have designed an Ecoventure park that uses sustainable energy and materials whilst still offering fun and educational activities. We designed a website to advertise our park and a logo. We were very fortunate that our sponsors- Mitsubishi Electric- bought t-shirts for us with the logo!” The second team presented their work on ‘the green growth garden’ and carried out many experiments to show the growth of cress in different environmental conditions. “It was great fun to do the projects and we are looking forward to attending the celebration event with Dr Bune at the end of June. We would also like to thank Mr Short for all his hard work helping both teams with their projects.”
Victoria S
Year 10 biologists continue their DNA barcoding project by amplifying DNA ready to analyse. The project is part of the Wellcome Genome Campus educational programme to extract and sequence insect DNA (https://www.yourgenome.org/theme/barcoding-for-beginners/). Zia takes up the story:
‘We are at the stage where we need to amplify the DNA. We mixed our DNA with a special enzyme that can still work at high temperatures and placed our samples in a mini PCR machine. This machine is able to make lots of copies of DNA, similar to the way our cells replicate DNA. The machine was connected to a programme that showed the process in real time, with animations to illustrate what is happening to the DNA as well as showing the increase in the number of copies as it progressed. At the end of the process we had made 34, 359, 738, 368 copies of our DNA! We are now ready to see this DNA on a gel using electrophoresis!’
Zia P.
On Tuesday 3th June, the Bishop’s Modern Foreign Languages faculty held its eighth Languages Discovery Day which was delivered by 66 Year 10 Young MFL Leaders who shared their cultures, languages and linguistic interests with 120 Key Stage 2 boys and girls from Oak View and St Philip Howard RC Primary Schools.
The primary school pupils had the opportunity to experience 16 different languages from all around the world reflecting our diverse heritages at the school. Also included were special workshops in Greek dance, Cyphers, British Sign Language, Old English and Egyptian hieroglyphs. The day was divided in 24 workshops with different language and cultural foci. By all accounts the day was a great success. Special praise is due to the Young Leaders for their infectious enthusiasm which gave the event such a buzz and celebrated the rich cultural and linguistic diversity of our school!
Holly N said: ” The Young MFL Leader’s role was a character-building experience, as I had to work in a group and thoughtfully develop a workshop to teach a language and also make it fun, which required a lot of planning and consideration. We also had to adapt to the needs and attitudes of different children to make the experience exciting for everyone. My group taught Old English through pointing out the differences between the modern and Old English alphabet then telling the story of Beowulf, the first story ever written down in Old English and acting it out to create a more thrilling experience. We then finally got the children to work together using their new knowledge of Old English to spell certain words. I feel this was a great experience for not only us, but also for the children who got to be exposed to a range over different languages all over the world through fun and engaging activities, which brought a sense of joy to language-learning and open doors in the future and I am so glad I was able to take part in this experience.”
Katie R found the Languages Discovery Day really exciting and a fun experience with her friends. “My group did a variation of “Guess Who” in Polish, focusing on pronunciation. I think it was really good for the children to get an experience coming to another school, especially as I never really got the opportunity to do events like this when I was in primary school. I hope the children enjoyed it as much as I did. I am very grateful I was able to be a part of this day, and really loved the fact that when groups did not have a lesson scheduled, we were able to look at the other groups in different classrooms – It made it a lot more enjoyable to see what my friends were doing too and them watch mine!”
Mr R J Taylor, Head of Languages Faculty
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Headteacher:
Mr A Wood
BA (Oxon), MBA, NPQH
