Year 12 Biologists Brainstorm the University of Cambridge’s Biology Challenges

Three Year 12 biologists are invited to Cambridge University after finishing this year’s Biology Challenge’ as one of the top ranked teams.

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 D