King’s Ely goes all out to mark British Science Week!

Wacky experiments, fascinating lectures and some VIP guests saw King’s Ely celebrate British Science Week in style.

Students and staff from King’s Ely Acremont Nursery right the way through to King’s Ely Sixth Form enjoyed a feast of events and activities to commemorate all things Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM).

The Science Week programme kicked off with the Osmond Lecture – an annual event established and endowed by the Old Eleans’ Club to mark the career of Leonard Osmond, who was a Science Teacher at King’s Ely from 1930 to 1972.

This year’s Osmond Lecture was delivered by Dr Patricia Fara, a Historian of Science at the University of Cambridge. Hundreds of students, staff members, families, Old Eleans and friends of King’s Ely came together in Ely Cathedral to hear Dr Fara speak about: ‘Science past and present: Does gender matter?’ Dr Fara is a former Fellow of Darwin College and is an Emeritus Fellow of Clare College. She was also a College Teaching Officer in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science. From 2016-18, she was President of the British Society for the History of Science.

Dr Fara’s fascinating talk launched an action-packed, week-long programme of events organised by Ned Kittoe, Head of Science at King’s Ely Senior, and his team. There was the Science Fair itself, which saw students donning their protective goggles and white lab coats for a whole host of fun experiments, including throwing and catching eggs from a distance, making pink-coloured elephant's toothpaste and a challenge to create the loudest earthquake, to name just a few.

There was also a global warming debate, a DNA sequenced Sixth Form assembly, and, new for this year, a series of ‘Science in the Professional World’ lectures, which saw six different King’s Ely parents coming into school to give talks to students, covering everything from veterinary practice to cutting-edge oncology.

To discover more about opportunities at King’s Ely, please visit www.kingsely.org