During the unit of ‘Reactions,’ the year 9 students have been learning about combustion. After learning about the products of combustion and the efficiency of different fuels through practical investigation, the students could model the reactants and products of combustion using Molymod kits.

The students’ models of the balanced equation for the Complete Combustion of Methane.

The students were also able to demonstrate the formation of the carbon deposits around poorly ventilated gas fires and boilers.

Mr Knee

Science Department

Have you ever felt a slight shock when touching a metal doorknob after shuffling across a carpeted floor? That jolt is caused by static electricity, a fascinating phenomenon where electric charges build up on the surface of objects. How does this relate to the Van de Graaff generator? The Year 9 students have been finding out how this machine works and the Science behind it.

Named after its inventor, physicist Robert J. Van de Graaff, this remarkable device is designed to generate high voltages of static electricity. Imagine a large, spherical, metal dome mounted atop an insulated column. Inside this column resides a rubber belt, like a mini conveyor belt and two metal brushes.

The Inner Workings

Initially, the rubber belt starts to move, driven by a motor. As it rotates, the belt rubs against two metal brushes, acquiring a surplus of electrons. Remember, electrons are negatively charged particles. With each rotation, the surplus of electrons accumulates on the surface of the belt. According to the law of electrostatics, like charges repel each other, so the negatively charged belt repels electrons in the belt, forcing them to move upward to the dome. As electrons build up on the surface of the dome, it acquires a substantial negative charge. This process continues until the potential between the dome and the ground reaches a very high level, often in the range of thousands to millions of volts!

When a student puts a hand on the dome, the electrons will spread out onto them as they repel from the other electrons. They are most obvious in a person’s hair because the like charges of the electrons repel each other and cause the hairs to stand up and spread away from each other. Year 9 had some great fun using the machine and explaining how this works. Take a look below at some of the students new hair do’s!

Mr Dean 

Science Department

This year, all students in Year 7 and 8 are taking part in the ‘Step into the NHS’ competition.

The ‘Step into the NHS’ competition, empowers students to explore the diverse career opportunities within the NHS. Through this competition, young minds are encouraged to envision themselves as integral parts of the healthcare system, fostering a sense of purpose and inspiration for their future endeavours.

For the competition students have been asked to research a variety of careers within the NHS, pick a job which appeals to them and then create a job description and a job advert to promote their chosen career in a creative and original way.

The judges of the competition will select ten regional winners who will each win a £25 Amazon voucher. These regional winners will then have the opportunity to pitch their work virtually to a panel of judges, who will crown the national winner. They will win a £50 Amazon voucher.

Your Science teachers have selected the best 5 entries from each Year 7 and Year 8 class to submit to the judges of the competition. Here are a few of our chosen entries. We will find out later in the year if we have any regional or national winners. Wait for our update!

Good luck, everyone!

Miss Forrest

Science Department

Peter Higgs, the physicist who came up with the idea of the Higgs boson particle, has died aged 94.

Peter Higgs was an English physicist whose work changed the way we understand the universe.

In the 1960s, Higgs proposed that there was an invisible field that stretches throughout the entire universe. This field, called the Higgs field, interacts with particles, giving them mass and making them heavy.

From Higg’s idea, many scientists wanted to find evidence of this field and the particle associated with it – the Higgs boson particle, so they built a machine called the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Switzerland. It’s where tiny particles zoom around at incredible speeds and crash into each other. These collisions can create new particles.

In 2012, scientists at the LHC confirmed the existence of the Higgs boson particle proving the existence of the Higgs field.

Peter Higgs’s discovery earned him numerous awards, including the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2013. More importantly, his work inspired future generations of scientists to continue exploring the wonders of the universe.

Peter Higgs’s story is a testament to the power of curiosity. His journey reminds us that even the smallest ideas can lead to monumental discoveries that shape our understanding of the world. Let’s keep asking questions and exploring new ideas. Who knows what we might discover next!

Mrs Goodwill

Science Department

This term, all year 10 classes will be studying a new unit in GCSE Chemistry called Chemical Changes. As part of this, their lab skills are put to the test by trying to make blue copper sulphate crystals.

This is a GCSE required practical, so remembering and understanding the various stages is essential knowledge.

Choosing the Acid and Base: Students needed to select a suitable acid and base combination to produce copper sulphate. The only suitable acid was hydrochloric acid but we discussed the pros and cons of using various bases, settling on copper oxide (a black powder).

Making the salt: Whilst making the salt was a simple process of adding the copper oxide to warm acid, the key point was understanding why it needed to be added in excess (which is to ensure all of the acid has reacted and doesn’t contaminate the product).

Separation: Once the salt solution had been made, the excess copper oxide needed to be filtered out, leaving a bright blue copper sulphate solution. 

Evaporation and crystallisation: The aim was making dry salt crystals, so the solution was then heated to remove some of the water before allowing the remaining liquid to slowly evaporate and the crystals to form.

Participating in this practical and others like it, offers numerous educational benefits:

Application of Knowledge: Students applied their theoretical understanding of chemical reactions to real-world scenarios, reinforcing key concepts learned in class.

Personal responsibility: Working in a busy classroom, in groups, with potentially dangerous chemicals and various pieces of glassware, required students to show maturity and responsibility.

Critical Thinking: Students were encouraged to think critically and problem-solve throughout the experiment, especially when troubleshooting unexpected outcomes.

Enthusiasm for Science: Science is a practical subject and, although I like to think all Chemistry lessons at PGHS are interesting, putting scientific knowledge to use in a practical way helps build engagement with and enthusiasm for the subject.

Supporting Your Child’s Learning: A great way of consolidating understanding and retaining knowledge is to explain what you have learned to someone else. This is particularly the case with a required practical. Asking your daughter what she’s doing in her science lessons is a great way of helping her to recap this essential knowledge.

Mr Coogan

Science Department