Science club got off to an insect-themed start this academic year, with students meeting the fully grown stick insects that hatched in May earlier this year. They learned what they eat, how they dance to mimic the wind and also play dead to protect themselves from harm. All students had the chance to handle them and take part in a naming ceremony.

The following week, students took part in extracting DNA from Strawberries. This is something that can be done at home too. See the method below if you wish to try it. The results are amazing!

Method

1. Put a strawberry into a plastic bag, seal it and crush for about 2 minutes.
2. In a cup mix together 10 cm3 of washing up liquid, 1 g of salt and 100 cm3 water. This mixture will break down cell membranes and release the DNA.
3. Add 10 cm3 of the extraction liquid to the bag with the strawberry mix together for 1 minute.
4. Filter the strawberry mixture. (You can use kitchen roll.)
5. Pour 10 cm3 of ice-cold 90% ethanol (alcohol) down the side of the beaker into the strawberry mixture, do not mix or stir. The DNA will separate out into this layer.

Within a few seconds you should see a white cloudy substance form in the clear layer above the strawberry mixture. Use a lolly stick to pull strands of this out of the top layer. This is the strawberry DNA.

Next on the agenda is spooky Halloween slime, dissection, flame tests and rainbow pH.

Mrs R Cahill

Science teacher

How to Model Electrical Current

Imagine this: You’re sitting in your room, flick the switch and your light turns on instantly but have you ever wondered how that actually happens? The answer lies in electrical current. It’s like the invisible flow of energy that powers everything from your smartphone to your TV. Learning to model how this current works in a circuit will help you understand the basics of electricity and how it powers your everyday life. This is what Year 8 students have been looking at this last term.

What Is Electrical Current?

Electrical current is the flow of electric charge (usually carried by electrons) through a conductor, like a wire. Think of it as water flowing through a pipe. The more water that flows, the stronger the current. The same thing happens with electricity. When you connect a battery to a circuit, it pushes the electrons around, creating a current that powers your device.

In a circuit, this flow can be controlled, measured and used to perform tasks, like lighting up a bulb or running a motor but how can we model this flow?

Modelling Electrical Circuits: The Water Analogy

One of the simplest ways to understand how electrical current works is to compare it to something familiar: water flow. Here’s how you can break it down:

• The Battery: Think of a battery like a water pump. The pump provides the energy to push water through pipes, just like a battery pushes electrons through a circuit.
• The Wires: Wires act like water pipes. They guide the flow of electrons (like water) from one point to another. The wider the pipe, the easier it is for water to flow, just like thicker wires allow more current to flow through.
• The Switch: A switch in your circuit is like a valve that can stop the flow of water. When the switch is open, the flow stops and when it’s closed, the current flows freely.

This analogy makes it easier to visualize how electricity moves through a circuit but there’s more to modelling circuits!

Modelling Electrical Circuits: The PGHS way!

Year 8 had to come up with their own way to model current.  They could choose whichever scenario they wanted. Some students were very creative and came up with an array of different ideas. We had a pollination theme, where the bees moved around with the pollen. We had many deliveries and post service themes delivering all sorts of different packages (electrical energy). We even had a kitchen mayhem scene, where a mouse was running around for some cheese. A selection from 8g/Sc3 are shown below.

Fun Fact: Did you know that the speed at which electrons move in a circuit is incredibly slow? While the electric signal travels close to the speed of light, the actual electrons move only a few millimetres per second!

Mr Dean

Science Teacher

Ever since the revolutionary work of Robert Hooke and Antoni van Leeuwenhoek in the 17th Century through to the development of the electron microscope by Ernst Ruska in the 1930s, microscopy has played a crucial role in the progression in understanding of living organisms.  Over the last few weeks, our Year 7 students have been introduced to microscopy, preparing microscope slides and observing the fascinating world of organisms viewed at a cellular level.

Our Year 10 biologists have also been studying cells and they have been developing the skills learned in Year 7 as they complete their required practical. Students have been honing their biological drawing techniques, as well as applying formulae to calculate equations surrounding microscopy and estimating cell size.

Mr Knee

Science Department

During our recent festival, all of our Year 8 students investigated how we can recreate the magic of Harry Potter in the Science laboratory.

Year 8 stepped into the world of Harry Potter and…Alohomora!…unlocked their magical powers. We created ‘Lumos’ wands by burning magnesium, which produces a bright white light when burned it in oxygen. In Harry Potter, ‘Lumos’ is a charm that illuminates the tip of the caster’s wand, allowing the caster to see in the dark.

We practised the art of potion making by creating a colour changing redox reaction, that exploited the dramatic colour changes associated with the various oxidation states of manganese. In Hogwarts, potions lessons took place down in one of the dungeons. “It was colder here than up in the main castle, and would have been quite creepy enough without the pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls”.

We also explored the science of ‘Incendio’ flame tests and discovered that different metal ions created different coloured flames. Avada Kedavra is a curse used in Harry Potter which causes instantaneous death. It is accompanied by a flash of green light and a rushing noise.

Year 8 were then given the opportunity to create a newsletter article for the ‘Daily Prophet’ outlining all of the magical science experiments they had carried out.

Mrs Harrison

Science Teacher

This month, our Year 11 Separates Chemistry students have been exploring the world of organic chemistry, which in my view is one of the most interesting but also challenging parts of the GCSE course. As part of this unit, students have gained hands-on experience of synthesising esters! Known for their pleasant fragrances and wide range of applications, esters are a vital part of both the natural world and the chemical industry.

What Are Esters?

Esters are organic compounds formed from the reaction of an alcohol and a carboxylic acid. They play essential roles in the food industry, perfumery and even in the production of plastics. Their fruity scents and flavours make them a popular topic for students learning about organic chemistry.

The Experiment

Under the guidance of our dedicated chemistry teachers, students engaged in a safe and supervised lab session where they combined various alcohols with ethanoic acid to produce a range of different esters. The process involved heating the mixture and adding a few drops of sulfuric acid as a catalyst.

In theory, the different esters should produce a range of fruity smells (pears when using propanol, apples for butanol and bananas for pentanol). Well done to Maisie and Eva’s group for making the best smelling of all the esters we produced, pentyl ethanoate (structure below). The scent was mainly banana, with a touch of nail polish remover!

Whilst this isn’t a required practical for chemistry GCSE, it teaches some essential lab techniques such as safely heating flammable liquids and safely using concentrated acids, as well as understanding why reaction conditions are important to maximise yield of product. Learning about this reaction also allows the students to understand how polyesters are formed.

After completing our Organic Chemistry unit, we will be moving on to Chemical Analysis, which includes a range of practical tests to identify a variety of ions and compounds and involves lots more practical chemistry. 

Mr Coogan

Science Teacher

A former pupil of Penwortham Girls’ School, Nancy Rothwell obtained a first class degree in Physiology in 1976 from the University of London, a PhD in 1978 from Queen Elizabeth College in London and was awarded a DSc in 1987 from King’s College in London. In 1984, she was awarded a Royal Society Research Fellowship and relocated to Manchester University in 1987. Nancy was awarded a Chair in physiology in 1994, then a prestigious Medical Research Council Research Chair in 1998. In 1998, she also delivered the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, televised by the BBC.

She has conducted intensive research on the role of inflammation in brain disease and has served as president of the British Neuroscience Association, a council member of MRC, BBSRC and Cancer Research UK.

Nancy has received many awards and honours because of her outstanding work in Science and education. In 2003, she was awarded the Pfizer award by the Royal Society, was appointed Fellow of the Royal Society in 2004 and made a Dame of the British Empire in 2005. The school has also honoured Nancy by awarding each year, the Dame Nancy Rothwell Biology award for achievement in GCSE biology.

In 2010, Nancy was appointed President and Vice Chancellor of the University of Manchester and was later appointed as chair of the Russell Group in 2020.

To mark the 200th anniversary of the University of Manchester, a series of portraits of Nancy were commissioned and one is exhibited in the Whitworth Art Gallery.

After many years of hard work and commitment, Nancy has now retired from her position as Vice Chancellor and has taken a step back from her research interests. Nancy will continue her association with the University of Manchester as an Emeritus Professor and will continue to play an ambassadorial role in relation to fundraising and external relations. To mark her retirement, the Manchester Engineering Campus development has been renamed as the Nancy Rothwell Building.

Mrs Goodwill recently attended a lab reunion to mark the occasion of Nancy’s retirement, having worked for Nancy in the late 1990s as a technician.

Nancy is an inspirational woman who has shown that curiosity, resilience and an ambition for learning can lead to incredible achievements. 

Mrs Honeyman

Associate Assistant Headteacher and Curriculum Leader for Science