Harry Potter Science

During the festival of Literature and Language, all of our Year 8 students investigated how we can recreate the magic of Harry Potter in a 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 produced a bright white light when we burned it in oxygen. ‘Lumos’ is a charm that illuminates the tip of the caster’s wand, allowing the caster to see in the dark.

We practiced 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 that they had carried out. Here are some examples of the newsletter articles created by 8pg/Sc5:

Miss Forrest, Science Department

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