J for G Day!

Success!

We raised £682 for Jeans for Genes day, well done everyone who brought in their £1 for non uniform, and to the staff who bought Mrs Essex's genetic mutation cakes. All the money raised will go so far in helping children with specific genetic disorders, and even help to provide support for their families in difficult times.

The Science department had such fun on Friday 20th September with loads of different activites based around genes. One of my year 9 classes began the day by decoding dragon DNA and producing a whole class full of baby dragons! Mr Essex's year 9s created faces using different genetic code, because there is so much code to choose from everyone's face was different... Much like how genetics works in real life :)

Year 7 & 8 spent their science lessons decoding messages in DNA then created their own individual DNA name bracelets. This was very fiddly, especially if you had a long name as every 1 of our letters worked out to be 3 DNA code letters! Mr Essex decided his name was too long for the DNA code to spell out in bracelets, so made one saying MR E instead. (A very good idea!)

My second year 9 class rounded the day off by creating models of the DNA helix with jelly babies and strawberry cables... Yum... Each jelly baby had to lose their head (eeek-glad I'm not a jelly baby!), and each head was paired to a new body, depending on the DNA code, you see out of the 4 bases (ATCG) A can only pair with T, and C can only pair with G... Once we had that sorted I asked my ladies to pose with their models as we discussed the benefits of using models to help our learning. Needless to say though, it wasn't long before all the sweets had been dismantled and eaten!

I didn't see my year 11s on Friday, but other teachers made DNA necklaces with theirs, not out of beads, but out of the students own DNA-how cool is that! They had to follow the scientific method very carefully in order to extract their own DNA structure and put it in a necklace vile for all to see. Just don't loose it, or we might find you have a clone out there one day...

I don't know about the rest of you, but I really enjoyed myself during this Jeans for Genes day, and I know my classes learnt a lot about different genetic diseases, how they come about and why it's important to keep raising money for this charity. Again, well done everyone!

 Me (Miss Staples) with my DNA helix

Jeans for Genes Day.

This week in Science we will be celebrating Jeans for Genes day at DSTC.

The official celebration of this day will happen on Friday 20th September, and as a school we have decided to have a charity collection with a donation of £1 in exchange for the students and staff to come into school wearing their jeans. We hope to help the Jeans for Gens day charity beat their pervious record of raising £2.5million last year - so guys, DIG DEEP!!!

Science lessons will take a genetic turn on Friday as we focus the students on the importance of Jeans for Genes and discuss why the money is needed, and how your donations help. We will be completing different activities with different years with various links to genes and DNA. During tutor time you may also notice that we start to talk about the SMSC issues surrounding Jeans for Genes.

Lots to cover this week it seems! :)

Lots of exciting things happening in science week. We are learning about the dust storms on Mars and how storms can generate static electricity. Lots of groups have built their mini straw rockets and the greatest distance travelled so far is 4 metres. The hoover craft has been a popular attraction and manu pupils have been for a spin.

Stemnet Club all the parts are here.

To all stemclub look at what arrived yesterday evening.


 

Lone student waiting for the next rocket experiment.

Lone student watching Super Ted clip on year 5 science lesson about rockets.

Mr C and the stomp rockets.

Mr C instructs students on how to operate the stomp rockets.

Mr C and a year 5 class

Mr C and a group of year 5 students learning about rocket science.

Mr E and the Match Rockets

Yesterday Mr E demonstrated how to make mini rockets using matches and his little rocket travelled 15cms.

Observatory Science Centre at Herstmonceux

On Monday 22nd and Tuesday 23rd July 2013 the year 7s and 8s have been offered the opportunity to join the Science department at the Observatory Science Centre at Herstmonceux near Hastings.

Whilst in the centre our lucky students will gain first hand experience of Science by interacting with specially designed exhibits. We will enjoy a tour of the centre and see some of the historical telescopes in their striking copper clad domes. This will give us all an idea of how astronomers would have worked at Herstmonceux, and how the telescopes help us to explore the intricate workings of the universe.

Have you got the skills and curiosity to take part in team challenges throughout this day? If so we will see you there!

 

 

Year 5 Taster day

The Science department of DSTC have been very busy over the last few weeks preparing for the year 5 taster day . They have made several new gadgets to demonstrate lots of scientific principles. Every thing from match rockets, stomp rockets up to demonstration jet engines.

Rocket Launch

Last Thursday the STEMNET club successfully launched their second rocket called FLASH. The ignition was carried out by Coggs. The rocket flew into the wind and at high altitude deployed its parachute and returned safely to Earth.