Cool Science videos

More on the theme of material on you tube.

If you are looking for coll videos to watch, with high production values and accessible learning, check out these two sources:

The Royal Institution. (find out about them here). have their own you tube channel with videos to suit all age ranges and tastes.
Here's a taster, click the Royal Institution icon to access the channel. Find it here!


Interested in Physics? Try out these videos!

Let us know if you have come across any interesting videos or if you have or plan to make any yourself!

Enjoy!!

How wolves changed the course of a river and more....

This is a video recommended by Erik S. in Bachillerato. Well worth watching and a great introduction into the workings of food webs and how a change in one part can affect the other parts (and sometimes in a most peculiar way!).

Thanks Erik!

Experiments in Science

Experiments (practicals) make up a vital component of all of the sciences wherever or however you study them. It is through experimentation that scientists are able to determine the cause or effects of the area which they are studying.

Here at Oak House School, the Science department takes experimentation very seriously. We use a three pronged approach in training our students in the art of experimentation.

The first is getting our students used to being in the lab, getting to know the equipment and how to use it accurately and precisely.

Secondly is getting the students to become aware of the variables that can affect the result of an experiment and how they can be controlled, during experimental design, in order to get a repeatable and reproducible result.

Lastly there is the ability to analyze results to extract meaningful conclusions and also determine the trust with which you can give that result through error analysis.

These three aspects are covered in different ways in different year groups. Whether it's in the weekly practicals in 1st and 2nd ESO, the training for the IGCSE practical exam in 3rd ESO, the Science enrichment afternoons for both cycles of ESO where students can pursue their own projects or the extensive practical training they receive in 4th ESO. All of this training prepares the students to then handle the internal assessment for IB and the research components for both the treball de recerca (Bachillerato) and the extended essay (IB).

None of this would be possible without the dedicated efforts of our lab technicians who are always available for the requests of both teaching staff and students in their practical pursuits.

If you want to know more, please feel free to contact us at r.troy@oakhouseschool.com 

How quickly would your trump spread?

Year 7 students have been working out the conditions in which a trump would spread the fastest, here's some photos:

The consensus was that you would have time to escape on a cold winter day as gases and liquids diffuse more slowly when they are cold. But you would be in trouble on a summer's day as the gas will diffuse (spread) more quickly. Good work Year 7.

First meeting of the Oak House School Environmental Committee (OHSEC)

On Wednesday the 4^th of November at 11am when the students normally have their break, these students (see photo) chose to listen to a brief explanation of what the newly formed OHSEC would be doing and what they could do to help. As teachers, we were all pleased by the number of students who turned up and this is an indication of the students concerns in the environmental issues facing us today.

So the next step is assigning different students to different projects and getting these projects underway. 

The projects include:

Environmental assessment of the school

Bachillerato Roof Garden Plan and pre-planting

Energy consumption (electricity & gas)

Composting

Recycling (paper,   plastic & other)

Monitoring waste

The uptake of these projects so far has been impressive!

If you are a student and interested in getting involved, then contact your tutor or your Science teacher or email us r.troy@oakhouseschool.com with your name and the project you are interested in.

A big thank you to all of the students for coming to the meeting and the teachers who passed on the information and whipped up enthusiasm!

Let’s see if we can reduce Oak House School’s ecological footprint!

Pensamiento computacional. ¿Por qué programar?

Nadie se cuestiona por qué aprendemos a leer o escribir, ¿verdad? Parece obvio, entre muchas otras cosas, para poder comunicarnos y expresar nuestras ideas. En cambio, aún nos parece muy lejano el entender el lenguaje de las máquinas, aquellos aparatos que ya envuelven nuestras vidas de alguna o otra manera. Entender cómo están programadas nos ayuda a comprender cuál es su principio de funcionamiento, qué pueden llegar a hacer y qué límites tienen.

El pensamiento computacional (PC) es una competencia básica para los empleos del futuro, donde la programación impregnará muchos ámbitos, desde la robótica a la economía pasando por la biotecnología, cirugía, etc... El PC nos permite generar un modelo del entorno físico mediante un programa informático para crear sistemas automáticos de control mejorando así nuestra vida cotidiana. También nos proporciona habilidades a la hora de abordar la resolución de cualquier tipo de problemas ya que nos entrena en la disgregación del mismo en partes sencillas facilitando así su resolución. Así mismo, pone a prueba otras competencias matemáticas, como son el uso de la lógica, el trabajo con variables o el uso de matrices para el almacenado y posterior utilización de la información.

En definitiva, os invitamos a un viaje por un campo que sin duda no os dejará indiferentes.

Os dejo este enlace muy interesante acerca de la programación computacional. !Espero que os guste!

Ciència per passar l'estona

M'estic llegint el llibre Professors Povey's Perplexing Problems, un llibre amb un bon recull de problemes de física i alguns de matemàtiques. Els problemes estan solucionats i comentats, cadascun té un nivell de dificultat i va acompanyat d'un sistema de puntuació i una pàgina web amb més material.

Aquest és un d'aquells llibre que és llegeixen a estones, i entre estona i estona, penses. I un cop llegeixes la solució, en alguns casos et presenta un punt de vista diferent del que ja saps.

Hi ha altres llibres com aquest, Martin Gardner en té uns quants, i el llibre de Ciència Recreativa, un recull inicial de José Estalella, també és molt recomanable.

Bottoms up on this wastewater transformed into drinking water! Would you drink it?

This is a tweet from the National Geographic Channel about reusing waste water for drinking water. Would you want to drink this? Then again do you know what you drink normally anyway.

This was supplied by a parent of the school (who shall remain nameless unless she wishes to reveal her identity) who had read the post on the formation of the environmental committee here in Oak House.

More please!!

Enjoy this video

Oak House School Environmental Committee

Oak House School Environmental Committee

We have 7.3 billion people currently living on our planet and that is due to increase to 9 billion by 2050. To feed and entertain this number, non-renewable resources are running out and renewable ones are being used unsustainably. Carbon emissions continue to rise, leading to greenhouse effect, global warming and climate change.

We must do something to slow and stop these changes that we are making to our planet otherwise we and our children will pay the price.

So what can we do? Well it can start with this:

We are currently looking for students and teachers who wish to form an Environmental Committee.

The roles of this environmental committee will be many, including:

·         Environmental assessment of the school and its environs.

·         Development of an environmental action plan.

·         Involvement in projects deriving from this action plan.

·         Transmitting the findings and the work of the committee to the students and wider public.

Who should join this committee?

If you are someone who is interested by the environment and what we are doing to it.

If you are concerned about the nature of consumerism and its negative effects.

If you like the applications of Science.

If you are planning to study IGCSE Environmental Management or IB Environmental Systems.

If you are thinking about a career in the area of environmental sciences.

What should you do?

Contact your tutor.

Contact your Science teacher.

Send a mail to r.troy@oakhouseschool.com

When by?

We need to know who is interested by Friday October 30^th

First meeting: Wednesday October 4^th @ 11am!

“We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors: we borrow it from our children.”

Happy birthday Alfred Nobel

This Wednesday, the 21^st of October, in 1833, Alfred Nobel was born in Stockholm, Sweden.

Alfred Nobel was a pacifist at heart but an inventor by nature. He held 355 patents in the fields of electrochemistry, optics, biology and physiology. His first patent was an English patent, filed in 1857, was for a gas meter. title was given to him due to Nobel inventing, and making most of his vast fortune off of, dynamite and

Ironically, his most famous invention was dynamite! He also discovered several other types of explosives, such as “ballistite”, which was the precursor to quite a lot of military grade explosive devices. These discoveries were to make him extremely wealthy. Unfortunately for Alfred, it also resulted in him being known as “ The Merchant of Death”.

Nobel came up with the idea of using his money for the Nobel Prizes after his brother, Ludvig, died in 1888 and a French newspaper mistakenly thought it had been Alfred Nobel himself who had died.  The newspaper published the obituary under the title: “The Merchant of Death is Dead”, going on to state: “Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday.”

When Nobel read this, he began thinking of how to improve his public image after his death and decided on leaving his enormous fortune to fund a set of prizes named after himself. 

He established the Nobel Prizes in his will. The prizes, which were first awarded in 1901, have become highly distinguished awards. 

There were 5 categories of prize – physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace (economics was added in 1969). Contenders must be nominated and they cannot nominate themselves. The prize consists of a medal, a diploma and a sum of money. They are awarded every 5 years and there are approximately 250 nominations for each prize! 

Which one of our laboratories is named after a Nobel Prize winner? Do you know the names and achievements of these other Nobel Prize winners?

If you could be nominated for a Nobel Prize, what would it be for?