British Science Week is a ten-day celebration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics that took place between 7-16 March 2025 co-ordinated by Dr Stockton-Chalk at the Senior School and Miss Watson at the Prep.
The 2025 British Science Week theme was ‘Change and adapt’ with plenty of STEM subjects falling under this banner allowing for a wide range of activities including experiments and lunch time clubs across all year groups.
At Portsmouth High Senior School, Monday’s activities included, ‘Amazing Animal Adaptations’ exploring questions such as how polar bears survive in such chilly climates without freezing and how do tigers sneak up on their prey without being heard? Discussions on ‘Your Planet Needs You’ talked about ‘Green’ skills that are any skills that you apply to help reduce emissions, lower the carbon footprint or protect the environment.
Tuesday saw the return of House Science Quiz with Mr Bannister as quiz master. Congratulations again to Eliot Team, winning 40 house points.
Wednesday’s activities included ‘Love Earth’ where pupils were invited to explore the many ways in which we can make a difference and included numerous fun experiments including how to harvest rainwater.
Thursday and Friday included a rotation of events including a rat dissection and bath bomb challenge. Dr Filer demonstrated the phenomenal adaptations of the rat and drew similarities with their human organ counterparts. Whilst Dr SC explained and then helped the pupils make their own bath bombs, changing and adapting their recipe as they went to achieve the perfect bath time treat.
At Portsmouth High Prep School the girls continued to explore the theme of ‘Change and Adapt’.
Pre-School and Reception focused on camouflage and the survival of caterpillars in their environment. They hid a selection of colourful caterpillars, paying close attention to how well the caterpillars blended into their surroundings before a hungry bird came hunting. In Years 1 and 2, the girls investigated forces in motion with gliders. They created their own hoop gliders and experimented with ways to adapt their designs to make them travel further. This sparked lots of discussion around the theme of ‘Change and Adapt,’ with friendly competition to see whose glider could travel the furthest. In Years 3 and 4, the focus shifted to the pH scale, where the girls tested various household liquids using a homemade acid-base indicator made from red cabbage and water. The results were exciting, with some surprising outcomes. In the upper years of KS2, the girls enjoyed making their own lip scrubs from natural products, which led to discussions about the chemicals used in skincare. To wrap things up, the girls played a climate change game, working in teams to develop strategies to protect the Earth and limit the temperature rise.
The celebration of British Science Week was a great success, sparking in-depth discussions about how each activity linked to the theme. It was wonderful to hear the scientific conversations taking place, reflecting the awe and wonder the pupils felt as they participated in the experiments and experienced the excitement of science.
