All over the UK, hundreds of thousands of people took part in science events to celebrate National Science Week 2005 (11-20 March). From Einstein Birthday parties to science extravaganzas, people of all ages were experimenting, discussing and getting their hands dirty, with even more events than last year.
BA science clubs got involved in a range of activities to celebrate National Science Week.
The science department at Magdalen College School in Brackley held a themed activity at lunchtime every day, which included slime day, blood day, DNA day and a spaghetti challenge. During science lessons, Year 7 became MI5 special agents by taking part in a multimedia activity to solve a ‘flesh eater’ murder. Meanwhile the staff, in celebration of Einstein year, all wore Science Week T-shirts emblazoned with a picture of Einstein. Marjorie Skidmore, Key Stage 3 Co-ordinator at Magdalen College school says: ‘The week was a great success, pupils thoroughly enjoyed themselves and loved looking ghastly covered in blood or slime!’
St Marys School’s science club in Ashford, Kent used the Einstein's Birthday Party Pack and the Vertically Challenged Pack produced by the BA, to work towards a BA Young Investigators Bronze award. They are going to run a mini science exhibition to show their work to the rest of the school.
In the North East of Scotland around 8,000 from 184 schools, took part in the Highland Stag challenge during National Science Week. The challenge involved building newspaper stags as tall as possible in teams of three in just 30 minutes. Visit www.scoti.org.uk to view photos of some of the stags and a list of the heights attained.
Further a field, the International Preparatory School, Mauritius started their science week on the 14th March to coincide with Einstein’s Birthday. During the week pupils went to visit the "Rajiv Gandhi Science Centre" where they had the opportunity to experiment "hands-on" activities related to forces, gravity, magnetism, reflection, etc.
Find out more about National Science Week 2005 here