On Friday 6 December, 51 Year 10 students went to the Apollo Victoria Theatre to attend the GCSE Science Live event.  This trip involved a number of talks on different science topics as well as two examiner sessions with a GCSE senior examiner.

The first talk by Professor Andrea Sella, a Chemist from UCL, discussed different reactions and how they discovered reversible reactions, this session also included some practical demonstrations in this talk.

This was followed by a talk by Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, a presenter and space scientist, who discussed going into space and how this was her childhood dream and her ambitions in science for the future. She discussed her experiences as a young scientist dealing with racism and discrimination and how this fuelled her determination to succeed as a scientist.

The examiner sessions covered revision techniques and exam techniques to help the students succeed in examinations.

The talk by Professor Robert Winston, a Doctor and television presenter, talked about IVF (Invitro fertilisation). He discussed how IVF works and the techniques used to help the process be more successful.

Professor Jim Al-Khalili, a professor of Physics at the University of Surrey, talked about wormholes and space time travel, and how possible this is and could be in the future.

The last talk by Dr Hannah Critchlow, a neuroscientist from the University of Cambridge, discussed the science of laughter, how it is infectious and that it is more infectious the closer you are to that person, she also discussed that animals also laugh when they find things funny.

Overall it was an excellent set of talks which touched on many different topics and research areas in the three sciences.

Below you can read one of our students view of the day.

I really enjoyed the Chemistry lecture, I found it informative and intriguing to listen to. I found the tips on revision techniques and practice exam questions incredibly helpful as well as the definitions for the many different key words that could come up in common exam questions. I also really enjoyed each separate scientist explaining their specific study on a topic they were most intrigued in, as I found it extremely interesting to learn about each area of Science (e.g. the science of laughter, time travel etc). The highlight for me was Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, who spoke about space and the complexity of our galaxy and many others, which I was especially intrigued by. Overall, I really enjoyed the Science trip and found it very useful. Dilan E, 10 Bow