S.T.E.M.
STEM is a massive part of school life at Stratton School.
Competitions have been big on our hitlist and we started the year with our Top of The Bench team who competed in the national competition run by the Royal Society of Chemistry. Our students (years 9-11) did us proud in a tricky test of scientific skill and made it through to the regional heats. Our team of dedicated teachers have also put students from year 9-year 13 through the Biology Challenge, the Physics challenge, the Physics Olympiad, Chemistry Olympiad and finished the year with the Cambridge Chemistry Challenge. These competitions are fantastic experiences to put on future college/university applications and we’re very proud of everything the students have achieved.
This year we have increased the opportunities of learning outside with our 6th form too. We attended two 6th form STEM careers events where our students were able to talk to people in careers that involve STEM, they even got to control some robots and see where STEM is taking jobs in the next generation. In March our biology students had the opportunity to attend the biology schools day at Babraham institute, this is a much sought after event and we were lucky to get 5 places. The students spent the afternoon working on a real world project with teams of scientists who are involved in genome sequencing, they used high tech equipment to achieve some fantastic results.
March saw our Stratton STEM week where science and technology could be seen around school providing challenges for students to compete in (Mr Day’s genius cube took the prize as the most addictive game ever made). We also had the year 9 STEM project and our youngest students competed to be a part of a larger trust wide STEM competition. The winning team from Stratton took their Minecraft inspired sustainable island to the trust finals and enjoyed presenting their research to guest judges from GSK and the Welcome Trust. Some of our year 9 students also had a fantastic trip to Sizewell nuclear power plant. The workings of a nuclear power plant is on the higher tier specification at GCSE physics and those students had an amazing opportunity to increase their understanding close up.
Towards the end of the year our 6th form were back in action (the physics side of the department this time) taking their rocket to the regional heats of the national UKROC rocketry competition. The students did an amazing job despite a few technical issues. Alongside these amazing achievements our Stratton science club continues to grow and this year we have put 2 groups of students through their bronze CREST award. Well done to all students involved.
Dr Rafiee leads our STEM programme
