“Is It Science?” Students present their Fictions & Findings

Friday saw the culmination of our Science Fictions project, as a group of students from Wadham school presented their science demos to Year 6 pupils from Hazelbury Plucknett School. The presentations included a reading of their story, a demo of their principal and a Q&A session, which the audience really engaged with. The students have all worked so hard on their stories and their demonstrations, that it was brilliant to see their efforts paying off in such a successful session.

The group from Hazelbury told us how much they enjoyed the session, one pupil saying that although they hadn’t known what to expect at the beginning, the demo and fiction “…went really well together. I really liked the way they used the experiment to make it clear what the story was showing us.”

The Year 6 pupils had initially been involved in the project as a pupil panel who visited Wadham School to give their opinions on the students first drafts. They were not backwards in giving their opinions on the stories, both positive and negative, and their responses to this panel session really helped to hone the writers ideas, leading to stronger second and even third drafts of the stories. When the students began planning their demos, they knew they were goingtol have to face the same pupils, and that they would have plenty of questions. The students rose to the challenge, and Friday afternoon was a fantastic mix of laughter, curiosity, discussion, de-mystification and mind-blowing suggestions.

Huge thanks to Sycamore Class, to Mrs Jukes and Mrs Neill for being such amazing hosts and for making our students feel so welcome. Further thanks to our team of amazing volunteer mentors, Ambs, Raja, Isla and Jon, for all of their support of the project and for giving up their time to help with Friday’s presentation.