This year’s inter-House science competition was launched in November by the chemistry department who were still celebrating the International Year of the Periodic Table.
The task was to create the Mendeleev’s Periodic Table by placing randomly arranged element symbol cards into the correct order. The teams of four had spent much time within their Boarding Houses devising the best method of doing this as fast as possible. During the actual competition, the only House to get the periodic table in the correct order was House 7, who also did it in the fastest time of 2 minutes and 33 seconds! House 9 were in second place with a time of 2 minutes and 49 seconds but had a couple of elements out of place and 3rd place was House 5.
The biology challenge was to test for life on another planet. The pupils were given soil samples from various locations and had to perform various tests to see whether there may be anything living in the samples.
They used various food and chemical tests to do this. Those who could not remember how to perform the tests could ask for a ‘cheat sheet’ but were given a time penalty. The biology labs were a hive of activity as the pupils set about testing, all choosing different methods of elimination. The House that worked superbly efficiently, finishing the task in just 28 minutes, and also managed to get the most correct answers was House 8, in second place was School House and in third place House 6.
Leaders after the first two rounds were House 7 by just one point with SH second and then 9, 5, and 8 all within three points of second place! Everything to play for in the physics round!
The physics round was held on our last evening before the pupils were sent home due to the coronavirus lockdown! The task was to create a self-propelled vehicle from items such as cardboard, drinking straws, balloons, elastic bands, sellotape, and many other items that we provided for the teams. Each House went about the task very differently though most used balloons to propel the vehicle and some using polo mints as wheels! However, House 9 used elastic potential energy and managed to get their vehicle to move by over 10 meters when it hit the wall and came to a stop, the next closest distance was 5.35 m achieved by the House 1 vehicle, then-House 7 with a distance of 3.78 m.
It was quite a tense moment waiting for the scores to be counted as a different team had won each round so the scores were incredibly close.
Winning the overall competition with 28 points was School House, with Houses 7 and 9 both tied in second place on 27 points and with many teams within only a few points of these top positions. Overall, a superb competition, well done to all the participants and many thanks to the science staff who helped to make it all happen.