A Pollutant’s Tale Visits Somervale School

Explosions, coloured flames, shattering frozen objects and copious amounts of foam were just some of the observation made by students and staff.

On Friday 16^th January, Year 10 and Year 11 Science students observed the demonstration ‘A Pollutant’s Tale’, given by Tim Harrison, Teaching Fellow at the University of Bristol Chemistry Department.   

The demonstrations illustrated information about the atmosphere’s composition. They included the properties of liquid nitrogen, the effects of carbon dioxide on solution pH and the combustion of hydrogen and helium. All students and staff enjoyed this informative lecture.

Pictured are: Tim Harrison (lecturer) pouring liquid nitrogen on the floor so beads of the gas run past the students feet before evaporating.

Maths Master Class from Bath Spa University on 14 January 2009

Once again Somervale welcomed Bath Spa PGCE Mathematics students who spent the morning working with Year 7 pupils.

 

The theme for the day was Pascal’s Triangle.  Each student worked with a small group of Year 7 using different methods to explore the properties of Pascal’s triangle – this included spotting number patterns and finding out how they are used in everyday life.

 

Both students and Year 7 enjoyed the day, gaining some useful Mathematical skills and the students developing their teaching styles which hopefully they will use on their next teaching practice in other schools next term.

 

Bath Spa will soon host Somervale’s Year 12 for a day working on sequences, developing skills that will be needed in the final A Level mathematics exam.

 

Somervale looks forward to continuing it strong links with Bath Spa Mathematics students.

Year 10 Pupils Make a Film for the Midsomer Norton Society

Year 10 Pupils studying for the OCR National Course in Media have made a film for the Midsomer Norton Society, which was shown to members of the Council and the public on 5^th and 6^th December.

 

The film was made to show some of the work the Society is doing to promote the town and its heritage. The project included filming the Midsomer Norton Knight, a medieval wooden sculpture in the vaults of Bristol Museum. The pupils are now working on producing a DVD including this film which will be sold to raise money for the Society.

 

The above photograph shows Somervale Media students with Mr Paul Myers from the Midsomer Norton Society and Mr Alistair Hannan, Head of Media at Somervale School.