Teesdale School Science College News

Year 11 History and Applied Science Medicine and Scientific Monitoring

2009-04-08T04:16:00.001-07:00

Year 11 History and Applied Science pupils took part in a joint event this morning. Scientists gave talks on how they monitor in their jobs using scientific techniques.

This approach will be used more and more in the Science College to bring the science alive through other subjects.

History pupils will be using these events when they study the history of medicine and how technology is used in modern medicine. Next year, pupils will be following this up with a visit to Leeds Medicine museum.

'I thought it was good. The forensics was the best. You see interesting things in the job. Trying out everything was good.'
Ruby Carrington

'It was good to see my fingerprints and shoe prints.'
Lucy Child

Scientists ready for blast off

2009-04-08T04:15:00.000-07:00

Year 7 Most Able and Talented science pupils are ready to launch their rockets. All term they have been working on generating oxygen and hydrogen. After a few (loud and scary) hiccups we have discovered the exact ratio needed to react oxygen and hydrogen to send a plastic bottle flying !

Zoe, Clare, Sarah, Ruthanna, Thomas and Michael will be lighting the fuse on Tuesday dinnertime. Blast off is at 13.15. Look to the Western skies.

This approach is being used for our able pupils to accelerate their learning. We have been able to introduce them to the concepts and experiment from year 8 and 9.

Construction pupils build on learning

2009-04-08T04:14:00.002-07:00

The construction of the Virtual Learning Environment and the Construction Workshop is being used as a case study by the Year 11and 10 Applied GCSE Construction and the Built Environment. Pupils are being taught Mechanical and Electrical services on site. They are working with the site manager looking at the problems which occur during builds and how to solve them.

Year 11 Real Life Problem Solving

2009-04-08T04:14:00.001-07:00

Year 11 Most Able and talented Chemistry pupils will be taking part in the annual event run by the North East Process Industry Cluster. Our year 11's have secured a place in this event which is normally reserved for Year 12 and 13's.

Industrialists will present the pupils with problems they face and cannot solve at the moment. Pupils will analyse existing data and devise a strategy to solve their problem. We expect them to do well ; last year one of our pupils, David McKeague received a commendation.

Year 8 pupils design a Maths Trail in Centre for Life

2009-04-08T04:13:00.000-07:00

Fri 18th January. 4 Year 8 pupils from Teedsale school will be working with Noel Jackson from the Life centre, Newcastle and Steve Humble regional coordinator for the Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics. Over the course of the day they will be working on Smart Maths activities and designing an outdoor maths trail for the Centre for Life.

Daniel, Jack, Alice and Ann analysed the flight of a boomerang and made scatter graphs of how accurate they were. The picture shows Alice and Jack going around the Centre for Life designing a Maths Trail to be used by other pupils.

Year 7 Blast Off

2009-04-08T04:12:00.002-07:00

Having been rained off for three weeks, the Year 7 Rocket Club finally had their blast off. The hydrogen-oxygen rockets were exploded Tuesday 15th January at 1pm. Amazingly there was a dead heat with two rockets travelling 5.1 metres each. The final blast off will take place on Tuesday 22th January.

Teesdale Primary Science Cluster ready to go

2009-04-08T04:12:00.001-07:00

Teesdale primary schools and Teesdale School have published their science plan. This year's projects will focus on sustainabilty and Most Able and Talented pupils. There will be a mixture of trips, experiments at Teesdale Science College and talks from practising scientists. The programme is laid out below.

THEME	PROJECT	ORGANISATION	ACTIVITY
Sustainability	Composting	Rotters Teesdale School Primary School	Tour & demonstration Culturing Bacteria Composting display
	Bio diesel	Primary school Primary school	Demonstration of two engines Comparing bio fuels
	Building	Teesdale school UTASS Teesdale School	Building brick walls Dry Stone walling
	Making Charcoal	Rotters Teesdale School Primary School	Making charcoal in a burner Making charcoal in a lab Drawing with charcoal
	Surveying	Teesdale school	Levelling at school

Primary Cluster Trial

2009-04-08T04:11:00.002-07:00

On Monday 28th January, Primary pupils from Woodland and Forest School are trialling the events which will form the basis for the cluster's sustainability project.

They will be trying out surveying with a SOKKIA Theodolite, comparing petrol, diesel and biodiesel, videoconferencing with a County Durham scientist and calculating Carbon Footprints on Action for CO₂ website.

The project will then take place in February with the rest of the cluster.

Kitchen Composting Trial at Teesdale School

2009-04-08T04:11:00.001-07:00

Teesdale Conservation Volunteers will be installing a Rocket In-Vessel Composting System.This makes it possible to compost kitchen waste.

Teesdale school will be at the forefront of this trial. It will involve sixth form pupils driving the milk float to collect the waste. KeyStage Three and Four pupils will coordinate the collection of the bins and education of the the rest of the school about how and what to compost. The Sustainability Action Group is liaising with the volunteers and driving the sustainability agenda through the school. Young scientists at the school will be investigating the best operating temperature for the Rocket vessel during Applied Science lessons.

Rural Programme Begins

2009-04-08T04:08:00.000-07:00

Teesdale School, UTASS and the Young Farmers Association are working on a project together as part of the Year of Food and Farming. We are developing further the outstanding work of Nick Copson, the school chef. Nick has developed a menu sourced almost entirely locally. Our project, The Totally Teesdale Menu will develop this into curriculum projects to extend pupil's knowledge of Food to Fork issues.

Upper Teesdale Agricultural Support Services are designing farm visits which will fit into Applied Science, Geography, English and Business Studies/Enterprise.

The Young Farmers' Association and Newcastle University students, led by Hannah Stephenson, are delivering lectures in school on meat production and animal welfare.

The school catering department will be running Totally Teesdale theme weeks.

Nick Copson, Alan Nolan and Hannah Stephenson are presenting this programme at the Third National Rural Schools Conference in March.