Science Fair in School 4

   On the 15th February, the last day before the holidays, the Year 12 students were invited to participate in a very exciting event - a science fair in BISM 4 (a primary school). All volunteers were more than welcome to spend their day in school 4, showing fun experiments to the younger students. We were told to divide into pairs, each pair being able to choose the year groups(s) they wanted to teach. Polina and I had to come up with an entertaining though educational investigation to show to the nursery + reception and Year 2 students.
   At the beginning we had a lot of different fun ideas that included making a lava lamp, making a vinegar + baking soda volcano, making blue copper sulfate crystals and even "building" parachutes for chicken eggs, however in the end we have chosen to do the "drawing on milk" experiment for the youngest year groups and an "amazing 9 layers liquid tower". I saw these experiments on youtube and we've realized that they would be perfect for the younger kids, because both of them involve doing something colourful and sapid.
   In the morning on Friday we brought all of the equipment needed for our experiment to school, put everything in big plastic boxes and set off to school 4. When we arrived there, we were met my Mr O'Brien and Mr Wilkinson (the science coordinator of school 4), who have kindly shown us around and briefly told us about the timetable for the day. Fortunately, Polly and I weren't the first group to show our investigation, so we had enough time to set everything up. We had just enough time to put everything out of the boxes and become morally prepared for presenting our work when a whole bunch of small children had entered the computer room where we were going to teach them. Frankly, I didn't expect them to be so small and loud and automatically started waiting for something to go wrong, however when we started showing them our investigation, they seemed to get so involved in the process of drawing on milk with food colouring and dish soap that I've realized that choosing this experiment was the best possible choice.
   The next group of students that came to our lesson were older than the nursery and the reception kids, thus they showed more interest in asking the question we've prepared regarding whether two different liquids would mix and layer up on top of each other. To be honest, we really wanted to do the "Amazing 9 layered liquid tower" experiment, however we got to actually rehearsing it only when we got to school 4 this morning, so we weren't quiet sure of what exactly to expect. However, despite our fears, everything went perfectly and everyone seemed to have enjoyed our presentation, even the teachers that were supervising the lesson!
   Overall, the science day in school 4 was a great success and I am extremely glad to have had this amazing opportunity to take a part in this event. For the next time, I think we should rehears the entire investigation a couple of days before the actual performance in order to avoid all the stress.

   CAS outcomes that were achieved:
- Increased awareness of my strengths and weaknesses
- Planned and initiated activities
- Worked collaboratively with others
- Considered ethical implications of my actions