Cambridge Science Fair
On Saturday 20th March a group of L4 and L6 pupils presented a display at the first School Zone of the Cambridge University Science Festival. This event involved about 10 schools from the local area presenting information to the general public about a school-based project. Our pupils have been involved in a long term project investigating plant-insect relationships; this encompasses experimental and theoretical research into how plants respond to insect damage. The pupil display specifically focussed on growth patterns observed in the plants after damage by caterpillars and the effect that this damage had on the partitioning of sugars within the plant. The project involves using the school’s controlled environment greenhouse and is appealing to pupils of all ages and biological interests because it embraces a number of aspects of biological science, including the biochemistry and genetics of plant responses, behaviour and ecology of the caterpillars and mathematical modelling and predicting.
The event was very well attended, both by members of the public and by members of the University’s academic staff.
