Haileybury STEM Day
By Ameka K, year 6
Haileybury’s iconic STEM day is a gathering where selected meet up for a day full of STEM challenges and activities.
At half-past eight we had gathered on front pitch, ready to see whatever was going to face us. We had boarded the school bus with high hopes and mustered up every last bit of confidence that lurked within us. It was quite an uneventfully eventful drive there, to be frank, so alas I won’t explain it in detail, all I will say is it was around an hour’s drive from our school.
We were welcomed with open arms to Haileybury where we tried to keep up with its extraordinary atmosphere. I remember we met in a cozy -yet sizeable red-brick room with tables and their alabaster tablecloths where we attended a short introduction regarding teamwork, timetables and other pivotal factors.
Maths
There were a series of Sudokus, Ken Kens, and a cross number (with a twist), each with varying difficulties. Correctly completing a puzzle (excluding the cross number) gave 5 points.
King’s being King’s we stormed through the first set of Ken Ken’s and sudokus, getting every puzzle done. However, the cross number was a different story; ‘Wouldn’t a regular cross number be too easy?’ is not something I would have ever thought on a daily basis, yet it seemed to be customary for the other pupils attending. We split our teams into two groups to do either the down clues or the across clues without any communication whatsoever. Anytime we got an answer, we met in the middle table to share. Inevitably, this ended with chaos, with students running from one end of the room to middle and scribbling their answer on the (by now disheveled) piece of paper.
Vex Robotics
Vex Robotics consists of several technical building blocks that are added to a basic robotic chassis to adapt it for the goal in mind, which in this case was a straightforward match of robot football. Our design was quite simple, consisting of two triangular blocks positioned in the front like a snow plow. It seemed quite promising during the first round as we won triumphantly with a score of 1-0. Sadly the victory was short lived as during our second match one of the plates had come off, disabling us significantly. In the end we placed joint 2nd but sadly didn’t win any prizes.
Lunch
I felt compelled to write a section about this just because of how delicious it was, I believe our school ordered either chicken, pasta or both, and I must say: it was ambrosial! It had just the right amount of softness and flavour, albeit it was mild. It might be competition for our exquisite school lunches, I will gladly indulge in both.
Chemistry
Chemistry was next, there we were faced with identifying several chemicals using the following methods: Chromatography, heat testing and precipitation test, which was very interesting.
Firstly, we did chromatography, putting a minuscule droplet of each liquid onto a small piece of paper (remember to label!) and dunked it into a beaker full of water and let it sit.
Secondly, we took several sampling splints and dipped each one into a different chemical before letting them over an open flame and seeing which colour the flame burned.
Physics
Following our observations in chemistry, we darted off the physics which was quite chaotic. You see, we were tasked to make the tallest tower that can hold a marble for a few minutes, but of course- it couldn’t be that straightforward. We had to make a tower out of (raw) spaghetti and Jelly Babies! Absurd, amirite? Despite the odds we persevered, even having a good start! Nevertheless, it crumbled, with the internal support beginning to slowly snap, we were doomed! Our only choice was to make a lacklustre attempt in the last 3 minutes or so.
Biology
Last but definitely not least was Biology, where we had to endure the repulsive odour of owl pellets (it was worth it) and dissected them for the bones of its breakfast (could’ve been dinner). We were given a guide with size-accurate pictures of each component of several different creatures that the owl could’ve eaten. Furthermore, we luckily were provided with gloves and goggles. I personally kept breaking the skulls due to my reckless mannerisms yet I’m sure the rest of the group would’ve had better luck with it!
That is all I have to say (since once again the bus ride back home was uninteresting) though I will point out that we were generously treated to a cupcake each with a silver medal, the winners of the day were another school, so they received gold, though we were still very grateful to have attended.