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From YourSite.com Biology
The Biology Department actively and enthusiastically participates in a number of activities and trips. We run a series of annual trips for the pupils throughout the school. The general aim of the trips is to enhance the learning experience within Biology and draw out the links between the three sciences.
Year 9 visit @Bristol
On Wednesday the 25th April 2012 Year 9 Scientists visited local Science museum, @Bristol.
Students were welcomed with a fantastic and very funny talk about the human brain given by a skeleton and a model, after which students were invited to make their own brain!
Students then split off to explore. There were so many interesting facts to read and some unexpected ones too!
Just before we had lunch we had another absolutely amazing talk, this time it was about our universe and what it is made up of this took place in the Planetarium. It was the best point of the trip for me.
We then had lunch and set off filling in our little booklets we were given with questions about all the various things in the museum. After eventually finishing we were set loose in the gift shop for longer than we expected, then it was back to the bus and home. Thank God it wasn’t raining! We all thoroughly enjoyed the trip and would like to thank Miss Kirby, Mr Wicks, Mrs Wilson and Mrs Angel for organising it.
Alice Chadwick, Year 9
Year 7 visit Bristol Zoo On March 6th Year 7 spent the day at Bristol Zoo. In addition to going round the Zoo, they attended two workshops on adaptation and on classification. During the workshops the students were able to handle Hissing Cockroach's and Mealworms. The students were very well behaved and gained much from their experience.
"I woke up on the day of our Bristol zoo trip feeling really excited; I couldn’t wait to get to school. When I got to school I was quickly registered and then told to get on the bus which would take us to Bristol Zoo. When we arrived outside the zoo entrance we all piled off the bus and through the zoo entrance.
In our groups we had a look around the Tapir enclosure where we met Arla the female Tapir. We then moved on to the bird section where we saw some Brazilian parrots, they were really colourful.
Soon, it was time for our first workshop, this was on classification. We headed towards the building where the classrooms were. There we met the zoo keeper, who was going to do the workshop with us. When we entered the classroom he told us to find a seat and look at the objects on the floor. There was a huge assortment of animal artefacts ranging from bird feathers and animal skins to insect exoskeletons and animal skulls. During the workshop we had the chance to learn a lot about how to classify different invertebrates by looking at all their different body features. We also had a chance to hold a Madagascan hissing cockroach. This was a bit weird at the start, but then was quite ticklish....
After this we went to the Ape house where we saw the Zoos only Silverback Gorilla. He was huge, from the Western Lowland Gorilla species. There was also a variety of other gorillas too. I couldn’t believe his size! Following on we met some Limas that were very friendly.
After lunch we went to our second and final workshop, this one was on the subject of adaptation. For this workshop we had a different zoo keeper called Amy, when we got back into the classroom there was a stuffed penguin sitting in the floor (I almost thought it was real, it looked so life like!). In this session we learnt about how animals (and plants) have adapted over millions of years to suit their habitat and the surrounding animal’s i.e.: predators. During this workshop we were able to hold a Meal Worm, to see how it defends itself from predators. Amy also brought out a Lizard that could lose his tail if a predator got hold of him by it.
Soon we came to the end of our day, after we went to see the reptile house of course. The only thing left to do was visit the gift shop and then after that it was back to school. I really enjoyed my day out at Bristol zoo and I hope to go again soon."
By Joseph Sargent Y7
A Level and IB Students visit At-Bristol February 2012
On 6th February both our A-level biologists and our International Baccalaureate biologists went on a day workshop to At-Bristol. During the workshop our students collected a sample of their own DNA and then amplified the sample of the DNA using a technique called polymerase chain reaction or PCR.
At-Bristol was a fantastic experience and gave students a real life insight into areas of their studies.
Trip Report to Bristol Zoo March 2011
The following report was written by Year 8 student Caitlin Maclean
On Thursday the 10th of March Year 7 went to Bristol Zoo. The aim of the trip was to learn about classification of living things. At 8.45 we set off, the coach packed full of excited children! As soon as the bus left the school drive, sweet packets were opened and iPods began playing! About an hour later we arrived at the zoo, we were placed into our groups. My group went straight to our first activity.
We sat around a large room and a lady started talking about animals. Next, we had to order all the animals and classify them in to the correct category (whether they were mammals, fish, reptiles, birds or amphibians.) We also had to complete some information on the board, again classifying parts of their body e.g: whether they laid eggs or if their skin was slimy. An interesting fact I learned in the lesson was 95% of animals are invertebrates and the other 5% are vertebrates. We also held cockroaches and stroked a snake!
After the first session we walked around the Zoo. I really enjoyed looking at the animals! It was really cool when we reached the seals and the penguins because we went under the water to see them from another view. After walking around for a while we went to lunch! As soon as we received our packed lunches, we ripped them open...to see what was in our sandwiches!
Following lunch, we had about 20 minutes to continue looking around the zoo before our next activity. We saw the meercats, bugs and then we came across a Ben and Jerry’s machine! Everybody started buying it, in all different flavours! Unfortunately, it was time to go to our next activity so everybody had to quickly eat up their Ben and Jerry’s ice cream!
Our next activity was about conservation, we learned about how we can stop animals becoming extinct and also ways that are making them extinct (illegal ways as-well). We learned about how one part of a food chain can affect the whole food chain. The lady also told us a story about snails and we were lucky enough to touch a massive one from Africa!
Unfortunately, we had to leave to let another group in, so to finish the brilliant day of seeing animals we saw the flamingos! I love flamingos! Finally, we went to the gift shop and made our way back to the coach.
It was a brilliant day! Thank you teachers!
Caitlin Maclean
2010 March Science Week
The following was written by Year 8 student Emily Colligan On Thursday the 19th of November year 8 had a trip to Bristol zoo. We left the school at 8:00 in the morning by coach with the journey taking about an hour and a half. We were accompanied by Mr Bonnell, Miss Pane, Miss Kirby and Dr Martin. Once we arrived we looked around a number of different habitats such as the bat and lion enclosures and various nocturnal creatures in twilight world. My favourite area was the sea lions and penguins. The penguin area smelt of fish and one of the sea lions jumped off the rock and into the water and splashed everybody. Later on we went to the workshops and we got to stroke the animals shown. The guinea pig was so cute it was a brown female. There were a number of items on the floor which we had to group into mammals, fish, reptiles, birds and amphibians. After lunch we visited bugs world and looked at honey bees, spiders, crabs and insects. I can not believe we even saw the deadly black widow spider living under a toilet seat.
By Emily Colligan Year 8
Y8 Bristol Zoo November 2009
In November the school took year 8 to Bristol Zoo to support and extend their learning in Key Stage three Biology and Geography. They attended two workshops on Classification and Conservation. During these workshops the pupils had the opportunity to handle a variety of “bio-facts”. These included live animals, pelts, skulls and materials confiscated from airports. The live animals that our brave students were able to handle were the Madagascan hissing cockroach, the Egyptian miniature tortoise, a snake, a stick insect, and a guinea pig. Between the workshops we had the opportunity to tour the zoo. Our pupils found their visit both educational and interesting.
February 2009 Darwin's 200th Birthday
Year 7 Trip to the Science Museum, South Kensington
Year 10 Trip to the Natural History Museum, South Kensington
Sixth Form Trips and Visiting Speakers
Open Day
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