Big Science Event challenge launched for 2019
Thursday 11th October 2018
Calling all Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire primary schools! We’re officially launching our hugely popular Big Science Event 2019 so why not get involved?
The Big Science Event is a competition for primary school pupils that challenges them to create their own science experiment or investigation, and present their findings to a panel of judges. The experiment can be on any topic and previous entries have included ‘What makes snails move?’ and ‘How much air does it take to pop a banana?’
The main aim of the competition is for the children to have fun with science while learning about the experimental process at the same time. Science Oxford set up the Big Science Event, which runs in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, back in 2010. Originally reaching out to just 17 schools, it has now grown to involve over 100 schools and a massive 13,000 pupils across the two counties.
“We think it’s fun and exciting and want to do more things like this” Downley School, Bucks
“The best thing is watching the excitement of children investigating their own ideas” Madley Brook Primary, Oxon
Last year’s Oxfordshire winners were Hanborough Manor C of E School, who set themselves the following challenge to answer: Which salt dissolves an ice cube the quickest?
In Buckinghamshire, year 3 students from Robertswood School in Chalfont St Peter came top with their investigation Does the topping affect which way round toast lands? They spread slices of toast with marmalade, jam, butter and lemon curd and then dropped each one from a height of one metre multiple times and recorded which way up they landed.
To help get you informed and inspired, we have popped some useful resources up online. All these resources can help get children thinking about how to investigate a problem and solve a challenge. The Big Science Event is all about pupil led-investigation, so make sure that your students’ own ideas are at the heart of what they’re doing and we know we’ll be seeing some fantastic work during the cluster judging next term – can’t wait!
You can also read press releases for the 2018 winners here.
Sign up your school for the competition here – registration closes in January 2019.
