Oxfordshire Primary Schools will fight it out to win Big Science Event 2017
Tuesday 27th June 2017
Teams of budding young scientists from across Oxfordshire will be competing to win £1,000 worth of brand new science-themed Playforce playground equipment for their school at the grand final of the Big Science Event 2017 on Thursday 6th July.
The Big Science Event (BSE 2017) is a competition for primary school pupils, which asks 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.
BSE 2017 is sponsored by Abbott and Playforce.
After several months of in-school judging, 12 teams of children aged from 6-11 years have been shortlisted to take part in the Grand Final and prize-giving day, which will take place at Abbott’s diabetes care business manufacturing site in Witney. The teams will give presentations about the experiments they’ve been doing to the BSE 2017 judges, answer questions and display hand-made posters illustrating their findings. The initiative has grown from 17 schools and 2000 children participating in 2010 to 44 schools and over 6,000 children in 2017. The BSE 2017 celebrates its eight anniversary this year and is co-ordinated by Science Oxford.
Cathy Sturrock, Head of Education at Science Oxford, says: “We’ve been extremely impressed by the talented young school scientists taking part in this year’s Big Science Event. The quality of presentations has been better than ever and it will be difficult to choose a winner. Watching the children getting excited about science, their experiments and findings and thinking like scientists is so rewarding and we look forward to supporting this initiative for many more years to come.”
Finalists in The Big Science Event 2017 are:
Longworth Primary School Wychwood Primary School
St Barnabus Primary School Kings Meadow Primary School
St Andrews Primary School Stadhampton Primary School
St Michaels Primary School John Hampden Primary School
Hanborough Manor Primary school Wolvercote Primary School
Eynsham Primary School Madley Brook Primary School
The children’s topics are always great fun. This year St Barnabus Primary school will be explaining ‘Which biscuits are best to dunk?’ and Year 6 pupils from Stadhampton Primary School will be asking ‘Stressy SATs – does music help you relax?’
At Abbott, we help people live the best lives they can through good health. We create breakthroughs that help people, their families, and communities lead healthier lives full of possibilities. This belief – that health is the key to unlocking our potential – drives our work every day. Our culture is built on innovation. It is at the core of everything we do. And we continue to focus our efforts in areas where we can have the greatest impact and create long-lasting change. We create breakthrough products – in diagnostics, medical devices, nutrition and branded generic pharmaceuticals – that help you, your family and your community lead healthier lives, full of unlimited possibilities. Today, 94,000 of us are working to make a lasting impact on health in the more than 150 countries we serve. www.abbott.com
Playforce is the UK’s leader in the design of innovative, curriculum-linked outdoor play environments for nurseries and primary schools. That means everything from timber trails to outdoor classrooms, musical play to science investigations. We are passionate about getting every child active and making the best use of the School Sport Funding, as well as using the outdoors to engage children in curriculum subjects such as maths and science. www.playforce.co.uk
