Latest News

A GCSE science revision morning is taking place, 9-12pm 26th June 2010. Please see Miss Patterson for details.

James Soper participated in our recent Family Learning evening performing his show ‘The Real Science of the Circus. Being an ex circus performer he effectively and enthusastically combined his special skills; balancing and juggling with his science knowledge sharing it with his audiences in a very unique and entertaining way. Audience members were invited to participate, assisting James with demonstrating Newtons three laws (using a skateboard) and the importance of centres of gravity (unicycle support). The show was then followed by Circus science introduced by the science team at Hillside. Pupils and parents were encouraged to develop their juggling skills and apply James’ ideas to balance objects on a tightrope. Prizes were awarded for skill, creativity and initiative. Refreshments were provided and the feedback from parents and pupils was excellent everyone agreed that the event was interesting and enjoyable and they had learnt about the science behind the circus.

This event was supported by three other performances of the show during the day allowing all of year 10 and some pupils from year 8 and 11 to enjoy the show. The pupils were captivated by the show and were an excellent audience.

If you would like more information about the shows please visit: www.scienceshowsforschools.com

Look out for details of a Language Family Learning evening during the summer term.

This year the theme for the week is ‘Sugar – its impact on Liverpool’s heritage’. The pupils will be developing their knowledge and understanding throughout the week by taking part in a range of cross-curricular activities. We have lots of exciting things planned including; trips to the International Slavery exhibition, work at the North Sefton City Learning Centre, visiting artists and musicians as well as talks from ex-Tate & Lyle workers. It promises to be a ‘jam-packed’ week of creative learning.

‘Out of the strong came forth sweetness’

The Eco Club has also been busy with their second ‘Big Tidy Up’ this term, collecting litter from across the school grounds and the corridors. The pupils noticed an improvement on the amount of litter found on the school grounds compared to the previous litter pick. This shows that Hillside is becoming a cleaner environment and is contributing to a cleaner community, which is excellent news. Well done, everyone!

Hillside Eco Enterprise Bags

Four Year 8 pupils and Miss Young boldly entered the Salters Festival of Chemistry, competing against many schools from around the northwest and the Isle of Man in a variety of chemistry challenges.

Their first challenge was “Murder”, in which they used their considerable practical skills and a variety of techniques to identify and match a sample from the murder scene to ascertain the identity of the murderer and their accomplice. They collated all of their evidence in a written report, leaving no doubt of whom the murderer was.

That was all in a morning’s work. After leaving Gil Grissom in their wake, it was time for “University Challenge”.

They were given two chemicals. When mixed, a chemical reaction took place that lasted for 15 seconds only. Their mission was to slow the reaction down so it would last exactly 30 seconds. It is Hillside who has the talent! They managed to slow it down to just over 30 seconds narrowly missing out on the top prizes.

The pupils were all winners, learning about teamwork, communication and creative thinking.

The four scientists were Megan Carr, John Thompson, Christine Rowe and Thomas Cass. They thoroughly enjoyed the experience whilst enhancing their learning.

Many Year 7 students as well as our Eco Club are very excited to be taking part in the project, ‘Make the Link be the Change’. This cross curricular project, delivered through Science, Geography and Citizenship, looks at the impact of global warming across the world by communicating and working with schools from twelve different countries! Among the countries involved are Malawi, Kenya and Sierra Leone. The project will link over 3000 students!

All students from each country are researching and completing the same tasks. They will then share their findings through a website in which they will write a blog of their project and also have the opportunity to explore and discuss the changing global climate. Just a few months ago one student from Haiti told us her Science exam had to be cancelled and students evacuated from school due to horrific flooding!

7SWa and 7LF began the project and have been learning about where the other schools are from and how the impact of global warming may differ across different areas of the globe. The project will also include students in each of the twelve countries setting up their own campaign to inform their local communities about reducing the impact of global warming. Look out for an update after Easter to find out about some of the campaigns that our students have set up.

For more details about the project, please contact Mr.Chuter, Miss Walsh, Miss Farrelly, Miss Dooley or Miss Patterson. They are all involved in delivering ‘Make the Link be the Change’.

Student link to the website

 http://www.planschoolslink.org/

The following link will take you to a gallery of images from each of the twelve countries.

http://www.plan-edresources.org/resource_center/result/age_range_id/1/region_id/1/country_id/1/issue_id/44/project_id/1/page_action/search/media_type_id/2

Teacher link to resources

http://www.plan-ed.org/learningcentre/bethechange/

The Science department are over the moon about the news that they will be presented with a telescope from the Society of Popular Astronomy.

This will enhance the personal learning and thinking skills of our pupils, parents and other members of our community through enhancing our Space units practically, Science Clubs and activities during family learning evenings.

It will enable us to view the mountains and craters of the moon, the major features of Jupiter and Saturn and the possibility to observe other galaxies.

We look forward to its arrival so watch this space for more information.

As part of the new science curriculum for year 7 all students will have to put their physics skills to work for the egg drop challenge. Students are required to work as teams to produce an ‘egg-cellent’ design, make their parachute and then watch as their teacher drops it from a great height!

7RO where all up for the challenge and put their physics powers to the test. Congratulations go to Anthony Curran, Shelby Mullen, Laura Watson and Sam Gallagher for their winning design. Their egg landed without even a crack from the height of the second floor of the school to the ground.

Good luck to rest of Year 7 for when they face their egg drop challenge!

We were very excited to welcome back Dr.Dickson from the University of Liverpool for an exciting workshop all about rocket science. Dr.Dickson brought in a wide variety of flying objects and rockets to launch and students learned about how the rockets fly and what forces are involved. Launching the rockets outside was great fun and students couldn’t quite believe just how high up they could fly! Jordan Casson challenged Dr.Dickson with a paper aeroplane competition - and won!

The hour workshop was packed full of activities with students having a go at aiming some rockets at Dr.Dickson himself! We all thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and we have learnt a great deal about forces through the theme of rocket science. One year 8 student said, ‘It was really good fun and a different way to learn about science outside the laboratory’.