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23 October 2016
Ever felt a little lost when your child comes to you with their Science homework? Or simply nodded and smiled as they explained their latest experiment?
Well thanks to Cobham Hall’s Head of Science, Mr Jonathan Fryer, our Lower School pupils’ parents are now fully in the loop! As part of the School timetable, Saturday mornings are often an opportunity for girls to explore the curriculum beyond the classroom. School trips, adventure mornings, eco-mornings, and workshops are all commonplace. However, for this week, Mr Fryer decided that it was time to let parents in on the fun, and held a Science Workshop just for them!
Explaining why, Mr Fryer said, “A key reason was to allow parents to experience what their daughters do in a typical Science lesson, and to explain, as well as demonstrate, my philosophy and teaching style. There were demonstrations relating to energy conversions and particle motion, followed by hands-on practical work. I stressed to my class of parents that doing Science was a key part of learning science.”
Parents carried out several experiments that their daughters would undertake during their routine Science lessons, including diffusion, chromatography, testing a gas to see if it was carbon dioxide, making a temporary slide of onion cells and using a microscope to observe a cell nucleus, and separating salt from a mixture of sand and salt, by filtration and then evaporation. Parents were also asked to discuss and explain their observations as well as handling a variety of apparatus, including microscopes, dropper pipettes and the famous Bunsen burner.
Mr Fryer reported on his class afterwards, “It was a really positive morning. Parents behaved very well and enjoyed the class. The cakes and drinks at break time went down a treat!”
The feedback received from parents indicated that the morning had been a success, with comments such as “I felt part of my daughter’s education. Until today it felt a bit distant”, “I really enjoyed the morning and want to stay longer!” and “It was so good to see that the girls are given a variety of ways of learning.”
