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Chilton School Interactive Science Base
 The idea for our science base first started when the fence blew down which was sheltering the remains of an old 1950’s swimming pool. The area needed serious remediation in order to make it an attractive and interesting part of our school grounds again.
As our close neighbours include Diamond and the Rutherford Appleton laboratory, science has always been an important part of our school life and the idea of an outdoor science base seemed an excellent way to promote science in our school. The head teacher did some research into outdoor science centres and found some really exciting ones such as Herstmoncaux and Bristol, but there did not appear to be any attached to schools- this was going to be a truly innovative venture.
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There was some really exciting equipment in the glossy catalogues, but it was all very expensive. We formed a science group with teachers, governors, parents + members of our close community. We decided we wanted opportunities for the children to explore science, to make science exciting and to encourage their investigative skills. All this had to be within a set budget.
We decided on one key piece of equipment – a giant Newton’s Cradle which we felt the children would find exciting and we would buy this as a flagship item. The other equipment we had to be inventive and find ways of producing ourselves. We were very fortunate to find Will Embliss who lives in London and is an expert at producing outdoor musical and science apparatus, by using recycled materials. He led the children in workshops and produced instruments made from tuned drainpipes (a batonka) and speaking tubes made from plastic pipes used in new roads. He also invented especially for our school a ball slope which enables the children to design slopes and tracks with timed runs.
We were also fortunate in having very inventive parents and governors who designed and produced some very exciting apparatus. We now have a Morse Code machine, a pulley system which illustrates the Light House Keeper’s Lunch story and a human sun dial.
Our caretaker took a major role in placing and labelling the equipment and making sure everything was in order and safe ready for our grand opening on Friday May 21st. One of our parents baked a wonderful cake for everyone to share and Bridget Holligan from the Oxford Science Trust cut the ribbon and declared our base open. All the children and teachers are now enjoying using the activities on the base- learning how the Morse Code works, learning about convex and concave mirrors and sending messages through the speaking tubes. It is very exciting and later in the year we are looking forward to inviting the other schools in our federation to come and try our science investigations.
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Science Base Beginning: 2009 +
Science Base Leaflet: 2010 |
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