This week took me to Irchester Lab_13 for a catch up visit, and to meet the new Management Team. After a brief meeting with Mrs Alison (the headteacher), I was treated to a fantastic afternoon meeting lots of the Lab_13 visitors.
The first group who were in the Lab when I arrived wasted no time in showing me their various investigations and experiments, one of which was a great marble run, in the process of gaining a motorised carousel-type wheel to distribute the marbles! There was also a hive of activity around the creation of posters for the Lab’s upcoming ‘Lab_13 Super Showcase’ event, on Friday 10th Feb.
Following this I was introduced to the new Management Team, and learnt all about how they manage all the jobs of Lab_13, and how, due to massive interest from Irchester students in getting involved with Lab_13, FLABs were created (Friends of Lab_13!) to allow more children to be a part of the Lab.
Jennifer (the Scientist-in-residence) welcomed her first afternoon group into the Lab; a group of year 4′s, who began a new investigation into growing cress seeds (Venus fly traps and chilli plants were originally requested, but Miss Hogan only had cress seeds!) on top of one another, to see the result – thanks to Oscar for his question on the Question Board! It was fantastic to see the children getting involved in their own investigations, changing parts of the experiment to investigate cause and effect.
Once school finished, we were joined by 7 year 1 & 2 students, who were coming along to an after school session in the Lab. It was a fantastic end to a great afternoon in Lab_13, exploring the idea of DNA and creating genetic codes by using building blocks!
To stay updated with Irchester – and our other Lab_13s - have a look at the dedicated Lab_13 blog.
