On Thursday 21^st March, all 192 science projects were judged by a team of 12 anonymous judges. Comments from the judges included “The standard is very high”, “I can’t believe that a Year 8 student produced this work!”, “They have obviously gone beyond what is taught in up to Year 8 science, as this covers what is taught at GCSE”, “I studied this at A level, and struggled, they have shown great understanding and are still only in Year 8”.

This made the judging a difficult but enjoyable task. There was a 3rd place, 2nd place and winner in each house. The judges then selected a winner from amongst the winners to award them the overall science fair prize.

• Ashworth: 3rd prize was awarded to Lenny, 2nd place to Ela, and the winner was Zain.
• Keats: 3rd prize was awarded to Eliza, 2nd place to Emelia, and the winner was Pia.
• Dolbe: 3rd prize was awarded to Leyla, 2nd place to Mihrab, and the winner was Saayinthevi.
• Lamb: 3rd prize was awarded to Prapti, 2nd place to Lucas, and the winner was Nicholas.
• Latymer: 3rd prize was awarded to Rafih, 2nd place to Louis, and the winner was Oliver.
• Wyatt: 3rd prize was awarded to Solaris, 2nd place to Finn, and the winner was Lula.

The winning projects included a huge variety of topics: Investigating the best size for a parachute; looking at the wing span of a plane and studying which is better by launching with a Lego-made launcher; predicting the projectile path of different weighted balls (all made by hand), when launched by a catapult made from recycled materials; studying the effect of different types of music on memory; investigating whether the cost of a face cream correlated with its ability to retain moisture; investigating the best surface for riding a bicycle with square wheels – the student managed to understand A Level Maths to explain this and taught himself a computer programming language to prove his hypothesis!

The overall winner was a unanimous decision, selecting Saayinthevi in Dolbe!

Saayenthevi investigated different handwash products to compare their effectiveness at killing bacteria. In order to do this, she worked aseptically and methodically, growing bacteria on petri dishes and comparing the effect of the washes. Her technique proved to be fantastic, producing better results than most A level Biology students manage!

All prize winners received Amazon vouchers during a presentation at school.