All posts by Mr Worton

Attention S2 Pupils!

Our S2 pupils are due to sit their S2 exam towards the end of January. This is a highly important test, which can potentially contain any of the work completed in S2; Forces, Body Systems and Earth and Water.

Links to information about each unit, including comprehensive revision notes, are available HERE.

Good luck!

Staff Changes

The Science department witnessed a huge series of changes this summer, with several much loved staff members leaving the school. These teachers not only contributed greatly to Science but also to the wider life of the school.

Long serving Chemistry teachers Mrs McKenzie and Mrs Frew retired after many years of outstanding service to Williamwood High School. They were joined by Mr Parker who gained a much deserved promoted post at another school.

In Biology, our American visitor Mr Sullivan returned to New Jersey after his successful year at Williamwood. The teacher who he replaced, Miss Tagore, also announced that she would be leaving the school. The Biology department would also like to thank temporary teacher Miss Smith for her superb work during 12-13.

Finally, the Physics department lost the popular Mr Boyce for a promoted post elsewhere. Like all of the teachers mentioned here, he will be sorely missed.

Fortunately, those staff members have been replaced with a new group of enthusiastic and talented teachers; Mr Allan, Dr Baillie and Miss McLaughlin (Chemistry); Miss McKenna and Ms. Shearer (Biology); and Mr McLaren (Physics). The department extends a warm welcome to all of our new teachers.

Welcome Back!!!

The summer holidays are now over and Williamwood High School has had a couple of weeks of tough work since the break. We’d like to extend our thanks to the pupils who have now left the school, as well as welcoming all of the new pupils who are taking classes in the Science department. Check out this website for stories and information about all of our pupils progress through Science, whether in class or at after school clubs.

We would also like to offer our congratulations to our pupils for another excellent set of exam results in 12-13. You should be very proud of your achievements.

STEM Club Returns!

STEM Club has returned with a host of new S1 and S2 members and Mr Boyce taking on a lead role of a project to design and build boats, ran by BAE Systems.

In the club, we have been working in groups of 4 to build boats made from cardboard and paper with the winners getting to go on and face other schools in a larger competition. After a heated competition, the Syndus and its creators were chosen to represent the school at the competition in May.

Congratulations to Robbie Hussain, Bilal Ahmed, Euan Hussain and Francois Husson who were the winning team. We’ll hear more from them after the final!

K’Nex Challenge

Last Wednesday, 21 P6 pupils from our feeder Primary schools competed in cluster stage of the 2013 K’Nex Challenge, run as part of the Glasgow Science Festival. In pairs, the pupils had to design and build a bridge that fulfilled several challenging criteria.

The winning pupils were Reece McKay and James Nicol from Netherlee Primary school and you can see their excellent bridge below. Reece and James will now go on to represent the cluster in the area final during May.

Other pictures of the event can be found HERE.

A huge thanks to all of the pupils from the three schools, as well as their teachers, for making it a superb afternoon!

Model Cells

S1 pupils have now finished their S1 rotations and have started their S2 topics. As part of the S1 Cells topics, classes are given a homework task to design a model of either a plant or animal cell, using items found in their homes. A gallery of some of the best models can be found HERE.

Mars Rover Races!

Just before our Christmas holiday saw the climax of the STEM project, which had been designed to test the programming of the Mars Rovers. There were three teams and they each had to programme the Rovers to complete an obstacle course in the shortest time possible. This was to simulate the Mars Rovers exploring Mars itself.

The contest took the form of a time trial, with each team having three attempts before and an average of those was taken. All of the team put their problem solving skills to the test as they each were allowed to tweak their programmes between each run. It was a highly skilled and competitive race, only 0.5 seconds the winners from the second place team.

Racing our Mars Rovers

All of the STEM club would like to say a huge thank you to our STEM ambassador Ken Maxsted for all of his valuable time, hard work and enthusiasm for the project. Without Ken, this project would not have been able to run, with his knowledge and guidance helping put STEM into action for all of our members.

We would also like to thank our second STEM aambassador Lindsey Yuile for his support. Lindsey helped us gain the funding for our project through a generous grant from the Royal Society Partnership Grant scheme. 

The renewable Mars Rover Racers will take on a new phase in January 2013, as the Williamwood Design and Modelling club will take on the challenge of designing and building the exterior casing for the rovers.

For a picture gallery of the Rover races, click on the link below:

STEM Rover Race Photo Gallery

The Visit of the Primaries

The penultimate STEM session of 2012 celebrated the success of the meticulously planned P7 workshops.

A dedicated team of STEM club members delivered three workshops to over 40 P7 pupils.

The sessions involved:

  • Making a model hovercraft
  • A presentation of our Mars Rover project
  • A challenge to design and build a Mars Rover landing pad
  • A fun maths quiz
  • Identifying mystery objects using a microscope.
Testing Model Hovercraft

The team of STEM members who led the session thoroughly enjoyed themselves and showed fantastic communication and leadership skills throughout all of the sessions.

Feedback from the P7 pupils suggests that they also had a superb experience of all of the STEM areas.

For further pictures of this fantastic day, click on the link below:

P7 Visit – Photo Gallery