This week, SVS enjoyed further STEM success at the Benenden STEM Convention. All our Sixth Form STEM representatives contributed brilliantly to the day, and we came away with the first prize, awarded to Hannah Slipper (Upper Sixth), for the best student project of the convention. Lily Goodwin (Upper Sixth) has written a report on the trip below:

On Thursday, ten Sixth Form students spent the day at the Benenden School STEM Convention. It was a Science fair consisting of interesting talks by keynote research scientists and students from other schools. There was also time to explore the poster displays of other students’ projects and some very nice food.

SVS took two projects to present, one of which impressively won first place as the best student project at the convention. This was Hannah Slipper’s investigation into the best type of sunscreen. The other amazing presentation, from SVS, was by Thomas Dolan and William Howgill (Upper Sxith) on their Crest Award project on the effectiveness of different types of Impact Attenuators. We had two stands at the fair with posters outlining the projects which sparked lots of discussion at the Science fair.

Out of the other talks we listened to, I was fascinated by the student talk on the antibiotic effectiveness of honey, as well as another talk on the time dilation experienced at the event horizon of a black hole. I appreciated how varied the keynote talks were, varying from Professor Kevin Moffat on the reflex triggers for breathing, to Dr Mahoney-Sanchez on the degeneration of parts of the brain from disease, to a passionate Astro-engineer and TV presenter, Dr Maggie Pocock, talking about the Clangers and exoplanets.

Overall, it was a great day of meeting new people with interests in STEM and learning more about the potential of future STEM careers.