By Ishita N, Year 10 Journalist Leader

On 3rd of March, Year 10 went to the Dominion Theatre to watch a series of talks hosted by Science Live. All the speakers were experts in their field, which was clear to see from the detail and enthusiasm they spoke with on a wide range of topics.

We got to hear talks about how archaeology and DNA research can help us understand early civilisations, how to time travel (spoiler: going forwards in time is easy, but going backwards is much harder), and what the future could hold for space exploration. We even got to see live demonstrations of chemical reactions when hearing about how patterns in nature are formed, such as the stripes on a zebra and Professor Steve Jones tackled the age-old question of nature or nurture.  Prestigious speakers such as Professor Alice Roberts, Professor Jim Al-Khalili, Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock and Professor Andrea Sella presented over the course of the day and even answered questions from the audience, such as whether UFOs could be us from the future visiting today’s Earth.

Throughout the day, we gained tips from a senior examiner on how to ace our science GCSEs, such as how to understand command words and how much to write depending on the number of marks the question is worth. It was great to be able to get advice from someone experienced in the topic and it helped us feel more prepared, and listening to scientists talk about their specialities helped us to imagine what a STEM-related job would entail and the role that science plays outside the context of school.

Seeing how different disciplines and subjects intertwine in real-life scenarios through the research of the speakers opened our eyes to how complex and intricate the world around us is and we were left wanting to find out more about how so many things that we take for granted actually work.

Thank you so much to the teachers who organised this trip, we really enjoyed it!