Bosworth Academy hosted three ‘Big Bang’ days in June and July 2013 – an opportunity for Year 5s from local primary schools (including; Barlestone, Desford, Congerstone, Witherley, Ravenhurst, Millfield, Kingsway, Thornton, Dovelands, Dovebank, St Peters CofE and Sheepy Magna) to experience the excitement and enjoy some of the elements that make science both fascinating and fun.

Over the three days 420 pupils had taken part in the Big Bank experience. Each day pupils were divided into eight groups named after influential scientists: Charles Darwin, Robert Winston, Marie Curie, Stephen Hawking, Rosalind, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, Alfred Nobel and Albert Einstein. As a group, pupils discovered how fireworks were made and why they can be lots of different colours. After doing some tests of their own on different chemicals, pupils met an order at the ‘Bosworth Fireworks Factory’! They used microscopes to look at plant and animal cells magnified to 100 times their actual size. They learnt the experimental skills to reverse a reaction (like melting or dissolving) and after finding out how sound waves worked, they made and tested a speaker of their own.

The days were a great success with pupils describing them as ‘awesome’. Pupils each received a Certificate of Participation, a sheet remaining them of what they had done during the day and some information about each scientist the group had been named after. You never know – in years to come one of these young people may have a group named after them!