STEM collaboration shows strength of our UCS family ties

A recent STEM collaboration between UCS Senior School and Pre-Prep pupils underlined the shared traits and unique spirit that make these schools part of the same successful and happy educational family alongside the Junior Branch.

Pupils from the Senior School’s Biology Society gladly ventured to the Pre-Prep to explain the concept of DNA to their younger counterparts. It was a collaboration inspired by the inquisitive minds of two Pre-Prep boys who, having learned in their Correspondence Club about Richard III and the process of identifying his skeleton using DNA, wrote a letter to Foundation Headmaster, Mark Beard, asking to learn more about DNA.

The Senior School pupils delivered an enriching learning experience to their enthralled audience, presenting a short introduction to DNA and analysing its use in the case of King Richard. The Pre-Prep pupils then had the chance to carry out a practical where they extracted DNA from strawberries – even getting to take home DNA samples. Head of Biology, Miss Potter, said: “The Biology Society presidents – Eloise Johnson, Jake Park Lovering, Roman Lorello and Ivan Domingo – were very keen to participate and we had an amazing time. We would love to come back!”

For Mr Beard, the whole enterprise highlighted the value, to each component school, of being part of the UCS Foundation that educates children from ages 4–18. “This was a great example of our mutually beneficial cooperation,” he said, “and it looks like a great time was had by all.”

If the senior contingent relished the positive and friendly Pre-Prep environment, they would also have recognised in their junior collaborators similarly common UCS traits of intellectual curiosity and communal endeavour. Headmistress, Zoe Dunn, said: “Thank you to the students for their well-pitched and exciting experiment. I do not think the boys will look at strawberries in the same way!”