First Campus Hands on Science put on a broad range of workshops at the First Campus UWIC residential this year.

The year 9 residential Summer School was held at UWIC between the 30th June and the 2nd July, and pupils wree given the opportunity to live the life of a student, experiencing the educational and social sides of life on campus.

Day one was spent working on team building and ensuring the pupils get to know one another and the students and staff at the university.  On days two and three the pupils studied their chosen ‘degree’ subject; all subject areas related to a current degree course at the university. 

Pupils that opted for the science subjects had the opprtunity to travel to Cardiff University and the University of Glamorgan to study in their specialist science laboratories.  Hands on Science subject degree choices included:

• Practical Chemistry with Dr Suzy Kean,
• Forensic Science Murder Mystery Workshops with Richard Price which included taking fingerprints, making plaster casts of shoeprints and investigating and charting a crime scene,
• Astrophysics with the Faulke’s Telescope Group looking at impacts on earth from asteroids using an online impact calculator;
• A practical workshop with Dr Kelly Berube from the Biosciences Department at Cardiff University which included studying flies and comparing the physical properties of the different colours of snot to show how our respiratory system tries to protect itself.