PhD student Rachael Shuttleworth (@rachshuts) from NOC recently visited local school Oakwood Primary where she held a morning session with the reception class as part of their annual science week. After a short assembly introducing the children to key concepts such as global warming and climate change the classes were split up into groups for an experiment using infra-red lamps to heat up bottles filled with CO2 and air – where the bottle that was filled up with CO2 got hotter, faster! This lead to discussions about why this happens and the effect that having more CO2 in the atmosphere has on Earth’s climate. The morning came to an end talking about how at NOC scientists use sediments and fossils to learn more about Earths climate in the past to better understand how it will change in the future and a show-and-tell using the 3D printed fossils from BOSCORF – the students were amazed by the intricacy of the shells and how their chemistry can be used to tell us about the history of our planet! A video of the session made by the school is available to see at http://oakwoodlive.blogspot.com/2018/06/science-visitor-in-year-r.html .
