Over the last couple of months, the SFC1 team of Giselle, Vanessa, Sofia and three students from Pate’s Grammar School in Cheltenham have been working on their entry to the Big Bang Competition, the UK's top annual science, engineering and technology competition. They have recently been named finalists in the competition, as well as the ECITB Teamwork Award.
“Combining our interests in biology, healthcare, and medicine, we collaborated with friends from Pate's Grammar School to work on our entry on The Epigenetic Memory of Fat Cells Modelled by Yeast. In undertaking this project, we aimed to model the yo-yo phenomenon: how fat tissue rebuilds readily when the body was previously overweight - and hence why global obesity is so complex and difficult to overcome. As part of our project, we carried out extensive research, interviews, and our main experiment: manipulating yeast growth with different sugar levels over periods of time - which turned out to be representative of the yo-yo phenomenon.
Throughout this process, we have not only been exposed to biological techniques and knowledge new to us but also gained teamwork skills in working with one another and building friendships across the Zoom screen.” - Giselle, Vanessa and Sofia
The final presentation was on Tuesday and we are waiting to hear the results.
Ms Stuart, Teacher of Biology and Second in Department
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