12/05/2021

This week we managed to finally add some fish! The pupils had selected otocinclus catfish as one of their algae eating options in the tank and I had managed to pick up 8 of these for our tank. They were added to the tank on Tuesday and the acclimation process began straight away. The bag of fish was floated in the tank water to allow the temperatures of the water to match, and finally they were released into their new home. The light was kept off during this process to reduce stress levels.

Despite being quite small, they got to work straight away and we noticed that their belly’s were full. We also noticed that they are very elusive and like to stay at the back of the tank, hiding amongst the plants.

Pupils were also excited to be part of a virtual meeting with CO2 art this week! CO2 Art had kindly provided us with the equipment to inject carbon dioxide into our tank to boost plant growth (see week 4 article).

We caught up with John Mitchell and JP and updated them on how the project was going. They shared their fishkeeping experiences and gave plenty of useful advice. As well as asking questions regarding the hobby, pupils were keen to find out about operating a business, especially one which involves a hobby/passion.

JP and John were very thorough with their responses and gave pupils as much insight as they could in the time given. We value the shared experience and insight into fishkeeping/entrepreneurship. I think this is one of the truly great links tropical fish club has allowed us to build – one with passionate businesses and we look forward to learning more from their insights!

Mr Bansal

 

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Week 9 & 10

Week 8

Week 7

Week 6

Week 5

Week 4

Easter

Week 3

Week 2

Week 1

Introduction

 

This is an event we have entered on a number of occasions in the past, with a varying degree of success and having attained first place on two previous occasions.  In normal times, the quiz is held in Birmingham University’s Great Hall but, this year, it was hosted on Zoom (on Friday 21^st May 2021), with students submitting their answers using Kahoot!, on which points are awarded not only for correct answers but for speed of response too.

Haisem Zeino writes: ‘There were 6 rounds, each on a different topic. These were ‘Electricity and Waves’, ‘Mechanics’, ‘Who am I?’, ‘What am I?’, ‘Temperature and Matter’ and ‘Medical Physics’. The ‘Medical Physics’ and ‘Who am I?’ rounds were worth double points. The quiz was split into two halves, with a break in between.  Before the second half started, however, Professor Mark Dennis, Head of Theoretical Physics at Birmingham University, gave an interesting lecture on Polarised light, during which we all learnt something new. 45 teams participated, all aiming for 1^st place. The 12 HGS participants (in four teams of three) were:

Shoaib Mahmood, David Fadairo, Kai Dawkins, Rafae Ajaz, Haisem Zeino, Basel Ziyara, Shrey Kapoor, Jerin George, Erefti Abraham, Hardit Matharu, Eshaan Prabhakar and Haasin Ali.            

Well done to everyone. This was very exciting (and tense) for all of us!’ 

Teams from King’s School, Worcester, took an early lead in the quiz (and ultimately came first and second) but the podium places changed many times, including during the last round.  All four of our teams performed very well and we were particularly pleased that the team comprising Rafae, Haisem and Basel beat teams from King Edward’s Camp Hill and King Edward’s Aston to come third, having answered only two and three less answers correctly than second and first placed teams respectively.

Mr Jones