Last term, the Biology Department ran the Bio Art Attack competition, an in-school competition combining art and Biology, alongside the national Royal Society of Biology competition. Any piece of art explaining or depicting a biological concept, theory or area of biology could be entered.
We enlisted the help of Youth STEMM award pupils in M5 for organising the competition and spreading the word.
Mohid Sandhu (M5), writes:
“I recently ran a Biology art competition for the school from Years 7 to 13. It involved getting announcements in assembly, making tutorial slides and posters, going round to the younger year groups to advertise and answer questions, setting up an email account and then later, receiving and confirming the entries, judging the entries, submitting various entries to the national competition run by the Royal Society of Biology, and lots more hard work! I had done a similar thing last year, running a Biology Photography competition on the theme of communication. This year’s competition was a lot broader, with entries having to be only Biology and Art related - no specific theme.
Entries were judged as 4th, 5th and 6th form and we decided on prizes of Amazon vouchers given in assembly to the top 2 entries per form, then chocolates for the rest of the participants. I had enjoyed running the photo competition last year so decided to run the art one this year and am certainly open to any others in the future. I enjoyed speaking about the competition, judging the entries, seeing my work such as posters, slides or announcements displayed, hearing people talk about it and overall had a lot of fun running it. We are now waiting to see if any of our entries make it through to the next round of judging in the national competition.”
The winners and runners-up were as follows:
4th Form: Ana Meade (L4). Runner-up Oren Butler (L4)
5th Form: Darcy Wilkins M5. Runner-up Lily Booth (M5)
6th Form: Imie James (L6). Runners-up Trixie Ellerby (L6) and Jocelyn Leung (U6)
The 5th Form winner, Darcy Wilkins (M5), describes her piece:
“My piece is based on three very important aspects of life. Starting fairly simple is the heart, as you need a physical heart to survive, but a metaphorical heart to really live. Another aspect of my drawing was to draw my piece on an actual page taken from a book. I believe that reading helps us all in many different ways, from education, to just a relaxation method. The last feature of my drawing is the flowers growing out of the heart. These to me represent life, but I won’t go into too much depth so that people may have their own perception of my piece.”
6th Form winner, Imie James (L6), writes about her piece The Intestinal Microbial Garden:
“Aside from studying, crafting is one of my favourite hobbies. Being able to combine my passion for science with my passion for craft was an opportunity I just couldn't miss! I decided to make a model of the intestine and its microbes as I am very interested that inside our gastrointestinal tract, including the upper small intestines, resides a vast ecosystem of microbes comprising bacteria, fungi, viruses, and protozoans. Scientific research is revealing that the microbes that live within our gut, our gut microbiome, are affected by our diet, which as a result can not only impact our physical health, but our mental well-being and mood too. I therefore feel the importance of this needs to be highlighted and better understood. To do so is crucial for our health, and so by making a model, I hope it will create a conversation about its importance along with explaining the concept in a way people can understand as well as visualise.”
We are delighted that Imie’s entry won the Individual category of the national RSB competition. Another entry from the school, Daisy Martin (L6P)’s Home good enough to eat, a pottery piece, was also short-listed in the individual category.
https://www.rsb.org.uk/news/clay-corals-and-intestinal-microbiome-win-bioartattack-2022
Many congratulations to all the pupils involved!
