Young scientists’ studies showcased in special edition of the Young Scientists Journal

As part of our celebration of 350 years of scientific publishing the Royal Society has teamed up with the Young Scientists Journal to showcase the science of schools supported by Partnership Grants. Students at schools across the country are partnered up with practising scientists to conduct real research. Their studies are published today in the Young Scientists Journal.

This is the 17th issue of Young Scientists Journal, which is not only written, but also edited and run entirely by students aged 12-20 from around the world. The special issue this month highlights the work of students aged 5 – 18 carrying out STEM projects.

One of the teams who submitted a paper will also be manning an exhibit at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition 2015 which opens to the public next week. Students from Boredesley Green Girls’ School and Sixth Form built a cosmic ray detector and mounted it on their school’s roof to find out if the Earth’s atmosphere affects cosmic rays and if they are related to lightning strikes. The data these cosmic ray detectives have collected so far has been shared with scientists all over the world to use for their research.

Other papers include a report by young scientists from Redland Green School who sent a Raspberry Pi into the stratosphere on a weather balloon to collect weather data from 37,000 metres above the Earth and a team from Lockerbie Academy who worked with the police to investigate the physics of car crashes.

The group of young scientists from Boredesley Green Girls’ School and Sixth Form will be on hand next week to talk about their research and answer questions from visitors to the Summer Science Exhibition. 

Four other schools will also be presenting their work at the Summer Science Exhibition next week. Students working on car crash physics from Lockerbie Academy, low temperature plasma experiments from Loreto College, and a study of disease in Horse Chestnut trees from La Saint Union were all chosen to present their papers at a special event on Friday 3 July. A primary school group from Birdwell Primary School will also be presenting their work on earthquakes. The papers were chosen as the best submissions to the special journal by a judging panel headed by Professor Andrea Sella, winner of the Royal Society’s Michael Faraday prize in 2014. Each school will be awarded a certificate and prize to celebrate their achievement.