Aspiring biology pupils teamed with local schools for a day of hands-on bioscience research as we played host to the 2025 Biology Conference with University College London (UCL) and University of East Anglia (UEA).
Led by our Head of Biology, Sam Lebbon, our Year 10 and 12 pupils were joined by friends from Thomas Mills High School, Stradbroke and Hartismere School for an insightful event which included research analysis, practical experiments, lab workshops and fascinating undergraduate level lectures.
The day began with a deep-dive into cell specification with a lecture by Professor of Developmental Neurobiology, Stephen Price (UCL), as pupils pondered and debated the 100-year-old question of what causes cells to separate and group together.
Heading over to the science block, pupils put on their lab coats for a series of fascinating lab work, including separating and extracting the lactose from milk, a heart, lung and liver dissection practical, identifying vector borne diseases with their host and the symptoms, finishing with the ‘moss safari’ project where pupils searched for ‘The Big Five’ multicellular animals (Moss Mites, Rotifer, Nematode, Tardigrade and Gastrotrich) under the microscope at low magnifications x40 to x100.
The day concluded with an afternoon of insightful lectures on our theatre by our very own Head of Science, Dr Richard Higgins, on ‘Medicine, Biology and the Biosciences’, and by Professor of Evolutionary Biology and Science Engagement, Ben Garrod (UEA), on ‘What separates humans from apes’.
Discover more about studying Biology at Framlingham College.
