Gold for Sixth Form Science Enthusiasts

On the evening of Monday 18 May, three Sixth Form competitors and three audience members from the Caterham community headed southeast to Tonbridge School for the fifth annual Science Snippets competition.

Our competitors had entered the first round of Science Snippets in the Spring Term by each submitting a sixty-second video in which they discussed a fascinating topic from outside their subject curricula. After doing so, Shannon, Charlotte and Victoria (all Lower Sixth) were invited to the final round, and Josephine (Lower Sixth) joined them as their chief endorser. Mr Keyworth and I also attended the final round.

Science Snippets has been developing into an increasingly prestigious and wide-reaching competition throughout its first five years, with this year’s competition being the first to feature a Year 6-8 age group in addition to GCSE and A-Level categories. One school travelled in from Berkshire, and one competitor was from South Wales, but most were from Surrey and Kent. As such, it was a particularly big achievement for our three competitors to have qualified at all for the final round, and the panel of judges emphasised this throughout.

Charlotte was our first presenter in the A-Level round. With only four minutes in which to enlighten the audience about the promise of converting plastics into pharmaceuticals, she rose brilliantly to the occasion. A few minutes later, Shannon presented a captivating overview of the logic behind taxonomy and the various ranks (order, genus, species etc) within this field. Victoria, the penultimate presenter in the round, narrated The Twenty-Year Story, her sombre overview of Alzheimer’s and the ongoing research into mitigating and preventing its development.

Other highlights from the evening included presentations about time dilation, limb regeneration, and that illusory feeling that many of us may have had of falling from a height shortly after the onset of sleep.

In the end, following a long deliberation by the judges, Caterham took two of the top three places in the A-Level round, with Victoria taking third place and Charlotte being named the 2026 winner. Many congratulations to them, and to Shannon, whose place in the eleven-strong final round was thoroughly deserved.

We hope we can return to defend our title next year. The future is looking fantastic for Caterham’s community of Science presenters.

Mr R. Evans
Teacher of Chemistry, and of Science Enrichment