London: St Benedict's Science Fair

Young scientists at St Benedict's, Ealing, west London, conducting around 40 different experiments at their annual Science Fair, which was attended by 340 children from local primary schools.

The school's science labs buzzed with excitement as all pupils in Year 8 presented their fascinating projects, many of which included hands-on experiments and activities.

St Benedict's pupils had been working on their projects in biology, chemistry and physics lessons over several weeks, devising and conducting experiments, and carefully recording their results and conclusions.

Projects included: How do muscles move bones? Are fingerprint patterns inherited? Does music affect your concentration? How much weight can an egg support? and Do video games affect your reaction time and cognitive ability? There was even an experiment to find out if goldfish react to sound, in the manner of Pavlov's dogs! (Goldfish, it seems, are unmoved by sound.) Visiting children quizzed the St Benedict's scientists about their projects and discovered lots of scientific facts, finding out about what joins muscle to bones, what oobleck is and what happens to teeth in sugary drinks.

Everyone enjoyed a fantastic day of science - fittingly, in British Science Week, on Einstein's birthday, and the day on which we lost one of our greatest scientists - Stephen Hawking.

Schools that attended were: Montpelier Primary, North Ealing Primary, Mount Carmel Primary, Durston House and Kew College. The St Benedict's Science Fair takes place every year in British Science Week. It is the result of many hours' work on a range of projects covering many areas of science, maths and engineering.