They answered questions from the director of the Royal Institute, Katherine Mathieson, and the audience.

Afterwards, we had so many positive comments about how articulate Blossom was in describing her experiences of practical science at our schools. Many of the conference delegates are now keen to visit our schools to find out more about how we are managing to deliver exciting and engaging practical projects when many schools are reducing the amount of practical work that students do.

Dr. Mitchell accompanied three Year 10 students, Felizian, Hamdhan and Mohieddin, as they presented an academic poster and practical activity summarising their work on adaptive morphology of insect mouthparts that they carried out using the SEM. All the students were superb ambassadors for our schools and presented with great confidence and eloquence. There was so much interest in our approach to delivering practical STEM projects and people interested in collaborating.

The Royal Society was founded in 1660 and its halls have been walked by names such as Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton and Mary Somerville, Mary Anning and Ernest Rutherford. What an inspiring place for our aspiring scientists to present their amazing project work.