We enjoyed a visit from the entomology curators at The World Museum, who brought with them samples from the museum collection for the adaptive morphology in insects project. It is a huge privilege for our students to have access to these samples, and we are very grateful to Tony Hunter for helping with this access. The curators were very impressed by our students, and Frank’s encyclopaedic knowledge of ant behaviour led to a lively academic discussion. It has been a busy week, and our thanks as always go to Dr Alex Ball, Ramona Szalczinger, Hitachi, IRIS, The Natural History Museum, and the Royal Microscopical Society for making this fantastic opportunity available to our students.

We have also enjoyed a curriculum English lesson for Ignite students on Gothic literature; what makes something gothic? In a lab decorated with gothic artefacts we looked at samples such as feathers, butterfly wings, skulls and a jawbone in the SEM and on the light microscopes and thought of adjectives to describe these items. The students then used these words to make a creative writing piece in the gothic style.

In addition, Frank, in Year 10, brought in an amazing sample: a Queen ant, her egg, and the first-generation worker who hatched from the egg. Dr Mitchell said she doesn’t think she's ever learnt so much in such a short time.