Welcome to the Stoverview

Welcome to the Stoverview which, it is hoped, will be of interest to those connected with Stover School - and also to the wider community involved with secondary education, and perhaps to those just interested in 'bits and pieces' about science, history and stuff! See here for more.

Monday 30 December 2013

Is Eating “Frogs’ Legs” Really More English than French?

It is thought that humans (Homo sapiens) have been living in Britain, on and off, for at least the last 41,000 years (see “The Oldest Devonian of us All?”), and for most of this time our ancestors were using stone rather than metal for making their sharp tools, and so were living in the “Stone Age”.

We don’t know a great deal about Stone Age Britons as remains are scarce. Indeed, between 19,000 and 26,500 years ago - there would have been no humans in Britain at all as they all migrated southwards to avoid the ice of the Last Glacial Maximum.

However, an interesting insight into the Stone Age diet (from around 9,000 years ago in Mesolithic times) comes from a recent discovery at Blick Mead near Stonehenge in Wiltshire - believed to be the oldest continuous settlement in Britain. Bones recovered from the site include: aurochs (giant wild cows), wild boar, red deer, hazelnuts and - more surprisingly perhaps - toads’ legs.

David Jacques, team leader at the dig, reported to the Guardian newspaper "They would have definitely eaten the toad leg because it would have been quite big and juicy."

Perhaps our careless "Froggy" nickname for our trans-channel cousins should really refer to “les Anglais” rather than the French. Food for thought!

Sunday 29 December 2013

Humour in the Classroom

Welcome back dear reader, and apologies for the Stoverview ‘going dark’ for so long.

We are starting our comeback with a quest for that most elusive of commodities, humour in the classroom.

1. Mathematics
It is generally believed that Mathematics is no laughing matter, and this may not seem the obvious subject to start with but here is one of Mr Haigh’s favourites, just to kick us off...

"There are 10 kinds of people in this world, those who understand the binary system, and those who don't."

We look forward to more in the same vein!