Head's Blog: STEAM

This week I would like to highlight the truly inspiring Merritt Moore. I first heard about her through the Rebel Girls podcast: highly recommended and available here . A Harvard and Oxford alumna, Moore has gained some fame by having parallel careers in physics and ballet.

With a BA in physics from Harvard, Ph.D. in Quantum Optics from Oxford, Merritt is adjunct professor at NYU Abu Dhabi teaching “Creative Robotics.” Concurrently Moore has danced professionally with Zurich Ballet, English National Ballet, Norwegian National Ballet, and Boston Ballet. She explains her dual life and how these aspects support each other here.

Merritt would find herself very much at home at RHB. This week has seen Science Week, begun with a memorably explosive assembly from Mr Hardcastle and including Wednesday’s lively Team Science Challenge as well as today’s eye-opening lecture on Assisted Conception from the University of Bristol’s Professor Kate Whittington. Our Year 10 students have also taken a school trip to the Maths Inspiration lectures and the whole school enjoyed yesterday’s Pi day celebrations and Mrs Bolan and Mr Duckworth’s launch of our Pi-casso competition.

However, this week also saw our superb Spring Concert and annual Dance Show where many of the same students engaged in superb feats of aesthetic skill and artistry. It really was a privilege to enjoy these powerful collaborative performances where the students really gave their all. We should not be surprised when our girls choose to do both. There is no such dichotomy here. Indeed, our artistic practices help us to build up the STEAM we need to be successful in STEM.