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Science Week Autumn 2009

As this is the International Year for Astronomy, we chose Space as our theme for science week this year. The highlight of the week was a visit from Space Odessey, a large inflatable planetarium which took over the sports hall for the day. Every pupil in the school, from Reception to Year 8 had the chance to attend a presentation in the planetarium and learn more about the Universe. Pre-prep incorporated this into a whole day of space-themed activities (see separate report). Several parents reported being dragged outside after dark to locate the various constellations that were visible in the night sky that week.

Many pupils took part in rocket building exercises during the week. Year 6 were challenged to create a rocket that would travel as far as possible. They designed and built their rockets during science lessons and we had a grand launching at the end of the week. They learnt a lot about aerodynamics as a result. Middle school pupils spent theory science lessons creating rockets, launched from plastic bottles and members of Form 5BL used their knowledge of air resistance to design a lander to land an ‘eggstraunaut’ safely on the Moon. Fortunately they were all successful! 

Rockets also featured in a breaktime rocket workshop on the Tuesday. Film canister rockets, powered by bicarbonate of soda and vinegar, were launched and reached surprising heights. At least one of them still lies on the roof of the Manor House! The power of compressed air was used for other rockets as our budding astronauts developed their skills in working our optimum launch angles. Meanwhile Mr Matthews challenged all comers to land a virtual spacecraft using a simulation programme on his classroom computer.

This year’s Science week Family Competition was to design a Moon base. A number of families took part in this and the quality of the entries was outstanding. Each family chose their own medium to display their ideas and we had huge difficulty choosing winners.

The Lord family produced an informative poster and the Ruthven family clearly had enormous fun making their beautiful model, which showed humour as well as so me practical ideas. The Ryder family’s model of the Moon itself was extremely impressive. The Rich family showed extremely imaginative use of materials in their model and Freddie wrote a lovely, informative booklet to explain their ideas.

In the end, we awarded three first prizes. These went to three projects that combined outstandingly good use of the chosen medium with a high degree of understanding of the science and practical problems that would be encountered on the Moon.

The Simmons family built their Moon base in a box, making use of top lighting to create an extremely atmospheric model, and accompanied it with some informative and accurate notes. The Kerton family’s model was huge and conveyed very effectively the feeling of isolation in a huge, grey expanse of dust that could be felt in a Moon base and the Chapman family created a PowerPoint presentation that combined a huge amount of information with humorous comments.

Thank you to all those who took part.