This term, all of our Year 10 physicists have been studying the unit of ‘Energy’, so its time for our annual Physics competition.

A ride on a rollercoaster is a perfect example of physics in action. Rollercoasters rely on a store of gravitational potential energy as it transfers into kinetic energy and back again, over and over again.

The UK’s tallest rollercoaster, The Big One at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, starts with the train being cranked to the top of a massive 72m hill. On rides like this, your anticipation builds with the clanking of the chain, as it pulls you slowly up the hill, increasing your gravitational potential energy. Gravity then takes over, pulling the cars down a 65° drop. As the train dives, the gravitational potential energy decreases and the kinetic energy increases as it accelerates to around 34 m/s.

Every Year 10 physicist has been tasked with designing their very own rollercoaster. Each rollercoaster design must include calculations of gravitational potential energy, kinetic energy and elastic potential energy. Their rollercoasters must also have a clear theme.

There will be prizes for the best designs with the most accurate calculations:

• 1st place – £15 amazon voucher
• 2nd place – £10 amazon voucher
• 3rd place – £5 amazon voucher

Good luck, Year 10!

Miss Forrest

Science Department

This term, Year 11 separate chemistry students have been exploring the fascinating, but sometimes challenging world of organic chemistry. In just five weeks, they have progressed from recognising basic organic molecules, to naming, drawing and building molecules such as 1,2-dibromoethane, butanedioic acid and ethyl ethanoate. The unit culminated in students producing their own ester molecules by reacting ethanol with ethanoic acid to produce an ester molecule.

Individual organic molecules are far too small to see, even with a microscope but it’s essential that students can visualise them in order to understand how they interact. This provides an excellent opportunity to use the molymods to model these organic molecules. Modelling ideas is a vital aspect of science, both for deepening understanding but also for communicating complex or abstract ideas clearly. However, it’s also important to understand that models have their limits. The picture shows ethanol molecules (CH3CH2OH), but oxygen atoms are not really red, the bonds between the atoms are not really visible and ethanol molecules do not really look like a small dog! Explaining the limitations of these models is an excellent way for students to demonstrate a deeper understanding of the subject.

Mr Coogan

Science Department

In recent weeks, the telescope has been taking images of Jupiter and Neptune.  In the image of Jupiter, you can clearly see the Great Red spot; a famous storm so big that it could swallow Earth.  It appears white in the image because it reflects a lot of sunlight. The image of Neptune shows the rings and dust bands that encircle the ice giant.  Also visible in the image taken of Neptune are seven of Neptune’s moons. Triton is the brightest, almost looking star-like. The latest image taken by the telescope shows a double star (binary) system WR 140, which is 5000 light years from Earth.  The image shows 17 rings which are dust shells that extend outwards over 10 trillion km (70,000 times the distance between the Earth and our Sun).  The dust shells are mainly made up of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).  These are very rich in carbon and you can find them on burnt toast and in car exhausts.  PAHs produced by stars are thought to enrich the carbon content throughout the Universe.

Mrs Goodwill

Science Department

This year, Science Club has started off with a bang. A large group of keen scientists have been attending every Wednesday lunchtime to take part in a wide range of fun and exciting scientific experiments, investigations and challenges. So far, students have created and raced balloon rockets, explored the wonder of magnesium metal and learnt a technique to create a colourful density tower. Here are Katie and Lucy’s density towers. 

Science Club is open to all year 7 and year 8 students. Anyone wanting to attend can just turn up and get involved on Wednesday lunchtimes at 12:45pm.

Miss Forrest

Science Department

Year 9 have been learning about ‘Ecosystems’ in Science. This is one of our ‘big ideas’. They have been exploring how plants make food by photosynthesis. They have done several experiments to prove this process. Can they tell you about them? We have then been looking at how leaves are adapted to make food and how the cross section of a leaf is structured to make the process of photosynthesis more efficient. Mrs Honeyman’s class made a model to show the structure. Would you be able to name the 7 main parts of the leaf structure? 

Mrs Honeyman

Curriculum Leader for Science