As part of the Big Idea Earth, Year 9 have been looking at all things space. They started looking at resources closer to home, then at our atmosphere, and then proceeded to go beyond and even interstellar! We have been looking at the make up of different galaxies and how these are a collection of billions of stars. The students were taken aback when they discovered the sheer scale of the universe and the vast amount of stars. There are approximately 10,000 stars for every grain of sand!

As part of this unit, we looked at how stars are born and the nuclear reaction that takes place inside them, fusing together hydrogen to form all the elements in the periodic table. So when people say we are made of star dust, there is some truth to it! We studied the life cycle of stars, from their birth to their ultimate (but spectacular) deaths and supernovas. As part of the lessons, I asked them to create a poster to show the life cycle of a star. They all took on the challenge with enthusiasm and produced some outstanding pieces of work – we even got a painted canvas! Great work, Year 9! 

Mr Dean,

Science Department

The James Webb Telescope has discovered six ancient galaxies that according to NASA, shouldn’t exist.  These galaxies date back to when the universe first started and are roughly 13.5 billion years old and are as old as our own galaxy, the Milky Way. These galaxies are a lot older and bigger than expected.  This new discovery will help us learn more about the beginnings of the universe but could even change our understanding of how galaxies are formed.

NASA has also recently announced the crew that will be going on the first Moon mission in more than 50 years. Among the crew is the first woman, the first person of colour and the first Canadian on a lunar mission.  This crew have been selected for the Artemis II mission which will see them blast off in November 2024, circle around the Moon and return back to Earth. This mission is testing the route that will be taken on future lunar missions which will eventually see astronauts setting foot on the Moon before the end of 2025.

Mrs Goodwill

Science Department

The STEM club have been working tirelessly making final preparations for the “Robotics Challenge North West Finals” at Preston College on Wednesday 3rd May 2023. During the competition, the robot creations will have to carry out a variety of tasks, including climbing a ramp, opening a gate, moving a variety of objects whilst avoiding numerous objects within a short time scale, as well as performing some dance moves. The competition also involves a separate speed challenge and delivering a presentation about the projects.

Since September, the team have worked collaboratively, sharing out responsibilities and the projects have come together over the last few weeks with impressive results.

Eden, Vidhya and Ruby in Year 9 have been busy building and making modifications to the robot, while Sophie in Year 9 has taken the lead with programming.  All challenges have been overcome and the robot can now complete the challenges set due to the diligence and hard work of this fantastic team.

Our year 8 team members include Lauren and Uswa who have focused their efforts on incorporating gears to their robot to increase speed, along with modifying components to maximise the speed of their robot. Jemima and Ruby have done a splendid job researching, writing and editing the presentation.

Good luck to the teams on the 3rd of May. I’m sure that they will have lots of success. They should all be very proud of their achievements.

Mr Knee

Science Department

Year 11 have been taking the opportunity to access the past papers, revision guides and books to help them prepare for their forthcoming GCSE Science exams.

The Science library in Room 44 has a great selection of books and magazines that we subscribe to. Students can borrow these – just ask a member of Science staff.

We have Science-related books and magazines for all ages and interests. One of my favourites are the ‘Horrible Science’ books by Nick Arnold. We have the whole series of them!

Mrs Cahill

Science Department

Science club continues to be very popular with our large group of keen year 7 and 8 scientists. These students have been attending every Wednesday lunch time to take part in a wide range of fun and exciting scientific experiments, investigations and challenges. Since the last Science club update, students have created a Chemistree for Christmas time, explored the process of crystallisation by producing salt crystal decorations, investigated different metal ions by carrying out the flame test and used the method of chromatography to make some beautiful chromatography butterflies.

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 lunch times at 12:45pm.

Miss Forrest

Science Department