The Universe

At the end of the Autumn term, all of Year 9 had a talk from Adam Shaw, an astronomer from Kielder Observatory in Northumberland. He gave us a whistle stop tour through the Universe with a particular focus on stars and their life cycle. Whist being able show some of the constellations visible in the Northern Hemisphere and how to find them, the girls learned about the eventual fate of stars such as Betelgeuse and our own Sun. Adam also explained the concept of light years and why they are important when describing the mind-bogglingly huge distances between objects in space. 

Year 9 students are currently finalising their options and for those that choose to study separate sciences, Space is a stand-alone topic in the GCSE Physics course. As well as starting to prepare the girls for this topic, some will hopefully be inspired to make the most of the warmer nights and take the time to do some stargazing of their own. 

Mr Coogan

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