Gifted Science Students Explore Extreme Physics
Year 10 students Charley Clubley, Melissa O'Hara, Dylan Birk and Connor Beadsworth were selected for the three-day event at Rugby School thanks to their excellent science results.
Each team had to complete a series of activities, competitions and challenges to win points. These included an alien mass challenge, a trebuchet challenge and a treasure hunt, amongst others.
For the trebuchet challenge, students had to watch a short instruction video clip then build their own trebuchet (a type of catapult used in the siege of castles). They lost points if they could not remember the instructions and had to ask for help. They then had to use their trebuchet to bombard a model castle with Plasticine missiles and the judges measured the mass of Plasticine that landed within the castle walls.
The alien mass challenge saw students use a model alien and make a series of measurements. These allowed them to plot a graph and analyse its line of best fit in order to predict the mass of the alien.
There were also more physical challenges as students were given the opportunity to have a go at the Airkix indoor skydiving and the indoor rock climbing activities at Milton Keynes.
Louise Oliver, KSA's Specialist Science Project Manager, said: "On the final day the students had to do a four minute presentation to the other participating schools, parents and visiting guests. The topic they were given was Plate Tectonics and they came up with several innovative ideas such as using biscuits floating on golden syrup to model the movement of the earth's crust and using an apple to model the earth's interior. KSA students did themselves proud and they won several rosettes for team work, creativity and achievement."