At the end of last term, sixty excited Year 9 physicists met on a cold December morning to travel to Florida.
Part of the week focused on space, with the students undertaking astronaut training and visiting the Kennedy Space Centre to learn about the initial Gemini space missions, the following Apollo shuttle missions, and the future plans to send humans to Mars. The group saw the now retired shuttle Atlantis and experienced a simulated launch.
Disney featured heavily on three of the days, with students engaging in workshops about the physics behind The Tower of Terror and Rock ’n’ Rollercoaster, the way that Disney views leadership and how to design a theme park.
In addition to these daytime activities, the students visited WonderWorks in order to get hands-on experience with rotational motion, thermal capacity and optics, had to navigate an escape room and even found time for a round of crazy golf.
Overall, the trip provided a wonderful opportunity to see science implemented in exciting ways and to unwind at the end of a busy term.
