STEAM Week 2018 – Churcher’s College visits a distant planet!

The annual Churcher’s College STEAM Week started with a bang with a Science Show presented by Mr Ian Russell which had the pupils amazed at the awesome scale of the solar system, our galaxy and the universe.

Through a show of spectacular video and images the children journeyed through the solar system, via other galaxies and planetary systems, to the edge of the visible universe and back to the beginning of time. On the way, the boys and girls saw evidence of a genuinely mysterious, unknown planet orbiting a distant star. British astronaut Tim Peake even got involved with encouraging tweets to the children following their amazing achievements!

This inspiring beginning started the children on their own investigations, from building and testing rockets, to thinking about what alien life forms they might encounter. Some pupils modelled the planet’s surface, whilst others thought about the effects of different pressures and gases. The students learnt about micro-biology to support their investigations into other life forms and conducted their own experiments all around the school, inside and out. A particularly special memory for the children was watching the school teddy bear parachuting from a rocket which had been launched over the school field. Teddy then landed securely on the new planet surface (the tarmac area over 100m away!), his safety all down to the ingenuity of the spaceship designed and engineered by the children.

Ffion Robinson, Head of Churcher’s College Junior School and Nursery, said; ‘We are hugely grateful to Mr Ian Russell for his enthusiasm, expertise and energy during this week of space activities. I would also like to thank our inspiring teachers and supportive parents and grandparents who joined us. All the children really enjoyed the experience and learning opportunities, it was lovely to see the wealth of knowledge that they gleaned from their space voyage.’