The Towers - Fly Me to the Moon!

Within the space of a couple of weeks two science teachers at The Towers have really engaged with the solar system.

Science is a subject requiring observation and experimentation, which is rather difficult when you’re studying the moon and solar system.

So it was wonderful that Miss Pope was able to arrange for a visit from the ‘moon rocks’ so that pupils, parents and staff had the opportunity to explore space in a hands-on way through the study of lunar rocks and meteorites.

These specimens are from materials used in scientific research and are loaned out through one of the national research councils to schools and universities. Year 8 studied the lunar rocks as part of their investigations into how the moon was formed and the meteorites provided evidence of how the solar system evolved.

The girls were all enthused and engaged by their learning - they even discussed how the lunar rocks provided evidence that the Apollo missions really took place!

Other year groups also had the opportunity to study these fabulous rocks, which were at The Towers for a second year. GCSE classes focused on ‘how scientists work’ when they discovered how the meteorites are studied as part of research into the early evolution of the solar system.

Year 3 also studied the meteorites - they discovered the differences between space rocks and earth rocks and then recorded their learning by writing poetry! Finally all pupils, their parents and even pupils from other local schools had the opportunity to study the samples in a well-attended Open Evening.

Only a few weeks before Dr Landells had joined a group of like minded people at London Gatwick for a four hour flight to see the Northern Lights.

On board was astronomer Pete Lawrence, who appears on the BBC ‘Sky at Night’ TV programme as their observing expert.

After a short presentation about the night sky aircraft took off and headed northwards, as directly as possible, over Aberdeen and the Shetland Isles to a point in the North Atlantic between the UK and Icelandic airspace.

During the flight the cabin lights were dimmed for the group to watch the Northern Lights display and all aboard swapped seats so that everyone had a window seat at various times throughout the flight.

Dimming of the cabin and aircraft navigation lights meant an almost total black out and a very dark cabin!

The astronomers guided them through a star-studded sky, so rarely seen through the polluted skies of Britain. Both Orion and the Plough seemed very close.

Science really is a superb subject.

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