Session Two gets scientific
Academic Scholars took part in the second session of a special learning programme recently.
As part of a new initiative, a large number of pupils took part in the Science-related session on Tuesday, May 16, which have been designed to stimulate discussion and development beyond the main curriculum, and to allow those whose academic potential has been recognised to expand it further.
The session, which was taken by Head of Science Dave Robson, was an attempt at making the scholars think more about questions than answers.
Mr Robson began with the Rosetta mission to land a probe on a comet as an example of what man can accomplish.
The Rosetta chases comets through space having been propelled there by slingshot orbits to fire the probe off for an encounter that would happen at a very precise point in space, several years into the future.
He said: “The main idea was that there is a lot more that we don’t know than we do.”
They then spoke about light being a wave and used the ripple tank to demonstrate two wave properties and repeated this with the laser.
This was followed by Young’s double slit experiment to show that light must be a wave, before using animation of the photoelectric effect, which demonstrated the need for individual discrete photons.