On Wednesday 27th February, four Year 9 students went to Bolton School to take part in the Physics Olympics organised by the Ogden Trust and the Institute of Physics. They were up against 24 other teams from around the North West and were the only school representing Yorkshire. They took part in six different events and were judged on how well they did:
- Marble Madness: The students had to get a marble from the top of a ramp to the bottom by taking the longest time possible. They also had to make the marble turn one light on and another off.
- Generation X: They had to design a wind turbine and build it. They then tested it to see how much energy it could produce.
- Topsy Towers: Build a tower to support a hard boiled egg using only jelly babies and dry spaghetti. The winners were who could support the egg the highest.
- Up, Up and Away: This was building a paper rocket to be launched via a foot pump and copper piping, through a hula hoop and then land on a target. A lot harder than it sounds.
- Sink or Swim: Using only two plastic wallets and two pieces of card they had to build a ‘raft’ to support as many marbles as possible. They managed to achieve nearly 1kg which was very impressive.
- Fermi Quiz: AN AMAZING PERFORMANCE. The school finished 2nd (only behind the host school) in what Mr Little described as ‘The Hardest Quiz in the history of Quizzes!’. The questions included ‘How many seconds have passed since Newton was hit on the head by an apple?’, ‘How many £20 notes would fit in the main hall at the school?’ and estimating how many Emperor Penguins were in an aerial photo (200,000 apparently).
The students were a credit to the school, and the host school and other members of staff commented on the politeness and work ethic of them all. The students involved were:
Clarence Antonino, Caitlin Cole, Megan Parker and Sam Kettlewell. They all received medals for their achievements.