We were delighted to welcome Zoe Whitehead, a representative from the National Space Academy, into school today to talk to pupils in year 10 about the GCSE Physics topic of Forces. Zoe began by talking about NASA, the European Space Agency and the UK Space Agency and the variety of roles working within these organisations.
The talk went onto explore asteroids, before looking at the forces on a rocket just after lift off. Pupils were invited to consider what direction the resultant force acts and how a rocket generates thrust, before thinking about the general equation for a combustion reaction. It was interesting to find out how chemistry makes a rocket move before investigating Isaac Newton's First Law of Motion by creating a simple hovercraft using a CD, bottle top, blu tack and a balloon.
Pupils were then invited to consider Newton's Second Law of Motion, the effect of mass on a rocket's launch speed and finally Newton's Third Law of Motion - for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Finally pupils had an opportunity to make their own oxygen-hydrogen rockets before testing them out.
Thank you to Zoe, from the National Space Academy, for delivering such an engaging session.
