Year 10 travel to London to the Royal Institution of Great Britain
Chemistry trip
Last Thursday, a group of 16 year ten pupils had the chance to travel to London to the Royal Institution of Great Britain at UCL for Science day. We were accompanied by Marianne Bienz and a few of her colleagues who took us round the variety of stalls and helped us explore the different aspects of science, including stem cells, forensic science and nanotechnology.
However, before we could begin learning the fascinations of science, we had to travel to London. We took the train from Royston to Kings Cross before taking the underground to the Royal Institution. Once we arrived we had an exciting and surprising experience. Standing outside the institution was none other than David Attenborough himself! We watched him in amazement as he filmed his next documentary in front of two life size models of pterodactyls. After watching in awe for at least 10 minutes we finally proceeded into the institution.
After an introduction to the institution we split into small groups and started to explore. One of the highlights, especially for Jackie, was the chance to go inside a MRI scan machine. Obviously it was not in operation but inside you could watch a video explaining how MRI scans worked. Close by to this station was an amazing sight, particularly for Erin. A giant penguin was flying up above us. It was filled with helium and was operated with a remote controlled by a scientist nearby. We also learnt how nanotechnology could detect cancerous cells in the body through their heat and had fun trying out the heat detecting cameras on ourselves.
After exploring the activities we then went to the Southbank centre to watch a musical show on how the voice works. Two women demonstrated the different types of singing voice and we watched how the sound waves changed. We also watched a rather gross video of the inside of someone’s throat to see how the vocal cords moved as they sang. Once the show had finished we returned to the institution for a quick lunch before coming home on the train.
We would like to thank Marianne Bienz and her colleagues as well as Miss Froment for such a wonderful day out and the opportunity to develop our understanding of modern science.
By Fiona Jackson and Jackie Garrick
