Sir Isaac Newton Sixth Form Science Visit

Year 5 had a fantastic time when Dr North and a team of sixth-form students from Sir Isaac Newton visited us for a thrilling space-themed science day! After kicking off with a fun quiz that put their space knowledge to the test, pupils learned about the history (and future) of space exploration.

The children made great connections between their Y4 learning about space and our recent Y5 work on forces, and enjoyed a Q&A with Dr North, who studied astrophysics. We also learned about the issue of “space junk”, which is growing as we send more and more satellites into space.

This led us to our challenge for the day: to design a structure that would allow rockets to land safely when re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere. We used eggs to represent the astronauts inside the rockets, and worked in teams to create structures that would keep them safe when dropped from a height. The pupils collaborated brilliantly and were very creative in their designing and making – making parachutes out of plastic bags, protecting them with paper and straws, and fastening their structures together with rubber bands, tape and string. Happily, several of these “rockets” survived the testing (and there were only a few egg yolks left on the floor)!