Rocket Science Week
During the 1-5th October 2007, WHGS pupils took part in Rocket Science Week to commemorate the launch of Russia's first artificial satellite Sputnik 1 in 1957, which started the Space race which ended with the USA landing two men on the Moon in 1969.
Colleagues in every department taught lessons with a space theme.
In Drama, pupils enacted a Space Opera, in Design they made rockets and in Science lessons, pupils made and launched their own fizzy-pop rockets. Even the Modern Language department contributed by translating the names of rocket parts into French, Spanish and German.
On Wednesday 3rd October, pupils were entertained by the
Starchaser team who told them of their plans to launch a paying
customer into space by the end of 2009 and beat Richard Branson in
the race to commercialise space. Dr. Simeon Barber of the Open
University talked to pupils about the Rosetta Project to land on a
comet and even brought a model of the spacecraft for them to look
at.
On October 4th, we celebrated the 50th Anniversary of spaceflight
by launching a solid-fuelled rocket four times. It reached a height
of nearly 800 feet and could have gone higher but sadly it was lost
when it was caught in the branches of a very tall tree on its final
descent by parachute. We are hoping it will return to Earth soon as
the leaves begin to fall . . .
All in all this was a very successful introduction to rocket
science and all the pupils were involved in at least one of the
many activities.
