British Science Week is a ten-day celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths. It is a really exciting event which takes place every year with over a million people taking part in fun scientific activities and challenges. This year's theme is 'Time'.
We decided to link this with out Science topic of Space. We explored how – and why – did humans first start exploring space? How did we move from the Space Race to the Apollo Years, from the Apollo Years to an era of International Collaboration. We also looked at individual case studies of women in science. Particularly, four Black women who participated in some of NASA's greatest successes, Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden. We also looked at Margret Hamilton who also worked for NASA. She wrote the code that the computer used to navigate from Earth to the Moon, and made sure that the computer would land the spacecraft safely on the surface of the Moon. If it hadn't been for her coding, the mission would have failed.
We then decided to participate in an investigation that looked at how energy is released when stars explode in space. We used tennis balls along side bouncy balls to demonstrate the explosive reaction that takes place. As scientists, we also needed to change thing in the investigation to collect data. We did this by using different sized balls, or differing numbers. We also changed the strength and or height of the fall.
After our first investigation, we decided to try and recreate the gravitational pull of the sin on planets. We did this by using a heavy object suspended in 'space', then letting 'planets' fall towards the sun and see the path they fell in. We added pain to the planets so we could see their paths more clearly.
