Friday 9 March 2012 GSAL has launched its National Science & Engineering Week (NSEW) celebrations on the theme of ‘Our world in motion’ with the help of 300 helium balloons. The opening ceremony took place in assembly, with the children finding out what weight the balloons could lift, starting with a rubber duck (yes) and ending with the Head of Junior School (no). Having established that the maximum the balloons could lift was 6kg, the balloons were labelled up and released from the playground. The children are now hoping for the labels to be found and sent back so they can find out how far the balloons travelled. NSEW runs from 9 to 16 March and Junior School will be dedicating their timetable to science in an exciting programme of science activities devised by Science Leader Mrs Lindsey, who said, “The week is about investigative science and communicating scientific principles to make them accessible for children and the general public.” “Our activities in school will encourage children to work in teams, perhaps with people they don’t know, which is often the way scientists operate to make the advances in technology and health that benefit us all.” The children will investigate ‘Our world in motion’ through a space suit workshop, a demonstration of forces, levers and rockets by a Professor of Physics, and a competition to design a renewable fuel multi-terrain vehicle. Year 6 will run science busking sessions to demonstrate experiments to the younger year groups. Mr Lilley, Head of Junior School, said, “We have a programme of exciting events planned, thanks to Mrs Lindsey, that will really bring science alive for the children, make it fun and stimulate lots of cross-curricular work.” Follow the fun on Twitter @theGSAL Balloons supplied by Balloonatix Primary News
