Department Reviews
PHYSICS
Excellent results in the summer (GCSE - 90% A*/A grades, A2 - 97% A grades) set the department off on another exciting year of learning and discovery.
Establishing links with other departments, including English and Classics, as well as the other Science disciplines, has enabled Physics to be taught in new and often surprising contexts! The well-established STARLAB course is now run in conjunction with the Classics department: SFC girls learn how to operate the STARLAB (an inflatable planetarium) and how to tell the tales of Greek mythology. This year, we have added to our equipment with two new projection cylinders, one of Chinese mythology and a blank one for students to create their own celestial designs. We also ran exciting boarder and day girl taster day sessions, where prospective students where able to spend some time star gazing.
In October, several SFC physicists took part in Navy Day. They were joined in the Sports Hall by sixth form students from six local schools to compete in an engineering challenge set by the Royal Navy. There were three aspects to the challenge. Firstly, to design and build a flight deck that would remain level even when the aircraft carrier pitched and rolled in poor weather conditions. Secondly, to design and build a glider out of wood that would fly and, thirdly, to design and build a launching device for the glider. The winning group consisted of a mixture of CLC girls and students from other schools. This was a brilliant day which helped to develop the students’ team working skills!
Our Young Engineers clubs for LC and SFC enable girls to develop skills in all aspects of Engineering, including project planning, problem solving, model making and simple manufacturing. Lower College took part in the Flying Start Challenge along with other Gloucestershire schools. Their task was to design and make hand-launched gliders, helped by engineers from GE Aviation Systems. They have dabbled in Chemical Engineering, making and investigating the properties of slime, and have made dancing robots from old CDs. Older members of the group have been busy designing an educational toy for disabled children.
We put forward two teams of sixth formers for the Engineering Education Scheme (England). Each team worked with the Royal Navy, designing and producing a solution to a real life problem. Both had rewarding challenges, one of designing a securing connector for loose items and the other an emergency evacuation stretcher. Both groups put in a tremendous amount of work and qualified for BA Gold CREST awards. The securing connector design went into production and has been trialled at sea with a view to mass producing it for the whole Royal Navy fleet!
In February, SFC physicists were invited to a talk from the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. Toby White’s introduction explored where all of the materials around us come from before elaborating on the multitude of materials that have been designed for a specific purpose. We saw smart materials which changed colour at different temperatures and specially designed polymers that can be worn and allow the user to withstand temperatures of 300oC. One of the most amazing objects on display is a relatively new material called D3O. This is a specially engineered material with intelligent molecules that flow with you as you move but, on receiving a shock, lock together to absorb impact energy, making it perfect for high speed sports and, when combined with Kevlar, for body armour.
In March, the Science department celebrated National Science and Engineering week. Physics ran a two half day engineering activity for LC2, during which they were given the challenging task of designing and building a wind turbine and tower. This involved the building of the turbine structure, wiring the circuits and testing the designs with a wind tunnel. In Project Week some LC1s enjoyed designing and constructing their own musical instruments, using copper pipe! The girls were given only the basic details and asked to produce chimes of a pentatonic scale, working out the optimum lengths of pipe and choosing the final appearance of their instrument. Some of the pipes were over two metres in length! These striking structures were used in the Project Week production.
This year we supported the Institute of Physics’ new competition, replacing that of Paperclip Physics, called SciCast. This follows a similar concept, where students have to present a scientific topic to a mixed audience of scientists and non-scientists. The major difference is that the medium is video and all presentations are submitted electronically, to be viewed on the SciCast website.
In the British Physics Olympiad, a national competition to find the country’s best physics students, three students won Bronze medals with one student attaining a Silver medal. In the GCSE Physics Olympiad one student achieved a Bronze award.
News
Vicky Tuck – Telegraph Articles
Please see the links below for the latest telegraph articles written by Vicky Tuck. 28 November 2008, 05 December 2008, 12 December 2008, 19 December ...
England’s National Under 16 Hockey Squad for 2009
Issy Davies, currently in UC5 at The Cheltenham Ladies' College, has been selected for England's National Under 16 Hockey Squad for 2009. The...
Gloucestershire Schools’ Debating Competition
On November 27th Polly Mitchell and Tabitha Ward took part in the Gloucestershire Schools Debating Competition in the Parliament Room in Gloucester Ca...
Drama Productions
The Sixth Form production of Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s play 'The School for Scandal' will be held on 5th and 6th December at 7.30pm in the P...
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