A group of Year 10 students travelled to Thorpe Park in Surrey to attend a STEM Fair.
They saw lots of inspiring examples of Maths, Science and Computer Science, such as modelling the inside of human body using VR, solving a giant Soma Cube puzzle, using seven geometrical pieces to build a cube and other shapes and programming Myrtle robots using Scratch on a 2mx2m table.
The key note speech demonstrated just how important Maths and Physics are in the design and operation of the rides at Thorpe Park.
The girls then took part in an experiment to work out the amount of energy required to lift a roller coaster to the highest point of the ride and saw an animation that showed the two-way transfer between potential and kinetic energy, as the train travelled around the roller coaster. It was fascinating for them to learn that after the initial lifting of the train up to the start of the ride, the motion of the roller coaster was entirely due to the effect of gravity.
Lots of them also experienced up to 5g's of acceleration - not that far from the acceleration of a space rocket on re-entry in to the Earth's atmosphere! "We were pretty much trained to be astronauts," said Mr Fielding Head of Maths who led the trip, "or so we were told!"