Quantum Universe Lecture

9/6/15

I attended a lecture at St Peter's school where Professor Jeff Forshaw (co-author of several books with Professor Brian Cox) gave a talk on quantum physics.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable talk and I absolutely loved it! We learned about how electrons behave, quarks, leptons, the Higgs boson, and many more. It was such a fascinating talk, especially for a physics geek like me!

At the end of the talk, we had the opportunity to ask questions. This was great because it showed how little we actually know, people were asking Professor Forshaw numerous questions and sometimes, the answer was "I don't know," which really just shows how much there is yet to discover.

After the talk, I bought a book by Professor Forshaw and Professor Cox entitled 'Why does E=mc²?" Professor Forhsaw was signing books and I got the opportunity to talk to him! I got mistaken for an A Level student (I'm only 13)! I got my book signed too!

Opinionate course

8/6/15

I went to a course at York University to debate, discuss and act out court cases, focused around human rights. This event was part of the ISSP programme for gifted and talented students.

We started off by discussing the words 'propaganda' and 'homophobia' which related to the court case our group were finding out about. After we had some ideas of how these words related to human rights, we had a quick presentation about the laws that are put in place to protect us.

Our next activity was finding out about the court case. Our group were finding out about Kirill Kalugin and how he was arrested after holding up an LGBT+ flag. Next we got our roles in court, I was the judge which was a lot of fun!

Our final activity was becoming the jury and reaching a decision on whether he was guilty or not. We as a group all decided Kirill was not guilty, but in Russia it was different, he was jailed for 3 years for harmful propaganda in front of minors.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable course and I can't wait for tomorrow's session!

Holgate Windmill

24/5/15

Today, I visited a windmill which was just recently repaired. The odd thing about this windmill is that it has five sails, the usual number is four.

 

When I went inside, it occurred to me that so much engineering, maths, and physics went into the design of this windmill. I'll describe what the windmill was like from top to bottom as it's more logical that way.

 

The top floor was where we could see the gears of the windmill working but we weren't allowed to go right up to them in case they suddenly started moving. Windmills are extremely clever as they change the direction of motion using a series of gears. They convert the motion of the sails to motion which can turn the grindstones to grind the wheat. They do this using a crownwheel and a pinion. The pinion is turned by the sails and the crownwheel meets the pinion at angle to turn the grindstones.

 

The next floor was the bin floor where gravity is taken advantage of. Grain is stored on this floor and when the grindstones run out of grain, this where they refill it, by letting the grain fall down the bins and into the grindstones.

 

The last working floor is the stone floor where the grindstones are located. This where the grinding of the grain happens. The two grindstones that rotate to cut the grain have to be the thickness of a tissue paper to be able to cut the grain properly because if they were any further apart, it wouldn't grind the grain and if they were too close, you would end up with bits of ground down rock with the flour as well.

 

As a souvenir of the fascinating trip to the windmill, I bought flour from the mill itself as well as yeast! Can you guess what I made? (If you would like to visit this windmill, here is their website http://www.holgatewindmill.org/index.htm)

 

 

Achievements and Events

Here is a list of my achievements and the events I have attended. I will keep adding to this as I go along.

1. West of York Schools Spelling Bee winner - 2012
2. Spooner Cup for maths winner - 2013
3. Inspirations Showcase: KS3 Science Project winner - 2014
4. Invited to join the ISSP (Independent-State School Partnership) programme - 2014 
5. Y Factor winner - 2015
6. Attended 'The Energy Crisis: Is Nuclear Fusion a Solution?' lecture by Doctor Roddy Vann - 2015
7. Attended 'The Science of Music' lecture at York University - 2015
8. Selected for GCSE Latin course - 2015
9. Took part in the UKMT Junior Team Challenge - 2015
10. Attended 'Opinionate!' debating and drama course with ISSP - 2015
11. Attended 'The Quantum Universe' lecture by Professor Jeff Forshaw - 2015
12. Won two awards at the annual prizegivng, one for Maths and one for Science - 2015
13. Represented my school in science at its open evening - 2015
14. Attended 'The Apple that Fell Through the Earth' - 2016
15. UKMT Junior Team Challenge - 2016
16. Quantum to Cosmology - 3 day ISSP physics course - 2017
17. Network Rail work placement - 2017
18. Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs lecture by Professor Lisa Randall - 2017

Bush Tucker Trial

21/5/15

I took part in my school's fundraising event today to raise money for sports equipment for our partner school in Uganda: Trinity College Nabbingo. However, this event was no ordinary one, I didn't run a mile or swim lots of lengths, I ate the most vile food I had ever eaten. Six other friends of mine also took part.

The starter was a disgusting 'Slimy Salad' consisting of pickled onion on a bed of mustard and pickled red cabbage, covered with yoghurt. It didn't look nice and didn't taste nice either. The hall was packed full of spectators and we heard a cheer when we finally ate it.

Secondly, we ate 'Tic Tac Surprise': chicken and tic tac mints covered in (ridiculously) spicy strawberry yoghurt. This one was even worse as the spiciness of the sauce over the top was too much for some people. My friend even vomited into the bins in front of us.

Our last course was Brussels sprouts covered in dark chocolate served with a side of mushed pear and mushroom covered in aged green custard. This was the most disgusting thing I had ever eaten, I had trouble keeping it in my stomach!

Finally, our teacher made us a drink in front of the audience, it contained: tomato sauce, orange juice, coffee, milk, green custard and spicy yoghurt as well as mustard. On the count of three, all of us gulped down the drink - it was honestly awful.

As the crowd applauded us, I was glad that it was over but also extremely happy that we managed to raise so much money! I alone raised £48 and one of my friends raised £80 and many raised an average of £20 each, I am so glad that we will now be able to buy some equipment for the less fortunate in Africa. I hope to continue fundraising and I can't wait to meet some Ugandan pupils who will be visiting my school! 

York University Astrocampus Visit

Today (May 21st) I went to visit the Astrocampus at the University of York. I had an excellent time and really enjoyed looking at the telescopes and listening to the talks.

Our visit began with a tour of the night sky, unfortunately (and to my extreme disappointment) the summer time sky prevented us from looking at the stars, planets and constellations so we used a programme called 'Stellarium' to look at the night sky (Link to Stellarium website). We had a look at Ursa Major and identified where the North Star (Polaris) was which was a lot of fun with Stellarium! Another great thing about the programme is that you can look at the planets in so much detail - the bands of cloud on Jupiter were visible, it was as if I was there!

 

 

After the tour of the night sky, we went outside to have a look at the many telescopes at the site. We had a look at the sun through two small ones (with a filter to keep our eyes safe of course), then went to two huge radio telescopes (one detected radio waves from hydrogen and the other detected waves from methanol). Next we saw a telescope station with an array of telescopes with mirrors rather than lenses (one of them even had a GPS system built into it so it could tell you exactly where you were and things of note in the sky at the time you were there!) and finally we went into a huge observatory with a 14 inch telescope (pictured below) and a revolving dome (I was like a child in a sweetie shop)!

 

 

 

 

 

To conclude, we went back into the building to listen to a talk on the sun. The sun has extremely random magnetic activity, this causes solar flares when magnetic fields in the sun pointing in opposite directions interact. Also the sun has sunspots - these are cooler areas of the sun which are also darker due to the lower temperature. Finally we learned about how the sun makes its energy, through nuclear fusion (a topic I'm slightly obsessed with).

 

If you ever visit York and are interested in Physics, Astrophysics, Astronomy or just an educational and fun evening, visit the Astrocampus - it's definitely worth it! (Astrocampus Website)



The Lake District: Day 3

4/5/15

As I woke up, it dawned on me that today would be our last day in the Lake District. It made me quite sad. But still, I got ready for the fun day we had planned.

We arrived at Brockhole, a great place for visitors to enjoy stunning views and a whole host of activities. (If you're visiting the Lake District I highly recommend it, http://www.brockhole.co.uk) We made our way down to the water and booked a canoe for an hour. As my dad is a four star canoeist, there was no danger of us falling in so we weren't frightened.

After lunch, me and my little sister went to the stables and booked a pony each for a 20 minute hack. My sister's pony was called Molly and mine was called Nip. Both were lovely ponies and we had a great ride! My sister got a little scared at the trot but we had a great time!

Next, we went to see the waterfall near lower Millerground, a beautiful sight! By then we were all quite tired after a jam-packed three days so we decided to go home.

I had a great time at the Lake District and I can't wait to go back!