One minute we're in year 7, the next we're at University!!

By Marley Bennett

On Friday the 14th of June, Room 19A went on a trip to the University and Museum. We lined up and hopped onto the bus, you could hear the excited conversations of what the day would hold.

We were dropped off at the Museum and then started to walk to the University. Once we got there one of the scientists introduced us to what we were going to be doing today.

Our first activity was with static electricity, we used different materials and observed how they reacted. The chargers were possum skin and nylon cloth and the materials that we charged were pvc pipe and a metal rod, we put them on a thing that would allow something to spin. When you did it with the two pvc pipes together they would spin together in a clockwise direction and the two metal rods would spin in an anticlockwise direction with static electricity.

The next experiment was with electrical circuits, we learnt that circuits only work one way and it would have to be exactly right or it would not work. The black wires needed to touch the black and the red wires would have to touch the red. If we wired it correctly we could either have a siren going, or a fan blowing, or a light glowing.

After that we did an experiment with a light box where we had a series of challenges to complete examining at light refraction. Using different glass and perspex shapes such as a triangles, squares and ovals and we learnt that light responded in different ways to different shapes. We could make one beam of light split into three or vice versa.

Then we went to a different part of the physics department and did two different things making planets and measuring motion and distance using a distance sensor.

It was really exciting to be at the University and to have these new experiences. I think it helped encourage and inspire many in our class to produce great work with our upcoming science projects.