2nd Stortford space camp to launch

The second Stortford Space Camp will take place between Monday 4th and Wednesday 6th August. Once again it will be held at Summercroft Primary School, Bishop's Stortford.
All wishing to apply for a place for their year 5 or 6 child please email me at jonathan.forgham@summercroft.herts.sch.uk and I shall forward an application form and further details.
Cost for the 3 days remains at £150.00, with a deposit of £70.00 required with an application form on or before 23rd July. Places for this camp are likely to go quickly, so please book early to avoid disappointment as there are only 25 places available.

Day 3 "Return to Earth" day

Our final day of space camp and a whole lot of activities to cram in, so busy straight away, beginning with a shuttle launch video and a look at a Mars rover video, showing the journey of the delta rocket that delivered the mars rover to the surface of Mars. It is still sending back images today, just roaming the surface, drilling rocks and photographing the structure and strata of the rock. Being solar powered it can carry on indefinitely. We then had our first group discussion session, where each group had to decide on a survival plan for being on Mars. They were allocated 16 items, ranging from a rubber dingy to a pistol and had to place these items in order of importance. Much thoughtful discussion ensued with all agreeing oxygen was vital whereas the mobile phone would be useless. Good ideas from all, showing a good grasp of the martian atmosphere. This was then followed by a 45 minute powerpoint session on a chosen topic. I shall be emailing these to parents shortly and then the campers can continue and complete their research if they so wish. Good ICT skills here. Well done particularly to Owen and Sofi who were not familiar with powerpoint. I hope you learned some new computer skills. Before lunch we began to design and construct a balloon powered fly by wire rocket. As shown in the photos below it had to travel up a length of string. After several abortive attempts all succeeded in reaching the top of the string. The difficult part was attaching an inflated balloon to a structure that would then permit it to deflate rapidly, thereby producing enough thrust to move upwards. This activity was completed after lunch before we began the final team challenge. Each group was given a paper cup, a sheet of A4 paper, an egg, a balloon, and a toolkit of scissors and rulers. The challenge was to construct a parachute that would protect the egg when dropped from the school roof (7 metres) To help they were also given $2 million with which they could buy, at NASA prices, extra components. These were, namely a large white bag ($500,000) another balloon, another cup, more paper, 1 metre of string costing $200,000 and 10cm of sellotape at $100,000. Finally a sheet of newspaper weighed in at a very generous $300,000!
The overall objective was to return with the egg intact and the winner being the one with the cheapest design that succeeded. Well done to Apollo 11 and Apollo 14 groups whose eggs remained intact. Apollo 12's whilst not smashed, was broken. Good design needing a little more cushioning. However, the overall winners were Apollo 11 who came in under 1 million dollars whereas Apollo 14 spent $1.1 million. A really challenging activity. Finally, balloon rockets were demonstrated to parents, certificates handed out and evaluation forms filled in. Thank you to all for the most positive comments made on these. Overall the re were no particular activities that were disliked (apart from tidying up, Rachel) and everyone had good ideas about which was their favourite. Also, mature and thoughtful comments were made regarding what the group had learned during the 3 days, including such things as, science is fun, teachers can be nice during the holidays!! and that some could work in groups with people they did not previously know. I shall use some of these comments on my next letter for the summer space camp I am planning. I really enjoyed the three days, that went in a flash and hope that it gave all the participants plenty of learning opportunities as well as bundles of fun. A really pleasant and interesting 14 young adults. Great time.

A message from Izzy

To remember the order of the plants this is what I made up:

My Very Evil Mother Just Strokes Uncle Nigel's Pets

I have had lots of fun at space camp and learned lots of interesting things. The best thing so far was filling the Pampers with water (ha, ha, ha). See you all later. I will put on a photo later.

Day 2: Space travel

Click on mass space shuttle launch photo below to see appropriate comments, with apologies to the builder and launcher of one in particular!

Our second day began with a short presentation from those who had completed some homework after day 1. Georgie, Owen, Billy and Josh had all completed a computerised mission patch. See above for photos of these really superb pieces of design. All very impressive. Many of the campers had also completed their KWL sheet, which will be useful for tomorrow's work.

Then the tone was set with a video and discussion about how effective a pressurised space suit needs to be. The video about EVA can be viewed from the student CD. A very well put together resource using NASA footage, including a lesson on how a space suit works, filmed on board the shuttle 280 miles above earth. Much physics in the clear demonstrations. Following this we had a look at pampers and absorbency. All three Apollo groups used air tests to conclude that 1 pamper can absorb over 1 litre of water. The crystals were removed from one and showed that 800ml of water absorbs into a liquid with a jelly consistency. Each pamper was weighed, showing that each weighed over 800g, so with 1l of water weighing 1kg, this proved the recording to be fair ad accurate. Well done to all three teams for this investigation. Pleasing results and impressive collaboration in each group. Skillful recording of each stage of the test, too by Isabel, Georgie, Josh and Alex. Well done.

Following this there was a partnership session where we all utilised the student CD, day 1, to record facts about the planets. This was then turned into a presentation for the whole group, with all groups fully participating and giving good facts in a clear and concise manner. This was followed by a photo shoot for the Herts and Essex Observer, where we launched a few rockets as well as had team photos taken. Look out for the paper, if not this Thursday, then certainly next week.

Following lunch we returned to watch a splendid video of a shuttle launch and then on to the main events of the afternoon. Firstly; a straw kite construction. A simple and easy kite making lesson which introduced gravity, drag, lift and thrust. These worked well indoors whilst outside it was a tad too windy. However, Isabel's reached a fully extended 9 metres in height. Her successful flight is shown in the photos of just the kite above the height of the school building. Back indoors we then began constructing a model of the space shuttle. This craft re enters earth's atmosphere with no power, relying on gliding as it lands on a runway. The finished models were then hurled around, flaps were adjusted and several glided most impressively. Lizzie, Robyn and Jack's models proving most successful. Ellie's after minor adjustments flew successfully as did most of the others. Well done to Owen for persevering with his and Sophie for her hard work with cutting out the fiddly flaps and tabs. Care with sticking was the key to success here. Many discovered that launching into the glide upside down helped as the shuttle model would then right itself and continue with the glide. More trial and error in adjusting the set up will eventually give better results.

And so to the final part of the day with parents arriving. A few more rockets were launched, with Josh's landing a good 20 metres away. I particularly like the photo of Isabel's launch. Look where everyone is looking. Obviously a successful launch.

Back inside for a quick recap and to point out that the first animals in space were 25 pigs, trained to use their trotters on a control panel to turn left or right was in fact an April Fool!! Sorry folks.

Good recaps were given on space history and all the activities. Again a really pleasurable day in the company of some thoughtful, creative and excited learners.

Tomorrow, "return to earth" day involves living on Mars and landing back on earth with the help of a parachute. These will then be tested before final awards and farewells. Looking forward to tomorrow morning already.

Don't forget, if you have a chance design a computerised cover for your folder. Loads of sheets to add to this tomorrow, so don't forget to bring it back!