Just before the Christmas break over 300 Year 8 students from Ashton’s local secondary schools were treated to a fantastic lecture, ‘The Science of Sport’, presented by Ruth Perkins of Science Made Simple.

Astley Sports College, Mossley Hollins High School, Droylsden Academy, West Hill School, Denton Community College and Alder Community College pupils attended the lectures. The event was also attended by 24 AS Physics students from Ashton Sixth Form College, who acted as ambassadors.

Ruth began her lecture by throwing balls about, including water bombs(!) and the pupils were given lots of explanations of how Sport depends on Science. Volunteer pupils were involved throughout, taking part in activities such as such as balancing a cork on the end of their nose (clever use of two forks to help), throwing a blue dog through the air, and bouncing  tennis balls off a basketball – apparently it’s possible to send a ball off into space with that technique!

At the end of each lecture, Ruth invited a teacher to sit down on a chair of over 600 nails…(tested for sharpness with an apple beforehand). Needless to say this was the most popular part of the show!

The event was sponsored by the Ogden Trust, which encourages and promotes the teaching and learning of Physics.

www.ogdentrust.com

The students were all very impressed:

‘The best bit was when she shot things at us”

“I learnt that the gum shield protects your brain”

“I found out that the centre of mass stays at the centre of an object no matter what”