Them bones, them bones, them STRONG bones!

What a fantastic time we had at science club today. The session was run by Dr Jude Holloway and Dr Veronica Hollis from Southampton University. We are so very grateful for the time they put into planning this inspiring session which had us captivated from beginning to end. My thanks must also go to Clare, John and Archie, young leaders from Noadswood who were such a help in running the small groups. I think Archie rather enjoyed playing with the clay too!

Today we were thinking about our bones; what makes bones strong and what can make them weak. We investigated bone strength  using chocolate bars, some of which bear a resemblance to the internal structure of our bones! I do not really want to say much more, as it will spoil it for future science clubs! One chocolate bar was much stronger than the others! Take a look at us testing using bags of sand as weights.

Next we looked at the bones in an x-ray of a hand and a leg. Using light-weight air drying dough, we made our own bones. This was such a fun activity and I am just hoping your bones got home in one piece!

DCI Rowlandson- CSI Crime - Scene at Science Club

Many thanks to Tim for coming in to launch our first science club this year. 

Seeds from space! News from Mrs Fenton...

I have just heard they we be taking part in the Royal Horticultural Society’s Rocket Science Experiment.

The RHS Rocket Science project, in partnership with the UK Space Agency, is a UK wide experiment and a fun, interactive way to get pupils thinking about how plants might grow in space. 
In September, 2kg of rocket seeds were flown to the International Space Station on Soyuz 44S. The seeds will held in microgravity for 6 months with British ESA astronaut Tim Peake taking charge of them while on the ISS for his Principia mission starting in December.

The seeds will return to earth in April 2016 and Orchard Junior School will be one of 10,000 schools to receive 100 seeds from space. These will be grown alongside seeds that have not been to space to see if there are any differences in growth. No one at Orchard will know which seeds have been to space and which have remained on Earth.

We will care for the seedlings, record their growth and observations over 7 weeks and enter data into a database. After all the data has been collected, the results will be analysed by professional statisticians. Leading scientists from the RHS and European Space Agency will interpret the results and draw possible conclusions, publishing their results on the RHS Campaign for School Gardening website.

I am very excited to be taking part in this project and our results will contribute to a national experiment!
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If you would like to know more about Rocket Science before the seeds arrive at Orchard, you can:

• Visit the RHS Rocket Science Webpage
  https://schoolgardening.rhs.org.uk/Competitions/Rocket-Science-Experiment-Overview
• Track the ISS online http://spotthestation.nasa.gov/sightings/#.VgLAf8tVhBc
• Watch a video of the rocket launch that delivered our seeds to the ISS:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R7-gWKZZsg