From strength to strength - Bishop Thomas Grant School

A day in the museum
In November, students from 9X2Science
visited the Science Museum in Kensington
to take part in various activities related
to the Outreach Climate Science Project.
The aim of the activities were to increase
the awareness about climate change, the
atmosphere and role of media in science.
Oliver Perales talked to Nuntius about
the trip:
“We went into a lecture theatre to
listen to a talk by two men who called
themselves ‘punk scientists’. In their
own special way, they taught us about
climate change.
They involved nine volunteers from
amongst the students present, most from
Bishop Thomas Grant, by getting them
to throw plastic balls at each other! I was
one who took part.
We were split into three groups of three.
One group was the Sun, another the Earth
and another the greenhouse gases. The
throwing game explained how the Sun’s
radiation hits the Earth and then bounces
back to be trapped by the gases.
Then there was another demonstration
of how atoms work, also involving plastic
balls, followed by one on nuclear fusion.
This was followed by a slide show on how
we can all recycle our waste materials, for
example paper, plastic and glass, and we
voted on what we thought was the best
way to reduce the carbon dioxide in
the atmosphere.
After a session with huge touch screens
in the atmosphere gallery, we returned to
the lecture theatre to plan the front page
of a newspaper or magazine in groups.
We had folders to dip into containing
facts and articles on nuclear power, giving
varying points of view. Our headline had
to consist of a catchy five words or less
which would draw readers in.
My group’s was STOP BUYING START
MAKING because we found out that this
country buys a large amount of electricity
from France, which uses nuclear power to
generate it. My opinion is that we should
make our own.
We found a comment by a Dr David
Weaver from the University of
Birmingham, who said that the UK safety
Oliver Perales
system is actually good, even though
it gets a hard hammering in the press.
France has not had many problems with its
nuclear power programme either.
Now I want to be a science journalist.”
Thanks to Laura Stephenson for her help
with this article.
Young Journalists
Congratulations to four students (pictured) who have been
accepted on to a scheme run by the Newsquest Group, which
prints the local Guardian and News Shopper titles.
This gives the chance to write articles for the Newsquest online
as part of the Young Journalist of the Year project.
The students, from Year 11 Media Studies, are given a deadline
– to produce one article each month. The website, which
receives 300,000 hits per month, is at www.newsquest.co.uk
Each made a comment for Nuntius.
“I really like taking the pictures for the articles, which is
something new for me.” (Izabella Johnson)
“I find it to be a wonderful opportunity to be able to report on
current events.” (Karina Sellars)
“The best part of my reporting was at the Sainsbury’s Super-
Saturday Concert in September, which was full of celebrities.”
(Chijioke Anosike)
“I am finding the project empowering because of the
opportunities to research and to express my thoughts. “
(Elsa Yohannes)
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