Year 8 trip to Greenwich Observatory

In June Year 8 pupils went out to enjoy a little Physics and Geography in the field.  This is now an annual event, and pupils set off on foot from Eltham College to catch the train from Mottingham and then the DLR from Lewisham to Docklands.  A walking tour of the Docklands area led by Mr Beattie gave the boys a taste of one of the fastest developing urban areas in the world, as well as a historical insight into industrial London.

From Docklands it was back on the DLR to Greenwich and then on to the Royal Observatory and Planetarium. Here the boys enjoyed a stunning film projected onto the dome about work of astronomers and the hunt for exoplanets.  This gives pupils a view of the sky most of us will never see.  Resident astronomers also gave a short presentation about what can be seen in the sky now, and how to navigate around it.  In the workshop pupils were told how astronomers hunt for exoplanets.  They then modelled this, taking measurements, and finally were given real data to work with.

After an opportunity to view the galleries at the Planetarium the boys went back to Greenwich to catch the train back to Eltham College. The day’s schedule was seamless thanks to the efforts of Mrs Galloway who has of course now left Eltham College to work at a school in Tanzania.