As part of a series of lectures delivered by Senior Pupils, Ollie invited the members of the Year 9 Athenaeum to consider what might lie if anything, behind the legend of Big Foot and the mythical half-human half fishlike creatures, mermaids.
A show of hands at the start of the talk revealed no belief in either by the students….. Ollie cleverly explored the evidence both scientific and anecdotal being sure not to reveal his own thoughts until the end of the presentation. He dismissed the idea of Big Foot completely, but his conclusions about Mermaids, seeing “them” as possible stages along a seemingly unpredictable and at times surprising evolutionary trail left at least a handful of students saying at the end “well it has made me stop and think.”
This excellent presentation showed both the ability of science to clarify and debunk, but also to perceive possibly a truth lying behind a somewhat idealised folk lore.
