Senior House children and parents enjoyed a STEM Roadshow led by Scott Marley from Imperial College, London in partnership with the staff from Oundle School STEM and DT Departments and their 'OPEN' initiative. This event provided a wonderful opportunity for the older children to gain further insight and be more inspired into the world of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. It was also a chance for the children to meet the specialist staff from a senior level.
Astrophysicist, Scott Marley, presented the lecture and took the audience on a journey through the solar system and beyond. He demonstrated the science behind many of the discoveries in space and how engineers have harnessed these to explore space through manned and unmanned craft. As computers become more capable and reliable, robots of greater complexity will be built to handle even the most challenging assignments.
As Scott explained, the best example of a possible future for human space flight is as a paying guest – a space tourist. Already two people have paid the $20 million price tag to visit the International Space Station. The astrophysicist explained about the commercial rocket company’s owner, SpaceX, who’s owner wants to live on Mars and they currently launch satellites and astronauts to the ISS. Scott also described how the SLS is the rocket that NASA is currently working on and it will be the biggest rocket ever built with the plan to get astronauts back to the Moon and then Mars.
Part of the lecture involved thrilling physics-based demonstrations to explain how fuel and oxygen are mixed and ignited inside the rocket motor and the exploding burning mixture expands and pours out the back of the rocket to create the thrust needed to propel it forward. One child remarked, "I loved all the experiments because he related them to real life to show the force of gravity in space, and how infrared light is used to look through cosmic clouds of gas and dust to the objects behind and within them. It is the only way to view many cosmic objects."
