On July 17th 2013, Dr Simon Foster from the Physics Department at Imperial College London visited Goffs Oak primary school in London. Simon acts as the Outreach Officer in the Physics Department at Imperial College London.
Simon visited the school, to undertake an exciting rocket design workshop with pupils from years 5 & 6. The day started with Simon giving an inspirational talk about space research. Following this, he gave the pupils a challenge which they would work on the for the rest of the day: the pupils had to design and build a water rocket that was capable of launching an astronaut (an egg) into the air and bringing them back to Earth safely.
The pupils had to investigate different materials and designs for use in the construction of their rockets and its safety features. The day was run as a ‘space race’, where each team was given a nation to represent such as America, USSR, Europe and China.
The pupils enjoyed learning about space through a hands-on activity and enjoyed meeting a real rocket scientist!