St John’s School has hit on the formula for success, after more than two thousand budding boffins attended the annual science fair.
From building and launching rockets to learning about bones, students and volunteers took a lead in educating young and old.
Among the exhibits was the eco-car SJR5. As the name suggests, it was the fifth incarnation of a car built by young engineers at the school to achieve the highest possible miles per gallon.
This one has done 313 MPG, although 336 is the school record to beat, while the current competition leader – built by university students with generous funding – is capable of 5,000 MPG.
The 50cc four-stroke engine drives three bicycles wheels, while the driver negotiates seven laps at the Mallroy Park Circuit in Leicestershire from inside his plastic capsule to discover the all-important MPG rating, said student Will Hertzell who, with his team mates, works on SJR5 in his spare time.
Meanwhile, in the classrooms, would-be computer programmers were learning how to guide a Lego Mindstorms robot around a simple course by by feeding it directions and measurements via a computer.
In the sports hall, amateur astronomer Geof Downton – an enthusiast with an observatory in the garden of his Trowbridge home – was helping wannabe rocket-scientists to built and launch their own spacecraft, using little more than doweling, craft paper, foam, and a bicycle pump.
And in the theatre, the BBC’s Steve Allman presented a family-friendly show on the science of bubbles – a visual spectacular with tips including watching the colours change to predict when the bubble will burst.
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