On the sunny morning of Monday 2nd July, twelve Year 9 students set off to Preston’s College, ready to learn about the different ways in which we can apply Science and Technology.
After an enjoyable journey, we were greeted by members of MCS Projects Ltd who were running the different activities of the day and we were assigned to our groups. These activities included: a diagnostics and medicine workshop, a facial recognition workshop using the EFIT software and a robotics workshop.
My first workshop was diagnostics and medicine which involved looking at the causes of an injury and then arriving at a diagnosis by using a variety of medical equipment and a range of medical tests. I found this activity particularly good as medicine is a sector of science which interests me. The workshop was therefore a great opportunity to delve deeper into medicine in a way that I wouldn’t be able to in normal science lessons at school.
Our next workshop included using the EFIT software to see how the police are able to put a face to a certain description. This task required us to memorise a person’s face and then try to remember as many details as possible to create their face using the software. Despite the daunting task of having to memorise tiny details, I think that we all completed the task quite effectively.
After a very active and exciting morning, we had our final activity: robotics. This task required us to instruct a robot to carry out certain functions. We were given a white mat with different colours and shapes on it and so we programmed our robot so that it would dodge any black areas, spin when it travelled across a red square and make a sound when it came to a yellow shape. Although this activity was challenging, we managed to make our robot follow the commands.
The day concluded with an Awards Ceremony, where we were all given certificates and some students from our school were presented with plaques. Lord Shuttleworth, the Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire, presented us with the awards.
Although I enjoyed each workshop, I have to say that my favourite was diagnostics and medicine. The workshop was well organised and fascinating and allowed me to learn more about an interesting area in science. This was an excellent opportunity, one that is usually not available until students are in the Sixth Form or at university.
Thank you to Mr Mumford for arranging this extraordinary event and Mrs Mackenzie for assisting us on the trip.
Reyah Kazi (Year 9)
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