On Monday 5th June, Owls Class walked to Sutton CP School for a presentation about volcanoes by Dr Caroline Neuberg. Dr Neuberg has worked closely with Kildwick, Sutton CP and other local schools through her work with the Ogden Trust. She is a Senior Lecturer at Leeds Trinity University and has been an enthusiastic promoter of geophysics and astronomy to both hundreds of school children and other physics teachers over the last ten years.
Dr Neuberg first showed pictures and her experiences of visiting volcanoes around the world and then handed around a real seismometer that she brought back from her work in New Zealand. After discussing the function of a seismometer and how the data is analysed, the children were tasked with building an earthquake proof building. In small teams, pupils from Kildwick and Sutton CP competed to construct the tallest earthquake proof building using spaghetti and marshmallows. All the structures were tested on Dr Neuberg's wobbly table and a Year 5 team from Kildwick managed to build that tallest one.
Finally, in case the children found themselves in an earthquake situation, Dr Neuberg took all the children through an earthquake drill and gave advice for surviving a quake. The morning with Dr Neuberg consolidated some of the learning from the rocks topic covered earlier this year; in addition to hopefully provided inspiration and aspiration for our young scientists.
