Local Schools Visit St Mary’s and National Physical Laboratory

Pupils from local schools in the Richmond borough have expanded their knowledge into the world of science after attending a morning at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), which was organised by St Mary’s University, Twickenham. As part of an ongoing development programme with local schools, St Mary’s Applied Physics department organised the visit in conjunction with the NPL, which collaborates with St Mary’s for its Applied Physics undergraduate programme. On the morning, year 10 and 11 students from Waldegrave School for Girls, Teddington School and Hampton Academy were welcomed by St Mary’s Lecturer Dr Elisabetta Canetta, who discussed the students’ experiences with science in their daily lives. Students were then able to take part in a series of experiments including wireless power, LED spectra, resonant bar, speed of sound, magnetic bubbles and AC bridge circuits. About the visit Dr Canetta said, “It was thrilling to see the enthusiasm and genuine interest that the pupils showed when performing the physics experiments under the supervision of our Applied Physics students. The interaction between our physics students and the pupils was incredibly active and the teachers were ecstatic in witnessing the great interest in and curiosity for physics that their pupils demonstrated. The teachers were also keen on exploring the possibility to develop with our Applied Physics department at St Mary’s new hands-on experiments and activities on the cutting edge physical sciences that will soon become part of the curriculum. We are very excited with this idea and look forward to start this new venture.” St Mary’s Applied Physics programme launched in September 2013 and the team has been working regularly with schools in the area to get pupils thinking about a career in science.