Full STEAM Ahead for LEH
  • STEM
  • Science
  • Senior
  • Sixth Form

Autumn Term 2019 saw LEH pushing for ever more creativity in STEM.

The Physics Art Wall is now in place. We think our audience will find it a challenge to divide the images into pure creativity and pure technology. Is Duchamp descending the stairs as an artistic statement or as part of a kinematics experiment? Is it just chance that a polarised crystal micrograph and Picasso’s Guitar Player look so similar?

Sophie and Heidi (LIVS) have had a very successful start to their year. They constructed a model Internal Combustion Engine (with movement and sound effects) and completed the BPhO Experimental Project – despite being too young to enter the competition! This project required analysing the behaviour of a Bifilar Pendulum: a uniform rod suspended by two strings. They not only completed an excellent report they also produced a video of their research process, part of which has been made available via the LEHPhysics Twitter account.

On 11 November 2019, Mercury transited the Sun. The Physics Department invited students and staff to come and see the event from SF14.  It was an amazing experience to watch the small black dot move across the Solar disk using our specially designed viewing apparatus. It was awesome to consider that we were watching something happening 77 million km away: so far that we could only observe the event as it happened 5 minutes before the light reached us!

November also saw Martin Archer, from Queen Mary University of London giving an evening presentation to students from LEH, Reach Academy and Grey Court School. He introduced us to a collaborative research project called MUSICS that requires us to process geomagnetic fluctuation data collected by satellite probes and converted to audio. This project encourages students to work to together to advance our understanding of Earths space environment and uses a wide range of STEAM skills. Computing, Mathematics and Physics may be more apparent, but researchers must also appreciate subtle variations in audio tone and beats as well as shifts in visual imagery. We know, for example, that previous teams have had to harness the talent of musicians to fully appreciate the data.

Mr Brittain - STEM Co-ordinator and Physics Teacher