Week 3- Alex

Monday 27th July- MACAW

In the afternoon we went to MACAW and had a talk from one of the drone pilots- Paul- and he explained what all the different types of drones did and how they worked and that they could actually be very dangerous if not used properly and hence why there are many restrictions on where you can fly them etc. He also explained that in order to fly them you need to be certified and if you work at MACAW you need to have 6 months experience before you can pass and after that you need to fly for 3 hours a month at least to keep up your skills. When he finished his talk we went into a large empty room and he gave us a demonstration of one of the bigger drones then we all got to have a go flying the smaller drones. It’s not hard in theory but in practice it’s a lot harder than it looks! We then had another talk from one of the more experienced members and he told us his journey through science and how he got to be where he is-it was a long journey!

Tuesday 28th July-Kromek

Kromek is a company that specialises nuclear physics and they make products that detect radiation and make ones that are small enough to fit in your hand and can connect to portable devices. They were created for people in areas that could have high radiation like near Fukushima. Adam went into a lot of detail about each of the products and how they worked which was interesting. After a coffee break we used the laptops which were plugged into a detector in a source to see if we could identify any isotopes in the source which was very confusing and difficult.

When we got back to the university we followed instructions on how to make a small electrical circuit attached to a motor. When we managed to get the motor to work we used hot glue and tape and attached them to various different musical instruments to try to make an orchestra that would work without touching it.

Wednesday 29th/Thursday 30th July-Research

On Wednesday we just continued with our research as we are approaching the end of the summer school. The posters and reports are all nearly finished by now so we are trying to get it done. On Thursday we are just finishing everything off and printing the posters in preparation for Friday.

Friday 31st July- Presentation

We are presenting the posters to parents at 2pm along with the other work we have completed. I have had a great time over the 3 weeks I’ve been here and it was a great opportunity to see physics in action and meet more like minded people and it has given me a better idea as to what opportunity is available to me in the future.