9na (again) spent out last Science lesson making and launching rockets from our new piece of equipment - The Rocket Factory.

The students spent a lot of time designing their rockets and Rosie Killick even added a passenger to hers.  Congratulations to Francis Starrett on a time of 7.21 seconds and Samantha Scullion on a time of 7.06 seconds.  The rockets were timed from when they left the launch pad to when they hit the ground.  Mr Killen also helped out but found the process rather exhausting.

9na took advantage of the recent good weather to learn Science outside the classroom.  We set off down Cregagh Glen and had a great lesson taking in all the wonderful sights.

Low Carbon Day was a great success and a big thank you to all the departments who worked together to raise awareness of the many ways we each can make a difference to our planet.

The Science corridor became our pledge wall and quickly filled up during the day.

On 23^rd June Miss Ritchie took a class of year 10 pupils on the Lagan College Nature Trail through Cregagh Glen. The class were investigating biodiversity in the river by pond dipping to see what species we could find. We found some Water Boatman! Once we had observed some species in the water they were released safe and sound, back into the river again.

On Wednesday 2 June 2010 Mr Ewart and Mr Carleton visited the P6 class at Forge Integrated Primary School where the students were studying Harry Potter. Mr. Ewart had arranged with the Principal Mr Watson and their teacher Mr T (aka Mr Thompson) to visit the class and show the students some “Harry Potter” magic.  After warming his magic wand up (available to purchase at Ollivander’s Wand Shop, Diagon Alley) with a few easier magic tricks, Mr Ewart with the help of his beautiful assistant Mr Carleton, was able to balance butterflies, collapse cans, create bangs, produce coke fountains and write with fire.  Did Mr Ewart attend Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft & Wizardry or was there another explanation for these amazing tricks  …… who can tell?  Our thanks to Mr Watson, Mr T and the P6 class at Forge for allowing us to come down and practice our magic.

This is a great demonstration of hydrogen produced during the electrolysis of 2M sulfuric acid.

sulfuric-acid1

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Lagan College will be taking part in the Low Carbon Day on June 24th.  Each Science lesson will have a Low Carbon theme and students will be encouraged to use the carbon calculator on www.lowcarbonday.com, design a poster, look at solar powered machines, debate the pros and cons of nuclear power and look at carbon capture.

The Science corridor will be turned into a pledge wall and each student will be encouraged to make a pledge that will help the environment.

Here are some ideas of how children might do something positive for the environment:

• Ride a bike or walk instead of going by car
• Turn the lights off when you leave the room
• Cut your TV watching. Don’t leave the TV on standby – turn it off at the wall.
• Take a shower instead of a bath – it uses less hot water as long as you keep it short.
• Recycle as much as possible. Recycle cans, bottles, plastic bags, and newspapers. When you recycle, you send less rubbish to the landfill and you help save natural resources, like trees, oil, and elements such as aluminium.
• Don’t waste food.
• Eat less beef and dairy products. Cows produce methane which is one of the most damaging greenhouse gases.
• Plant trees. Planting trees is fun and a great way to reduce greenhouse gases. Trees absorb carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, from the air.
• When You buy, buy cool stuff. Buy recycled products which don’t use ‘new’ resources and don’t require so much energy to make. Buy energy efficient electrical goods.

The pupils of 9MCV built and tested their Mars landers this morning.  There were some interesting and well designed landers on display and congratulations to team ‘Mr Melon’ who succeeded in landing the egg safely on the ground with a flight time of  2.91 seconds.

Pupils from 9WHT and 9RCH learnt how useful recycling can be and made some terrific outfits from old, recycled materials.  Many of our pupils obviously put alot of effort into the outfits, but there could only be one winner.  Congratulations to Louise and Sasha!

It is again time for our Year 9 classes to design a Mars Lander.  Their task is to safely carry the raw egg to the ground from the top of the balcony.

There were varied designs and also varied successes, with some eggs surviving (and others not so successful).

Congratulations to team Jelly Babies who’s egg survived and took 3.86 seconds to touch down on the surface.