Abingdon News No.58

www.abingdon.org.uk 15 Abingdon News Investigating measurements with light ASP’s Royal Society Partnership Grant project entitled ‘How small a measurement can you make with light?’ became a reality for the team of lower sixth physicists when they got their hands on a Michelson interferometer. The Abingdon team’s challenge was to measure the spacing of the well-known sodium spectral D-lines which are only a fraction of a nanometer apart. The interferometer is being passed on to other local schools to complete a different challenge, with all the teams hoping to meet for a workshop to present their results next year. Senior Science Ambassadors It was a sad but proud occasion for the Abingdon Science Partnership, ASP, to say goodbye and good luck to its current team of upper sixth Senior Science Ambassadors. Many of them have been engaged in ASP projects for several years. We would like to say a big thank you to them all. Thrilling local derby! Sixth formers at Abingdon and St Helen’s eagerly anticipated the return of the annual lacrosse match. Abingdon looked hopeful at one point at 2-2 but St Helen’s showed grit and determination, finishing the match with a convincing 5-2 victory. Partial eclipse Members of the Astronomy Club demonstrated a range of methods, from a high tech solar telescope to pinhole projectors, for safely observing the partial solar eclipse on 9 June. During morning break a number of pupils and staff were very excited to catch a glimpse of the event during breaks in the cloud cover. Students and staff took on the challenge to reduce their CO2e during the last week of term as part of Eco-Week. Amongst the activities we were encouraged to take the bus, walk or cycle rather than drive, go vegetarian, pick up litter, reduce our intake of processed food and research dream careers.