16, 17, 18 and 19 MAY 2000

Pictures

THE GRANGE SECONDARY SCHOOL
WARMLEY TOWERS SCHOOL
CULVERHILL SCHOOL
ALL THE CHILDREN FROM YEAR 7

SUBJECT - FRONTIERS

DAY 1 - INTRODUCTION

After the musical warm-up and parachute games, you got into groups and you met Professors Cheese and Onion, who explained that they had lost an important book called Encyclopaedia Earth. Your job , with the Professors, was to help recompile this book and your chapter was on Frontiers.

We talked about the importance of the Year 2000 and how people around the world were using this year to look back at their history and see how far we have come and how we might try to shape the future.

We gave you a topic of the Evolution of Man for you to use as a practice presentation.

Kate's group showed man evolving from fish to monkeys to Homo Sapiens.

Daryl's group showed us a world today full of people, traffic, arguments and pollution.

Amy's group showed us a planet that was no more - there were just two humans left (both female!) living on the Starship Venus, being waited on by a team of helpful robots.

In the afternoon there was a quiz, and you talked about your group's topic. We explained the Knowledge Tree and you wrote Personal Aspirations and World Aspirations. You also learnt the Chorus of the song "There's Got To Be A Better Way!"

DAY 2 - FRONTIERS PAST

The Professors gave a lecture about famous "pioneers" from the past. People who made important discoveries or who invented things, or people who travelled the world discovering new countries.

Then there followed a few impressions for you to guess which pioneer we were refering to. You correctly guessed Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday and, eventually, Thomas Crapper! (We all need decent flushing toilets, don't we?!) The Professors insisted that nobody was to use Mr. Crapper's name until they could give us a date related to his work. You eventually found out that Crapper's "Water Waste Preventer" was invented in the 1880's. (You also mentioned famous explorers such as Drake and Columbus.)

In the afternoon, Kate's group's presentation concentrated on the rise and fall of Boadicea, and how she fought with General Paulinus. The date was A.D. 59-60. We were told how she fought in Colchester, London and St. Albans (they even gave us the Roman names for these places - can you remember them?) Paulinus eventually got more reinforcements to defeat Boadecea, who committed suicide.

Amy's group's presentation showed us various aspects of the Wild West. As told by a talking totem pole! They told us about the Gold Rush and Annie Oakley. They mentioned the Mormans and how the men were allowed to marry more than one woman (polygamy). And finally we met the Twisty Sisters who explained the life of cowgirls.

Daryl's group's presentation showed us different periods of the British Empire. Queen Victoria appeared, but she was not amused! They also showed us how we used Australia as a Penal Colony. They showed the British in India, including tea exports, and finally the African Slave Trade to Bristol.

All the presentations were excellent, and well researched. Kate's group was chosen to perform their Roman Empire presentation at the Schools Festival Day.

DAY 3 - FRONTIERS PRESENT

Professors Cheese and Onion came over all serious this morning! They talked to everyone about mankind's attitude to our planet. We all talked about many different animals on the edge of extinction, like the Asian elephant, the giant panda, turtles, etc.

We also touched on the destruction of the rainforests (50 million acres are being destroyed each year!) and acid rain killing life in lakes in Norway and Sweden.

On a lighter note, the Professors also talked about the World Wide Web and computers in general, and also video games. This area is one of the fastest growing frontiers, with so much technological advancement in such a short space of time!

The presentations in the afternoon were excellent. Daryl's group presented an under-sea piece. A submersible and divers were looking for the church bell of Dunwich, directed from the surface by sea charts, and using radar and sonar sounding.

Kate' group's presentation was on the Antarctic. Amundsen and Scott race to the Pole in 1911. Amundsen wins. Scott's team dies on return, only ll miles from safety. We met David Attenborough and Emporer Penguins. Apparently if a penguin gives you a stone, it means it likes you! A scientist appears doing important research.

Amy's group did a presentation about space and tol us about the first space expedition in 1957. The group launched in their rocket and travelled past the planets in our universe - Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. They told us about all the satellites that have been launched since the l950's (80 have broken up into space junk!). Astronauts have left 50 tons of junk on the Moon. In the presentation aliens collect up the junk and dispose of it in a black hole. Amy's group was chosen to give the presentation on Present Frontiers at the Schools Festival Day.

DAY 4 - FUTURE FRONTIERS

The Professors talked about Future Frontiers. Cheese mentioned robotics and showed a new gadget that turned Onion into a dancing robot who waltzed with Karl. You mentioned things like time travel, alternative fuels and miraculous new medicine cures. We talked about what might happen if we found a cure for everything - perhaps there would then be overpopulation.

The Professors then showed us another new invention - a teleportation device that transported Daryl from the portacabin to the hall! We then talked about transport pollution in cities and asked why people did not share cars or use buses. You made an interesting point about people being scared of each other and not trusting anyone! Maybe this could change in the future, and everyone could get on with each other, and then we could really break new ground and push forward our frontiers.

The afternoon presentations were again excellent. Amy's group gave us a time travel drama about the Titanic and saved the ship and all the passengers.

Daryl's group showed a noisy, crowded polluted town, and a volcano erupting and creating new land mass. "Newtopia" was formed - which was smoke-free/car-free/energy efficient and used solar energy. They showed us a tremendous house of the future.

Kate's group did a presentation about a polluted world. The scientists invent garbage robotrs to clean up. The robots became bored and decided to give a bad life to everyone they saw. Psychiatric help was sought for the robots, but neither music nor a laughter tunnel worked. But the jokes made the humans laugh so they had a party and the happy party music cheered the robots up.

Daryl's group was chosen to make the presentation on Future Frontiers at the Schools Festival Day in July.

We were very pleased with all your presentations. Try to remember all the presentations that will be presented at the Schools Festival Days., Maybe as your schools are so close you can get together and practise them? We will be visiting you again in July for a session to recap all the work we covered and rehearse the presentations, and then there will be THE SCHOOLS FESTIVAL DAY ON BRISTOL DOWNS ON 19 JULY WHICH WILL BE TREMENDOUS FUN!

HERE ARE THE WORDS OF YOUR SONG

"THERE'S GOT TO BE A BETTER WAY"


CHORUS

Share your Aspirations
The Future's in your hands.
We can make a difference -
Let's start making plans!

If we learn from the Past,
And we look at Today,
We will grow -
There's got to be a better way!

PAST

Queen Vic's British Empire,
Wild West Pioneers,
Romans marched and conquered,
Making new Frontiers

CHORUS

PRESENT

Deep sea excavations,
Space junk on the moon,
Polar conservation,
Population Boom!

CHORUS

FUTURE

Looking for a future"
Newtopia's the place!
Saving the Titanic,
Robots up in space.

CHORUS

Share your Aspirations,
The Future's in y our hands.
We can make a difference -
Let's start making plans!

If we learn from the Past,
And we look at Today,
We will grow -
There's Got To Be A Better Way!

Great song! Well done! Try to practise it a few times before we come back and see you in July.

Keep in touch with us and the other schools by email. let us know what bits you liked best about the week and what bits you liked least. If we were to come again some day, what subject would you like to study in this way? Think about your aspirations for the new Millennium, enter the competition, and we really look forward to seeing you again in July for a recap/rehearsal session and then for the Schools' Festival Day on 19 July..