Star gazing at Ridgeway School

GCSE astronomy students from Ridgeway School took advantage of the dark winter evenings recently.

The Year 10 and 11 students stayed on at school for a star party. This is where they look at the stars and then complete their constellation drawing controlled assessment.

The controlled assessment requires them to draw three constellations and compare the brightness of the major stars in the constellation to a reference star (they chose Capella in the constellation Auriga as their reference) and the students then drew the constellation Orion, Cassiopeia and the Plough.

This is the second year running that GCSE astronomy has been taught at Ridgeway School. “It’s a fascinating course that teaches them everything they need to know about Astronomy, which is of course the oldest science,” said Jim Strachan, Head of Academic Progress for years 8 and 9.

The students were joined in their star gazing by some of the teachers who were also interested in using the state of the art personal planetarium the school has recently bought.

“It’s a piece of virtual reality head gear that you hold up to your eyes. It gives you detailed information about everything you are looking at in real time,” said Jim Strachan.

"For example we watched the International Space Centre fly over as it informed us when it was passing over and where to look.”

The event was such a success that the students are planning on doing a public star party where anyone in the community can go along. If you are interested keep a look out on the school website for further information.