Science lessons are always fun, especially when they involve blowing bubbles in the lab to explore this question.
In science this week, Y3 boys explored what size the Earth would be in a model if the sun were the size of a beach ball. The surprising answer: a pea. Even more surprisingly, the moon would be the size of a grain of sand.
What do the Big Bang and gravity have to do with the shape of the Earth and the planets in our solar system? A tricky question, but boys envisaged gravity pulling liquid (our planet after the big bang) with equal force from the centre to the edges, much like the spokes of a bicycle wheel—the result: a spherical shape.
The boys then conducted experiments with bubbles in the lab to test this effect. Their hypothesis? A bubble would always be round due to gravity.
The boys even tried differently shaped wands, attempting to create cuboid or triangular bubbles, but gravity ensured that a bubble remained spherical.
During the hands-on session, Mrs Carrington praised the boys’ curiosity, responsibility and kindness—all excellent Future Skills.
“The topic ‘Space and Planets’ is always one to fire the boys’ imagination, and they demonstrated incredible knowledge and enthusiasm.”
In an earlier lesson, boys used oranges filled with lava (jam) to envisage the layers of our planet—an ingenious idea from Mr Whitbread!
The boys’ enthusiasm for space and planets will continue with visits to the school’s observatory and planetarium from next week.